Prince Bernhard NOT SS/Nazi, please

[mennie]

Ok people, here we go.
I'm 27 years old, lived in The Netherlands all my life, just moved from Utrecht to Schiedam.
All my life I have been interested in WWII and aviation.
I'm also generally interested in history, religion, and politics of Europe and the Americas.
Last year I went to the Gathering of Mustangs & Legends in Columbus, Ohio.
On my way there my suitcase was opened and my laptop was taken out.
It was on top of the rest of my stuff and a note was on top of that.
(I think it is on this photo partially under my suitcase but I am not sure)

After that my laptop has never been the same.
Later I found out that "They can take your computer and download its entire contents, or keep it for several days."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/may/15/computing.security
You can imagine how pissed I was.
Anyway, this is part of how I came across Alex Jones recordings on YouTube and really started to listen to a lot of them. (I had already seen Endgame because of my other interests)

Well there is just one thing that I really disagree on and that is that on several shows Alex Jones calls our late Prince Bernhard an "SS commander" or a Nazi.
One example can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4uR0XjS7ZI

I want to use Wikipedia to explain the story, a part of history that a lot of us Dutch people are aware of:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Bernhard_of_the_Netherlands

Bernhard was a member of the Nazi Party, the Sturmabteilung and a special branch of the SS called the "Reiter SS"- an equestrian sporting organisation. The Prince was not a Nazi by conviction; these memberships made life easier for an ambitious young man. People defending the Prince have stated that membership was necessary to be a student. The Prince later denied these well-documented memberships. Whatever the case, he was not politically active and although this German aristocrat was never a fierce champion of democracy, there are no accounts of him ever having made fascist or anti-semitic remarks.

Alliance with the House of Orange
In the 1930s, with the rise of Adolf Hitler, Prince Bernhard's younger brother, Aschwin, publicly declared his support for the Nazi Party. Prince Bernhard was a member of the honorary German Reiter SS Corps (SS Cavalry Corps). The Prince eventually went to work for the German chemical company, IG Farben. After a period of training, he became Secretary to the Board of Directors at the Paris office in 1935. Because he was a Protestant of royal rank (the Lippes were a mediatized sovereign house), Bernhard was acceptable to Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands as a suitable husband for her daughter, Princess Juliana. Bernhard's appropriateness as consort of the future Queen would later become a matter of some public debate.

Prince Bernhard's political affiliations with the Nazi regime have received much attention. Various members of his family and acquaintances were aligned with the Nazis prior to and during the war - a number of these being entertained shortly before and joining the royal wedding party. Protocol demanded that the prospective Prince-Consort be invited to an audience with his head of state, the German dictator, Adolf Hitler. The atmosphere was less than cordial. The dictator is reported to have made some small talk about tourism on the Rhine and reportedly hailed the union between the Prince and Princess Juliana as a great alliance of Germanic nations. The Prince and Hitler met only once. Later, at his dinner table, Hitler called Bernhard "a complete idiot".

The Prince's brother, Prince Aschwin of Lippe-Biesterfeld, was an officer in the German army. Although the secret services on both sides were interested in this peculiar pair of brothers, no improper contacts or leaks of information were discovered. The Prince showed himself to be a loyal Dutch citizen and officer. He cut off relations with those members of his family who were enthusiastic Nazis. As a sign of his "Dutchness" he spoke only Dutch when negotiating the surrender of German forces in the Netherlands. The Prince was known to be very fond of smart uniforms and medals. He made a point of wearing his medals in the English "Court style". The Dutch armed forces wear their medals in the "Prussian style". The Prince's deliberate disregard of the regulations was not widely noticed but it is a clear sign of his allegiance.

The Prince's mother was no admirer of the Nazis and got into trouble for refusing to hoist a swastika flag on her country seat at Reckenwalde. The Nazi government did not take kindly to her, as the mother of an allied general.

In 1930 to 1935 he was age 19 to 24 !
I have underlined an important part to show his character.

World War II

Prince Bernhard began to make himself popular and trusted in the eyes of the Dutch people at the outset of World War II. During the German Invasion, the Prince, carrying a machine gun, organised the palace guards into a combat group and shot at German planes. The Royal Family fled the Netherlands and took refuge in England. Once safely there, Princess Juliana and the children then went on to Canada, where they remained until the end of the war.

In England, Prince Bernhard asked to work in British Intelligence but the War Admiralty, and later General Eisenhower's Allied Command offices, did not trust him sufficiently to allow him access to intelligence information. However, on the recommendation of Bernhard's friend and admirer, King George VI, he was later permitted to work in the war planning councils.

In 1940, flight Lieutenant Murray Payne instructed the prince to fly a Spitfire. The Prince made 1,000 flight-hours in a Spitfire with the RAF's 322 "Dutch" squadron wrecking two planes during landings. As "Wing Commander Gibbs(RAF)," Prince Bernhard flew over occupied Europe in a B-24 bomber attacking V-1 launch pads, he was in a B-25 Mitchell bomber bombing Pisa, over the Atlantic ocean bombing a submarine and in an L-5 reconnaissance plane over occupied Europe. Prince Bernhard was awarded the Dutch Flying Cross for his "ability and perseverance" (Dutch: "bekwaamheid en volharding"). (source: Interview with the Prince,1993, Henny Meyer, published in "Het Vliegerskruis" 1997)

In 1941, Prince Bernhard was given the honorary rank of wing commander in the Royal Air Force. He then trained as a pilot and gained his wings later that same year.

From 1942 to 1944, Bernhard flew as a pilot with the Royal Air Force. He also helped organize the Dutch resistance movement and acted as personal secretary for Queen Wilhelmina.

Queen Wilhelmina erased the word "honorary" (the exact words were " à la suite") in the decree that promoted Bernhard to General. In this unconstitutional manner, she gave this Royal Prince a position that was never intended by either Parliament or her ministers. The minister of defense did not choose to correct the Monarch and the Prince took a real and important role in the Dutch Armed forces.

By 1944, Prince Bernhard became Commander of the Dutch armed forces. After the liberation of the Netherlands, he returned with his family where he became active in the negotiations for the German surrender. He was present during the armistice negotiations and German surrender in Hotel de Wereld ("The World Hotel") in Wageningen in The Netherlands on May 5, 1945. The Prince was a genuine war hero in the eyes of most of the Dutch and even kept cordial relations with the communists who fought against the Nazis. In the post-war years the popular Prince earned respect for his hard work in helping to reinvigorate the economy of the Netherlands.

This time of war is a very dangerous time. If you have Nazi feelings, speak German fluently, why would you flee to England and fight against the Nazis?
Yes, the Prince was a genuine war hero. He kept personal contact with some of the veterans until his death.
He saluted to them every year at the veteran soldiers parade on Liberation Day, May 5, in front of Hotel de Wereld.

This is a small part about how the Dutch people know him. He had his tricks but in my opinion he had a good heart.


Then I look at the Bilderberg Group
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg_Group

The meeting was initiated by several people, including Joseph Retinger ...

And I look at Joseph Retingers Wikipedia:

Later, during World War II, he advised Prime Minister of the Polish Government in Exile, General Sikorski.

He too worked for the Allied and not the Nazis.


Wikipedia also has a list of Bilderberg attendees:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bilderberg_attendees
Why are former president Bush or current president Bush not on the list?
Are they afraid of Bilderberg?
Bill Clinton was there, the one president who tried to unite the world and make peace instead of war.
The president who reinforced your economy for another Bush to destroy it.

It never says anywhere that Prince Bernhard led the meetings, Wikipedia says he "agreed to promote the idea".
The Prince was a Prince, not a King of The Netherlands so he had no official influence in our countries rule. Neither outside.

This page on www.prisonplanet.com says, and I think there is a clue here:
"The meeting is private in order to encourage frank and open discussion."
What happens if I invite 10 of my friends to my house to have dinner and 8 of them like soccer?
They are going to talk about soccer! (Which I am not a fan of)

Finally, the Dutch, and our ideas, are different from those in America.
We have our own, different problems.
I don't like the EU, I think we would be better off without.
It has grown far beyond it's original goal. It is not about economy anymore.
And if it ever was, it made everything more expensive anyway.
We don't want their constitution, we don't want an EU prime minister, we don't want their stupid laws that limit our daily lives.

But in Holland we don't have Fluoridated drinking water!
We don't live on credit cards. We don't have the piggyback or teaser rate mortgage problems here.

Our country is so small, our Prime Minister (not really my Prime Minister, but ok) Jan Peter Balkenende lives in a regular row house only 12 miles from here.
He does not have a big lawn that separates him from the rest of the world.

This is where Bernhard is from, and I'm still proud of it.


Menno

[A K]

Interesting points.  I still would never trust this man, even if he wasn't SS, on the basis of his Nazi Party membership and work for IG Farben.  Maybe he didn't agree with the Nazi philosophy but just joined for political reasons.  That strikes me as just as bad.  Also, IG Farben made war munitions and used slave labor in their factories.  If he later fought against the Nazi's that is to his credit, but after Dec. 7, 1941 Churchill said he knew the allies would win.

The mainstream media leaves out coverage of real issues and generally follows the corporate line.  But alternative media sometimes gets too conspiratorial and is prone to exaggeration and hype.  I like to read MSM and left, right and libertarian alternative info to come to my own conclusions.

I don't think Bilderberger, or CFR, are demonic entities that control the world.  You say Bilderberger may have some good goals - peace, prosperity and international cooperation.  OK, fine, maybe.  But why the secrecy?  They meet in secret and talk in secret.  In our democratic societies there is something very suspect when world elites meet to talk and we don't know what they are talking about.  When a governor of a rinky dink state like Arkansas goes to Bilderberger and the become President, you wonder a little bit.  Now did Clinton do a good job compared to Bush?  Yes.  Do we miss the peace and prosperity of the Clinton years?  Yes.  But Clinton also presided over the FBI burning a church and killing women and children (Waco), passed the bad as Bush Anti-Terrorism Effective Death Penalty Act (which curtailed habeas corpus), passed NAFTA and WTO which has led to the de-industrialization of America and shipping out jobs overseas.

And when it comes to Bilderberger, CFR, TC and other elite groups, you don't see any blue collar workers, middle class people, many union leaders, many minorities.  These elites are secretly making policy choices that affect all of us, but membership is limited to economic, political and corporate elites.  In the lack of information some hype fears about these groups.  But the record shows these groups do NOT have our best interests at heart. 

[mennie]

I agree with you only partially. It might have been a bad decision, but:
"The Prince was not a Nazi by conviction; these memberships made life easier for an ambitious young man."
This was the time of the great depression and the rising thing was National Socialism.
If you wanted to get a job, you had to  be on their side.
This was not a very strange thing back in those early days of Nazism.

I don't think (I can't find a source but he was living in Holland) that Prince Bernhard still worked for IG Farben at the start of the war, when they "made war munitions and used slave labor in their factories".

[Jason11]

Comeon! Even the hebrew elite had interests in IG Farben!

[A K]

Every group of people has its own traitors.  Are you saying Farben didn't use slave labor?

[mennie]

Every group of people has its own traitors.  Are you saying Farben didn't use slave labor?

No, I'm saying that the usage of slave labor could have started years after Prince Bernhard worked there.

Oskar Schindler also worked for the Nazis.

[HiQConsoul]

You say Bilderberger may have some good goals - peace, prosperity and international cooperation.

This is true, bilderberg wants peace prosperity and international cooperation... It's just that, if you disagree with them you get sent to slave labor consentration camps.. Their new world order is only for themselves and the people who will obide.. As such a regular human being would never call it peace, prosperity nor internatinal cooperation even tho it is, from their point of view

[Cruise4]

People 'going along' with stuff is how we got into this mess.

[Kilika]

People 'going along' with stuff is how we got into this mess.

You nailed it!

[ES]

I thought your post was very imformative until you said how great president Clinton was. He sold important ports to communist china, Laundered drug money for the cia in the 80's, bombed an aspirin factory in Sudan, Lied under oath, lied to the American people, Bombed Serbia with depleted uranium, Pardoned unworthy criminals, Let Bin Laden go free, Used the state police to beat up witnesses to his affairs, and was connected to several murders while govenor. That's not to mention Waco, Ruby Ridge and the Oklahoma city bombing that the fbi and batf did under his administration.

[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]

I thought your post was very imformative until you said how great president Clinton was. He sold important ports to communist china, Laundered drug money for the cia in the 80's, bombed an aspirin factory in Sudan, Lied under oath, lied to the American people, Bombed Serbia with depleted uranium, Pardoned unworthy criminals, Let Bin Laden go free, Used the state police to beat up witnesses to his affairs, and was connected to several murders while govenor. That's not to mention Waco, Ruby Ridge and the Oklahoma city bombing that the fbi and batf did under his administration.

But, E.S.,whats wrong with all those things Billie boy did, wasn't he just following the script his handlers gave him, just like all the other actors and actresses in washing-town do? Nothing wrong with following orders is there?? LOL