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Is collecting Nazi war memorabilia an unusual hobby, a fetish, or a sign of anti-Semitic bias? This is, in part, the question that looms over a Human Rights Watch employee who was suspended this week, after his dedicated enthusiasm for collecting Nazi military relics was publicized by a blog.
Marc Garlasco, a former Pentagon official involved in targeting, rose to prominence as a senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch, looking at, among other things, Israel's use of white phosphorous during Operation Cast Lead. Garlasco has also worked on reports looking at civilian casualties in conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Georgia, among others. In his private life, he also pursued an avid interest in World War II and Nazi memorabilia, and published a full-length book, The Flak Badges of the Luftwaffe and Heer.
The critics see this hobby as proof positive of Garlasco's (and by extension Human Rights Watch's) personal bias in reporting on Israel. Writing at the Huffington Post, Garlasco responded to his critics, writing: "I'm a military geek, with an abiding interest not only in the medals I collect but in the weapons that I study and the shrapnel I analyze." Garlasco ackowledges "a handful of juvenile and tasteless postings," which is an understated way of summarizing statements like, "The leather SS jacket makes my blood go cold it is so COOL."
No one should be surprised that people find Garlasco's hobby creepy. Nazi gear is a well-known taboo, banned in Germany, and even frowned upon in some cases by World War II reenactors (a dealer and enthusiast once told me that reenactors are allowed to use authentic German World War II uniforms, but nothing, like flags, that glorifies the swastika; and SS paraphernalia is completely verboten).
All hobbies are, by their nature, a form of fetish, but some of them are more taboo than others (the fetish surrounding Nazi uniforms was even noted by Stephen King in his 1982 novella, Apt Pupil). At the very least, Garlasco's web postings on his excitement over SS gear demonstrated poor judgment for a researcher working on an issue as sensitive as Israeli military operations in Gaza and the West Bank. This is a subject that is bound to attract scrutiny.
Most importantly, his hobby detracts for what should be the real debate: the quality of the reports themselves.
