Don't forget lessons of war

The Third Reich fell in flames decades ago, but its ideology has not been buried with it- even here in South Africa.

- Eric Mthobeli Naki

The Third Reich fell in flames decades ago, but its ideology has not been buried with it- even here in South Africa. Far from vanishing in 1945, Nazism became a global symbol - one that still finds disturbing relevance in parts of the world today. The right-wing in Europe and in our land was inspired by Nazism - Hitler's hatred for Jews inspired apartheid - a policy design to discriminate against blacks in their ancestral land.

On 9 May, 1945, in Karlshorst, Berlin, the victorious Allied powers signed the Act of Unconditional Surrender of the German armed forces. Despite the brutality of the Nazi regime, world leaders like Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin D Roosevelt carefully avoided equating Nazism with the Germans.