Are Torfaen`s Dave Simpson and Swansea`s `Recco` Rees learning from Fascist approaches of the the 1930s?..advebtures of true patriots.....?

I was thinking the other day about how political parties use certain emotional approaches to gain support. The use of homelessness and food banks can often be an emotional issue to raise the political temperature. A local contact from Torfaen rang me a few days ago about the alleged activities of far right activist Dave Simpson. It seems that out of the `goodness` of his heart young Dave has been helping the homeless. It was alleged that he has been volunteering or perhaps trying to muscle in on homeless charities and shelters. I was told he did not appreciate being told to go away and became very emotional in the process. It was also alleged that he had been filming homeless people on the street in his enthusiasm to help them. He did not seem to understand the vulnerability of people sleeping rough and failed to appreciate the dangers in his activities. It seems that he was meeting up with that local secular saint and `patriot` called `Recco` Rees from that peaceful organization the Democratic Football Lads Alliance in Swansea My contacts in Far Right Watch Wales also sent me the following Please read their research and consider motivation and purpose. I wonder if young `Recco` Rees and Dave had any particular ethnic group in mind now.  You might think that but I could not possibly comment

`Torfaen based far right 'Yellow Vest' Dave Simpson. We reported on Thursday that the likes of Simpson, Stephen Goddard and other bigots are trying to exploit the homeless crisis for their own racist ends https://www.facebook.com/FRWWales/posts/561228861058732
Yesterday Dave Simpson held a meeting in South Wales with Kyle Breecher organiser of the Democratic Football Lads Alliance from Birmingham (He's pictured below in a video still of the meeting with Breecher and Luke Jones of the Walsall DFLA ). A report last year about a secret 'football lads' Facebook group created to build for a DFLA march in Breechert's home city of Birmingham gives a flavour of the kind of character involved in the DFLA in Birmingham and the hardcore neo fascists Simpson is now openly associating with. Members of the secret group called for Sadiq Khan to be hung, Dianne Abbot to be shot and praised the convicted far right terrorist Darren Osborne https://www.theguardian.com/…/football-lads-alliance-secret…
As someone with a conviction for Assault Simpson will certainly feel at home among the DFLA as this list of leading DFLA activists with serious criminal convictions shows https://resistinghate.org/dflacriminalmembers/ In addition to being home to scores of people with serious criminal convictions the DFLA is teeming with racists and fascists. Members of the banned neo nazi terrorist group National Action have been photographed on their marches and Nazi salutes and banners from european far right are not uncommon (see picture).
It's extremely worrying then that someone like Simpson who has a conviction for assault and who is openly associating with neo fascist groups which espouse racism and carry out acts of extreme violence (https://www.independent.co.uk/…/democratic-football-lads-al… ) is imposing himself on vulnerable people on South Wales Streets, and filming them and uploading the videos to Facebook. 

Today Breecher had a meeting with Swansea's Stephen 'reeco' Rees. Rees is a key figure in the DFLA in Swansea and is the South Wales organiser of the far right Veterans and Democrats party, and last year he set up a secret meeting in Swansea with Anne Marie Waters leader of the neo fascist For Britain Party. We covered Rees' role as a recruiting sergeant for the British far right last year https://www.facebook.com/FRWWales/posts/499200290594923 ~

As some of you know I am an observer of the rise of the far Right in modern terms and of the historical period of the 1920s and the 1930s. Someone reminded me of the activities of the Nazi party in feeding the homeless in Weimar Germany to promote both their party and their hideous agenda.  The scheme was called the `Winterswilfswerk` and was a propaganda tool for drawing the unwary and foolish into the Nazi Party.
Now I am sure it is just an accident that the intrepid two are using similar approaches to recruit for the DFLA and the Yellow Vests of the right. Perhaps they too are keen observers of European history like me. But I guess you will have to work it out for yourself. I am just an aging lefty with my own conclusions. You will have to work it out for yourself.


I just also noticed that a good friend of `Recco` had set up some organistion called the Knights Templar..guardian of Chidren to defend children against the risks of abuse. I guess it’s some sort of historical reenactment society based on Medieval Crusading History. I am sure it will be helping youngsters stay safe from the 14 convicted members of the English Defense League who have been convicted of sexual abuse on children

https://www.facebook.com/Templar-knights-guardians-of-children-187354071894656/

Anyway here is the historical account of the Winterhilfswerk...does it remind you of anybody or any organisation? I could not possibly say…..

Background and foundation of winterhilfswerk

As part of the centralization of Nazi Germany, posters urged people to donate rather than give directly to beggars The Hitlerjugend and Bund Deutscher Mädel (boys' and girls' associations, respectively) were extremely active in collecting for this charity. As part of the effort to place the community over the individual, totals were not reported for any individuals, only what the branch raised.^[3]

 

Operation

A semi-postal stamp in aid of the 1943 Winterhilfswerk

Certain weekends were assigned to all of the different Nazi associations, each with their own special Abzeichen, or badges, to pass out in exchange for a pfennig or two. These highly collectible items were made of many different materials, such as wood, glass, paper, terra cotta, metal and plastic. Over 8,000 different pieces were produced by war's end and some of the rarer ones sell for quite a lot of money today.

The Can Rattlers, as they became known, were relentless in their pursuit of making sure every good German citizen gave their share to the WHW. In fact, those who forgot to give had their names put in the paper to remind them of their neglect. Neighbors and even family members were encouraged to whisper the names of shirkers to their block leaders so that they could persuade them to do their duty. On one occasion, a civil servant was prosecuted for failure to donate and his argument that it was voluntary was dismissed on the grounds it was an extreme view of liberty to neglect all duties not actually prescribed by law and therefore an abuse of liberty.^[4] It was not unheard of for workers to lose their jobs for not donating to Winterhilfe or not giving enough. For instance, a worker was fired for not donating to Winterhilfe and the firing was upheld by a labor court on the grounds that it was “conduct hostile to the community of the people [...] to be most strongly condemned”.^[5]

Large donations were also a means to establish oneself as a loyal supporter of the Nazi Party without the commitment of joining it.^[6]

A greatly encouraged practice was once a month to have a one-pot meal (eintopf), reducing all the food to one course and the money thus saved was to be donated.^[3] During autumn and winter months from 1933 on, the Eintopfsonntag (One-Pot Sunday or Stew Sunday) was officially scheduled by the WHW. Restaurants were required to offer an eintopf meal at one of several price points. Households were reminded of the occasion, although it has been noted that the authorities did not investigate whether the one-pot meal was actually served.^[7]

Collection drives were a mainstay of the Winter Relief and those who did not give, or gave little (such as one pair of boots to a clothing drive), were sometimes the victims of mob violence and needed to be protected by the police.^[8] Similar initiatives were started in countries in German-occupied Europe, known in French as the Secours d'Hiver in Belgium^[9] and in Dutch as the Winterhulp Nederland and Winterhulp België.

Gifts and tokens

A paper Monatstürplakette (monthly placard) was issued to place on your door or in your window to show others that you had given and also to keep the roaming bands of charity workers at bay.^[10]

Donors were often given small souvenir gratitude gifts of negligible value, somewhat similar to the way modern charities mail out address labels and holiday cards. A typical such gift was a very small propaganda booklet,^[11] reminiscent of Victorian-era miniature books; about 0.8" wide x 1.5" tall.^{[citation needed]} Booklets included The Führer Makes History,^[12][13] a collection of Hitler photographs,^[14] The Führer's Battle in the East 2^[15] and Gerhard Koeppen and other decorated heroes of the war.^[16]

Ceramic medallion issued in the WHW collection drive (Gausammlung) of winter 1942–1943 as they were themed with individual Reichsgauen, in this case Wartheland

More generous donors would receive concomitantly better gifts, such as lapel pins on a wide variety of themes.^{[citation needed]} Some depicting occupational types or geographic areas of the Reich, others animals, birds and insects, nursery rhyme and fairy tale characters, or notable persons from German history (including Hitler himself).^{[citation needed]} They were made from a variety of materials.^{[citation needed]} Each individual miniature book, badge, badge set or toy set was only available for two or three days of a particular collection drive.^{[citation needed]} The populace would be encouraged to donate the following week and thereby collect the latest in the series.^{[citation needed]} There could also be consequences such as nagging by the appropriate official if your local Blockleiter saw that you were not wearing the current, appropriate pin by about Tuesday of the week.^{[citation needed]}

The Winterhilfswerk Donation recognition display pictured is a tin plate about 3" in diameter mounted on oak

When he visited Germany in 1939 as a reporter for the North American Newspaper Alliance, Dr. Lothrop Stoddard wrote:^[17]

Once a fortnight, every city, town, and village in the Reich seethes with brown-shirted Storm Troopers carrying red-painted canisters. These are the Winter-Help collection-boxes. The Brown-Shirts go everywhere. You cannot sit in a restaurant or beer-hall but what, sooner or later, a pair of them will work through the place, rattling their canisters ostentatiously in the faces of customers. And I never saw a German formally refuse to drop in his mite, even though the contribution might have been less than the equivalent of one American cent.

During these periodic money-raising campaigns, all sorts of dodges are employed. On busy street-corners comedians, singers, musicians, sailors, gather a crowd by some amusing skit, at the close of which the Brown-Shirts collect. People buy tiny badges to show they have contributed—badges good only for that particular campaign. One time they may be an artificial flower; next time a miniature dagger, and so forth. The Winter-Help campaign series reaches its climax shortly before Christmas in the so-called Day of National Solidarity. On that notable occasion the Big Guns of the Nazi Party sally forth with their collection-boxes to do their bit.

Stoddard described visits to a Winterhilfswerk facility where he was shown winter clothing and other items meant for distribution. Few others describe the charitable work of the WHW and the historical record contains many details on the collection of money and goods, but little about what was done with either. The 1933–1945 collection drives issued a large number of themed ceramic medallions and other badges given to donators.^[18]

References

1.    

·  Michael Burleigh (2000). The Third Reich: A New History. New York City, New York: Hill and Wang, p. 223.

·  ·  Claudia Koonz (2003). The Nazi Conscience. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press. p. 71. ISBN 0-674-01172-4.

·  ·  Richard Grunberger (1971). The 12-year Reich: A Social History of Nazi Germany, 1933-1945. p 79. ISBN 0-03-076435-1.

·  ·  Mark Mazower (1998). Dark Continent: Europe's 20th Century. p. 36. ISBN 0-679-43809-2.

·  ·  William Shirer (1990). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Touchstone Edition. New York City, New York: Simon & Schuster.

·  ·  Milton Mayer (1995). They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. p. 90.

·  ·  Randall L. Bytwerk (2004). Bending Spines: The Propagandas of Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press. ISBN 9780870137105.

·  ·  Richard Grunberger (1971). The 12-year Reich: A Social History of Nazi Germany, 1933-1945. p 79–80. ISBN 0-03-076435-1.

·  ·  "Seconde Guerre mondiale : les archives du Secours d’Hiver ouvertes à la recherche" (in French).

·  ·  Richard Grunberger (1971). The 12-year Reich: A Social History of Nazi Germany, 1933-1945. p. 80. ISBN 0-03-076435-1.

·  ·