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uhnope

(6,419 posts)
Sat Mar 12, 2016, 10:53 PM Mar 2016

Trump supporter explains what led to 'Heil, Hitler' salute at canceled Chicago rally

Source: Chicago Tribune

A 69-year-old Yorkville woman and her husband are defending her actions after a Tribune photo showed her giving a Nazi salute during an altercation with protesters outside UIC Pavilion Friday night following the ill-fated Donald Trump rally. The photo of Trump supporter Birgitt Peterson went viral on social media this weekend, causing some to wonder about her motivation for making the gesture.

Peterson, who said she emigrated from West Berlin and has been a U.S. citizen since 1982, said the salute came during an argument with protesters and was simply her response to them giving her the Nazi gesture. Her husband, Donald, insisted: "We're not skinheads, we're not Nazis."

"So Birgitt decided to teach them to do it,'' said Donald Peterson, who insisted they were "not Nazis'' and absolutely not supporters or "saluting'' Adolf Hitler.

"I lifted my arms," she said, adding that in German she said, "Hail to the German Reich." A protester who was photographed with Peterson, Michael Joseph Garza, told the Tribune on Saturday he did not believe Peterson was responding to anyone else when she raised her arm in the salute. "I went up to her and said, 'Ma'am, please leave, we have understood you, we have made a (path),'" Garza recalled. "She said, 'Go? Back in my day, this is what we did,' basically, and then she hailed Hitler."


Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-birgitt-peterson-trump-rally-met-0313-20160312-story.html



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nazi-saluting-trump-supporter-says-shes-not-a-nazi/

"They said Trump is a second Hitler," she told the Times, recalling that one activist next to her that night had held aloft a photo of the Nazi leader. "I said do you know what that sign stands for? Do you know who Hitler really was?"

"I make the point that they are demonstrating something they had no knowledge about," she said. "If you want to do it right, you do it right. You don't know what you are doing."

It was then that she gestured in a Nazi salute.
22 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Trump supporter explains what led to 'Heil, Hitler' salute at canceled Chicago rally (Original Post) uhnope Mar 2016 OP
Hmmmmm. So she knew how to do it "right". Lint Head Mar 2016 #1
Yes. That takes practice. nt Xipe Totec Mar 2016 #2
A real German can show them how to do it right IronLionZion Mar 2016 #3
Except, of course, that she was born two years after the fall of the reich nichomachus Mar 2016 #4
Hate is taught from one generation to the next. DhhD Mar 2016 #5
If she were born two years after the fall of the reich, ANYTHING and EVERYTHING nazi... Raster Mar 2016 #9
Pure unadulterated BULL nt LiberalElite Mar 2016 #6
That last part makes no fucking sense. liberalnarb Mar 2016 #7
The intensity in her eyes in the photo betray her raggety "explanation" me b zola Mar 2016 #8
you got it. downeastdaniel Mar 2016 #17
Here's the real story, from the guy at the left of the picture: Bernardo de La Paz Mar 2016 #10
If she made that salute in Germany today Blue Idaho Mar 2016 #11
And that is wrong metalbot Mar 2016 #12
You wouldn't understand, because you are not German. Elmer S. E. Dump Mar 2016 #13
"My Day?" HockeyMom Mar 2016 #18
Yes, She's completely full of shit, I'll give you that. Elmer S. E. Dump Mar 2016 #19
Millions of Jews were murdered. I think I can understand IsItJustMe Mar 2016 #14
Why it's illegal to give the Nazi salute in Germany ... Lionel Mandrake Mar 2016 #20
Should it be illegal to say "slavery was wonderful" in the United States? Nye Bevan Mar 2016 #21
two different concepts of freedom of speech nt uhnope Mar 2016 #22
That is the most convoluted excuse I have ever heard. IsItJustMe Mar 2016 #15
Churchill mit his "Naaazzzi, Naaazzzi. It's NAZI." sofa king Mar 2016 #16

nichomachus

(12,754 posts)
4. Except, of course, that she was born two years after the fall of the reich
Sat Mar 12, 2016, 11:16 PM
Mar 2016

So, she never "did it" back in "her day."

Her explanation is bullshit.

Raster

(20,996 posts)
9. If she were born two years after the fall of the reich, ANYTHING and EVERYTHING nazi...
Sat Mar 12, 2016, 11:45 PM
Mar 2016

...was forbidden and illegal. AS WELL IT SHOULD BE... the pic of her "heiling" sparked visceral DISGUST.

 

liberalnarb

(4,532 posts)
7. That last part makes no fucking sense.
Sat Mar 12, 2016, 11:39 PM
Mar 2016

"They said Trump is a second Hitler," she told the Times, recalling that one activist next to her that night had held aloft a photo of the Nazi leader. "I said do you know what that sign stands for? Do you know who Hitler really was?"

"I make the point that they are demonstrating something they had no knowledge about," she said. "If you want to do it right, you do it right. You don't know what you are doing."

It was then that she gestured in a Nazi salute.


What the flying fuck does that mean?? They have no knowledge about Hitler? They don't know who he was? And how the hell could them not knowing who he was lead to her giving the Nazi salute. It makes no goddamn sense.

Bernardo de La Paz

(48,788 posts)
10. Here's the real story, from the guy at the left of the picture:
Sat Mar 12, 2016, 11:47 PM
Mar 2016
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027677351

{...}
The woman pictured with me and what looks to be her husband we're stragglers in the pack, and started responding to people's jeers. Some guy ripped a sign out of the man's hands and another man leapt out of nowhere, encouraging everyone around to respect them and let them leave (again, sometimes America is amazing).

This woman is a human being and although I don't share her views, I start yelling "I will respect my elders. Please. Leave." and a few other great folks and I start to clear the path. I walk right up to her and say "Ma'am we have listened to you. We understand this is all a little wild but we have cleared a path for you to leave *my right hand was constantly swinging in motion, showing her the path out we made for her, as shown in the photo*"

She goes, and I quote "Go? Back in my day, you know what we did-"

Bam. Hail's Hitler.
{...}

metalbot

(1,058 posts)
12. And that is wrong
Sun Mar 13, 2016, 12:32 AM
Mar 2016

Not the fact that she would be arrested for it, but the idea that she would be arrested for it. We either support the freedom of ideas, or we don't. Trump is an ass. He has some moronic ideas. The fact that those ideas are moronic should never trigger us to think that we should prosecute those that agree with those ideas. I'm actually appalled by the idea that Germany, as a first world nation, would think that ideas are so harmful that they should be punished by putting someone in a cage.

 

Elmer S. E. Dump

(5,751 posts)
13. You wouldn't understand, because you are not German.
Sun Mar 13, 2016, 01:24 AM
Mar 2016

Hitler and the Nazi's is a brutal stain on Germany's past. We have nothing comparable in our history. Yes, we as a nation committed our own genocide against native Americans, but we were never felt the humiliation of defeat or worldwide revulsion at the time.

I understand how they feel. They have freedom of speech for everyone but Nazis. I can't see that I blame them.

 

HockeyMom

(14,337 posts)
18. "My Day?"
Sun Mar 13, 2016, 12:03 PM
Mar 2016

She was born in 1946. What would she remember as Newborn or even a Toddler? Were people in Germany still saluting Hitler in the 50's when she was a young child in school?

She is a Post War Baby. WW2 was not her day. She must have been shouting this at young protesters because it would never fly with someone her own age.

I am 2 years younger than her. Big difference? WW2 is NOT "My Day".

 

Elmer S. E. Dump

(5,751 posts)
19. Yes, She's completely full of shit, I'll give you that.
Sun Mar 13, 2016, 12:26 PM
Mar 2016

Plus, she's a fucking Nazi. Herr DrumpFührer is exposing these assholes for us. Hopefully the FBI is also monitoring these people.

IsItJustMe

(7,012 posts)
14. Millions of Jews were murdered. I think I can understand
Sun Mar 13, 2016, 01:44 AM
Mar 2016

why it would be illegal to do that in Germany. Just saying...

Lionel Mandrake

(4,073 posts)
20. Why it's illegal to give the Nazi salute in Germany ...
Sun Mar 13, 2016, 02:11 PM
Mar 2016

After WW2 the Allies (other than the USSR) carried out a de-Nazification program. So successful was this program that Germans took it to heart and made it illegal to give the Hitler salute, display the Swastika, or even to deny the Holocaust in public. Even today, de-Nazification trumps freedom of speech in Germany.

Nye Bevan

(25,406 posts)
21. Should it be illegal to say "slavery was wonderful" in the United States?
Sun Mar 13, 2016, 02:35 PM
Mar 2016

Would you support the First Amendment being changed so that pro-slavery statements can be made illegal?

sofa king

(10,857 posts)
16. Churchill mit his "Naaazzzi, Naaazzzi. It's NAZI."
Sun Mar 13, 2016, 10:42 AM
Mar 2016

This whole election is like a giant sequel to "The Producers."

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