"Because Hitler's regime placed the swastika in the center of the medal's simple black-and-silver design and handed out millions of them during World War II, the award remains off-limits for today's army.
"The symbol was abused by the Nazis and as a result has also become a symbol for the crimes of the Wehrmacht during National Socialism," said Stephan Kramer, secretary general of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. Kramer said that he believed that German soldiers deserve a medal for bravery, but one with an untainted design."
BERLIN: The German Army today has no awards for courage, only for attendance. The painful debate over reviving the famed Iron Cross to fill that gap underscores how distant Germany remains from normality when it comes to the military.
At a time when allies, including the United States, are pressing Germany to send more troops into the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan, the country is only beginning to reconnect with the basic trappings that go hand-in-hand with armed deployments. Not only does the Bundeswehr lack medals for valor, it does not have an award comparable to the Purple Heart for wounded U.S. soldiers.
[...]
Georg Martin, 83, a private during World War II, received the Wound Badge in Silver for the three times he was severely wounded, as well as an Iron Cross for fighting as part of a machine gun crew during the Battle of Kharkov in what is today Ukraine. In fact, he has two of each of them.
Once a year, on the national memorial day, Volkstrauertag, he dons replicas he purchased in 1959, at his own expense, for a few Deutsche marks. Meanwhile, in a file where he keeps copies of his military hospital records, sit the originals, bearing the swastika of the Third Reich.
The history of the Iron Cross, designed by the German architect and painter, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, dates to 1813 and the Prussian War of Liberation against Napoleon. But it is the Nazi history that takes precedence.
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