GOP House Candidate, R-Third Reich, In NW Ohio: On Weekends He's a Nazi SS Unit ReEnactor

UPDATE 12:06 pm -- The 5th Panzers did take part in atrocities, including the murder of slave laborers who were forced to dig its fortifactions. Here's a report last year from Britain's Guardian about a mass grave found in Austria.  

Swastika Symbol of Goosestepping ReEnactors

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Rich Iott, the Republican nominee in OH-09, appears to be a Nazi reenactor.  Iott is a Tea Party favorite from the Toledo area.  He dresses up as a Waffen SS soldier and wears the uniform of a unit that marched into Warsaw in 1939, then fought on the Eastern Front against the Russians.   How many Poles and Russians perished in the Holocaust?  There is more here.  I found a stylized Swastika on the website of the 5th SS Panzer division's reenactor website. The group says it does not embrace Hitler's ideology, does not allow racism, and the unit it renacts never fought Americans.  But Americans did die fighting other SS units on the western front, and thousands of American flyers in B-17s were shot down bombing German factories that produced armaments for Hitler's military machine, including the 5th Panzers.  Still, this is what the ReEnactors say:     

"Who are we? We are a group of World War Two Reenactors (also called 'Living Historians' by some). This group represents a combat group of German Waffen(Combat)-SS soldiers during the second world war. All members of this nonprofit group have had a common interest in the German side of the war and want to tell the story of the average combat soldier of the German military. Our reenactment unit is based in the mid-west area of the United States and is a chartered group of the World War Two Historical Reenactment Society, Inc. (WWIIHRS,Inc.) which hosts over 1000 reenactors all over the mid-west from all sides of the war.


This group is dedicated to presenting the history of the division which we portray in our hobby of reenacting; the 5.SS Panzerdivision, Wiking. Specifically, we portray a Sturmpionier Gruppe (combat assault engineer) within 2.Kompanie (armored) of the division's Pioniere Bataillon; written: 2/SS.Panzer.Pionier.Batalion. 5 "Wiking". Each member pays for there own reproduction equipment, uniforms, weapons, and traveling expenses!

Our unit consists of members in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois (in the USA), and even a couple in Canada. As of now, we can field a full array of small arms (which fire blanks) and engineering equipment, but we Wikinger are always on the look out for more men and equipment! For those members that want to expand their reenacting experience, we also have full automatic weapons for rent! As dedicated living historians, we are also very much into preserving the little odds and ends that the German combat soldier would use day-to-day, such as the music, food, personal effects, etc. Detail in this hobby is as important to us as it is in the building of a good model Panzer. Racism or anytype of embracement of Nazi idealogy of any kind is strictly prohibited by this reenactment unit and our parent organization WWIIHRS, please review our disclaimer on the main page!

The 5th SS division "Wiking" in real life only fought on the Eastern Front against the Russians during the whole war, never against the Americans. However, that does not limit us to participating in those scenarios against Russains only (as there are few East Front only events); we do attend Western Front events (1944-45). If your interested in joining or learning more about reenacting, please scroll to the bottom of this page!"