When you donate and wear your poppy, whatever colour please remember what those servicemen, women, civilians and yes children died fighting.

In 1939 after National Socialist Germany (Nazi Germany) under the leadership of their ‘Fuhrer’ (leader) Adolf Hitler (an Austrian born ex German Army corporal who used vicious aggression, lies, cruelty and hate to gain power from a nation under heavy sanction from The League of Nations – forerunner of the United Nations, but only made up from the victors of World War one ) invaded Poland, Britain declared war upon Germany. Hitler’s Government used the power of propaganda, lies and dissent to convince a nation that the Jews had caused the financial crash through greed and corruption. They cited the Jewish religion as being the murderers of Christ, even though they had no belief or respect for Christianity, calling priests and officials of the church ‘black crows’. They turned a nation against those of the Jewish faith, legalising theft against them, promoting damage and assaults against them then soon setting up the camps, places where the Jews were transported in cattle trucks to, places where they were either worked until death, or just killed.

In these camps, some of which you all know the names of (or should do) such as Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald and Belsen concentration camps, children, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters were split up. They were dehumanised, stripped of all they owned, assaulted, raped, starved, murdered. They were turned against each other as their world had turned upon them. They were tortured, experimented upon and mutilated.

These people were treated worse than animals, and when their lives served no further purpose they were gassed in the infamous shower blocks, or just shot where they stood. They were buried not in graves but in mass lime pits, so that their bodies broke down to nothing.

It was not just Jews treated in this way though, communists, socialists(despite their name National Socialists were not socialists they were extreme right wing fascists), non whites (though allied with Japan they still saw the Japanese as racially inferior), so if you were black, Asian, or infact not blonde haired with blue eyes you were seen as under class.

The disabled were amongst the first victims of the Nazis. They were seen to be a drain upon society and genetically inferior. (Can you see similarities surfacing in today’s UK). Euthanasia the mass killing of the disabled was the order of the day in Nazi Germany. Even using mentally ill or folk with learning disabilities to walk in front of troops clearing minefields because their lives were worthless.

The Nazis ruled through fear and violence, they encouraged family members to inform on each other. Their mottos (such as those over the gates of the camps – Work makes you free, and Strong and Stable (adopted by Theresa May and the British Conservatives) were bandied about in their media as propaganda and lies suppressed the truth.

The Nazis had no compassion, no care for human or animal life, (though Hitler had his beloved German Shepherd Goldie and was himself reported to be vegetarian), they laid waste huge stretches of land throughout the world killing all that inhabited it on sight.

These were Nazis, the Nazis whose banner the swastika

the British Far Right – EDL, Britain First, Albion First, the BNP and other less well known groups produce at marches and demonstrations hide behind and adopt. This is not about national pride, it is about hate, oppression, cruelty, violence, torture, and yes its about murder.

These are the people our parents, grandparents and great grandparents fought and died to protect us from. Do not be taken in buy those that try to use the poppy, the Union Flag, or the St Georges Cross to promote their hate. These images are owned not by them but by those that fought and died, that breathed to challenge these vile creatures. We cannot allow Nazism to rise up once more anywhere, especially here.

So wear your poppy with pride, if you so choose. It symbolises freedom, the struggle against hate as much as a reminder of all those that died, bled and were maimed fighting for what they believed was right. These were not just English soldiers and civilians, they were made up of all nations, even those in Germany. Italy, Japan, Hungary, and all the axis countries that rose against the oppression of their leaders.

Jone