or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
March 01, 2008
More Nazi Crap
Having posted pictures of the Nazi teacup that my grandfather brought back from World War II, I've been wondering what other innocuous household items the Nazis liked to brand with their logo. Were there Nazi toasters? Nazi potholders? Nazi pencil sharpeners?
In any case, here's something that has more of the traditional Nazi vibe: a dagger. My family says my grandfather's story was that this belonged to a German sniper, and he himself (my grandfather) had shot him and taken it. I have no idea whether my family is relaying this correctly, and if so whether my grandfather's version of events was accurate. But there you have it.
As you'd expect, mildly unsavory people love to trade this kind of stuff. It clearly is a common German army dagger, as you can find others online.
Here are three pictures:
#1: Dagger in scabbard, with ballpoint pen for scale. The attached stuff is some kind of belt.
#2: The dagger, while rusty, can still be removed from the scabbard. I will Nazi Stab you!
#3: Close up of the handle of the dagger, with swastika and eagle.
I don't have anything more to say about this, except that it appears this whole "World War II" thing people always talk about actually happened.
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at March 1, 2008 07:27 PMActually, the Nazi teacup is not so unusual. It seems to be something of a tradition in military units the world over to have teacups/coffee cups emblazoned with unit insignia and the like. My father has quite a collection of these, from units in armies he fought against (some Israeli cups and some North Korean cups, for example) and armies he was in (American units).
Posted by: Jibril at March 1, 2008 08:10 PMActually, the Nazi teacup is not so unusual. It seems to be something of a tradition in military units the world over to have teacups/coffee cups emblazoned with unit insignia and the like. My father has quite a collection of these, from units in armies he fought against (some Israeli cups and some North Korean cups, for example) and armies he was in (American units).
Posted by: Jibril at March 1, 2008 08:10 PMIs there an echo in here? Heh.
Posted by: Svlad Jelly at March 1, 2008 08:36 PMYes but do you have a Nazi tea cozy?
Get 5 more daggers and you can make sheesh kabobs :-p Or you could have a kick ass fondue set.
I have a sick mind. Please ignore my rantings, I've been cooking all day and now need a serious drink, carry on, nothing to see here.
Posted by: Dee Loralei at March 1, 2008 09:55 PMMy all-time favorite piece of Nazi memorabilia is the medallion produced on the occasion of a Nazi visit to Palestine. It has a swastika on one side and a star of David on the other, and the German text "EIN NAZI FÄHRT NACH PALÄSTINA".
I would love to have one of these. It would save *so* much time in arguments...
Posted by: Shunra at March 1, 2008 10:16 PMDad had a dagger like this. Took it off an Nazi officer who Dad processed as POW. Dad was an MP.
Posted by: Steve Timmer at March 1, 2008 10:35 PMHow useful were daggers as a weapon in WWII? "American scum! I stab at your B-17 dropping napalm on me from 15,000 feet!" Seems to me the Nazis might have done better if they had put less of their resources into dagger production and more into, oh, I don't know, flamethrowers maybe, or surface-to-air missiles.
Yeah, a surface-to-air missile with a swastika on the side - now that's a souvenir.
Posted by: SteveB at March 1, 2008 10:54 PMBe careful...a few more posts like this and your house might turn into some Nazi collector's personal Poland, if you catch my drift.
Posted by: ethan at March 2, 2008 02:37 AMdid they force the Danes to make Nazi Lego sets?
Posted by: Jonathan Versen at March 2, 2008 02:58 AMThe Germans commandeered a house owned by my mother in law's family in the south of France and left behind some ordinary knives (for eating food) with the swastika on the handle when they retreated in 1944.
Posted by: sara at March 2, 2008 05:02 AMFWIW, this is probably a WWII German naval dress dagger - not actually a Nazi Party item. It may be a junior officer's dress dagger -- it looks inexpensively finished. See http://www.protohost.com/navy_dress_dagger.htm for the dearer version.
Posted by: twitley at March 2, 2008 11:34 PM
