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| "Who is Aryan?" (1933) Racial science? |
Without knowing the kind of information Campbell transmitted in his broadcasts, would you agree? What arguments could be forwarded to support and challenge Wirtanen’s claim?
A scene from Europa, Europa, about a Jew who avoided persecution by pretending to be Aryan:
I agree that a responsible historian would classify Campbell as a Nazi, but another responsible historian would not classify him the same way. I agree with Wirtanen because Campbell did nothing more than he was told to do. During the war he did not seem to question his actions, he was merely doing what he had to in order to survive, which was being a loyal German Nazi. Campbell never knew the nature of the information he was sharing, and admits he rarely knew when he was sharing it. Others would disagree, saying he was innocent until proven guilty and that the note he received in the last few hours of his life from his “blue fairy godmother” could have been enough to prove he was innocent of war crimes and of being a Nazi.
ReplyDelete~Catherine Melton
Was Campbell ever a loyal German Nazi?
ReplyDeleteThis is Cerina Stiles.
ReplyDeleteI don't think he was ever completely loyal to the Nazi's but I think there were times when he thought about it. I’m not sure whether he was a Nazi or an American. He was to an extent both. He served the Nazi’s by transmitting broadcast but he also used that to give information to America so I don’t think he was truly a Nazi but I don’t think he was truly an American either. In the beginning I believe he was truly and American but over time things became muddy and gray and it was hard to tell who side he was really on.
I don’t believe he’s ever known whose side he was on from the beginning. I think he just found delight in wherever he found a good story. I can relate with that. Although, he was thought of as a Nazi and played the part fairly well enough to survive, his love for Helga and writing kept him alive. But his lost identity with self, kept trying to overtake him. Not an American, nor a Nazi, I think he almost wanted to be one of the two just to be something sometimes, for a sense of belonging.
ReplyDeleteI agree with some of the things that cerina said, specifically on Campbell's loyalty. As a reader,I do not think that Campbell was a loyal Nazi, in fact if anything he was a puppet. All the things he has ever done was what he was told and he did other acts to hide his cover and he has done it quite successfully. All he did was for the greater good, to help America and take down the Nazi's.
ReplyDeleteBut when you change your perspective from a reader to a historian or a bystander, its a totally different thing. I think that anyone might classify Campbell as a Nazi.
I like what you said Krysten, about how Campbell never knew what side he was on. I think that more clearly expresses what I was trying to imply earlier.
ReplyDelete~Catherine Melton
No, I would not agree with Wirtanen, because Campbell, regardless of his motives, took it upon himself at great risk to his own life and the life of his wife to be a spy for the Allies. As a spy he achieved the impossible, passing information to the Allies the entire length of the war and being the only spy not found out and killed. It is irrelevant that we do not know the nature of the information broadcasted, because if Allies deemed spying on it necessary it was obviously important enough to hear. Campbell may be an antihero to the Allies because of the role he had to play in order to get his job done, but none the less a hero.
ReplyDeleteDale