Nazis

Plastic Nazi: More integrity than an armored division of the real thing

You know, Nazis were pigs. They thought they could cover it up with those smart-looking designer uniforms, but it the end it was just like slapping a Rolex on a pig's wrist and telling him how handsome he looked. That's why I love that movie Inglourious Basterds, (though I loathe most of Tarantino's other stuff).

Because in it, no matter how handsome, dashing and polite the young Nazi was he was still just a young, dashing and polite pig. Can you imagine being a Nazi soldier in occupied Paris in the early years of WWII? Can you imagine being a supposedly "neutral" American who just happened to reside there during those years? I'm reading a book called "Americans in Paris" and though it's a bit of a slog at times, it does give a small idea of what it must have been like to be there. These strutting goons occupying the bistros and bars and restaurants, perhaps spontaneously bursting in the Horst Wessel song with their collaborating Vichy whores on their arms . . . an abomination.

Imagine being a baker and being forced to sell your wares to that bunch of "boeufs incultes" (uncultured beasts) . . . I'd do it with a smile and a flourish, knowing I'd used my very own piss to feed the yeast in their "special" loaves. And I wouldn't even bother trying to explain why the nuts in their cookies were so tasty.

I don't know why I like collecting Nazi action figures, with their dashing uniforms and regalia. Perhaps it's because I know that the plastic form of a single one of the dolls itself has more integrity than an entire armoured division of Nazis ever had in real life.