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Beware imprecise language: Germany has not had a Nazi state since 1945, and is not anything like that. Also, there were SS officers and German military officers
by richardhod 8y ago
Beware imprecise language: Germany has not had a Nazi state since 1945, and is not anything like that. Also, there were SS officers and German military officers, and they were not the same.
- mikeash 8y agoAll the more reason that calling this guy a Nazi interrogator is useful and reasonably correct! If you called him a German interrogator you'd have no idea what era he from or what role he might have played. The phrase "Nazi interrogator" tells us immediately that he was an interrogator for the German government somewhere between 1933 and 1945.
- briandear 8y agoHow about “Wehrmacht conscript?” That’s extremely precise and accurate.
- mikeash 8y agoSeems good as well. The Germans didn’t reuse that name after the war, so it works.
- richardhod 8y agoMy point was not to defend those working for the Nazis, but you say "[Nazi] is that country's defining characteristic" in your comment, and that has to be 'was' at the very most. You're carelessly suggesting that Germany still is defined by Nazism, hence the suggested correction.
- mikeash 8y agoSorry if I wasn't clear. By "that country" I was specifically referring to Nazi Germany. Modern Germany, having been through occupation, division and reunification, with no continuity in the state, a different constitution, and different borders, is not really the same country.