Freemasonry & The Nazis Gypsies, accused criminals, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews and Freemasons; difficult to find a common bond by simple appellation, but all shared a common fate at the hands of Nazi Germany - all were sent to concentration camps. Some lived to see deliverance by Allied forces; others saw their fate sealed by Adolf Hitler's "Final Solution". The suffering of our brother masons in Nazi Germany is a story that many history books in our school failed to teach us as young men, this is most probably because numerically we were the smallest group than any other who shared a similar fate. My visit last year to Washington, D.C.'s Holocaust Museum alerted me to "minorities" found in the camps. Indeed if a few of us know of the suffering of our brothers in German camps, even less know of the systematic hunting and execution of freemasons, orchestrated by Hitler's cronies; Spain's Franco and Italy's Mussolini. Human rights were violated, property and wealth seized in all countries that became a part of the Axis war machine. Fearful of the of the Jewish faith and Freemasonry, Hitler concluded that both were in collusion with each other and drew himself up a conspiracy involving a collaboration between what he called international Jewry and Freemasonry that had laid out blueprints for each other to enslave Germany through political, cultural and economical machinations. The ten Grand Lodges of Germany were dissolved as a result of Hitler's grab for power in his role as chancellor. The Gestapo pilfered the membership lists found in the Grand Lodges and helped to identify our brethren. The jewels, furniture and other property found within were sold at auction and helped to fund a growing invasion force. In a time difficult to show pride in belonging to the brotherhood, German Freemasons found a binding symbol: The Forget-Me-Not. Through an incredible coincidence, the symbol of the little blue flower that had been adopted in 1926 by the Grand Lodge Zur Sonne at their annual convention was also adopted in 1938 by the annual Nazi party's charity, Winterhilsfwerk. Manufactured by the company that had made the Forget-Me-Not pin some twelve years earlier, it became the perfect way for German Freemasons to distinguish each other without arousing unneeded exposure. Alas, with the Nazi party armed with complete member lists, the subterfuge was hardly enough to stop the doom that would be spelled for our brethren who were accused falsely of planning a take-over of Germany with the help of Jews. By throwing away what he referred to as human "refuse" into concentration camps, Hitler felt he could finally seize global power with no apparent threat to his own ambitions. Within the confines of forced labour camps where humanity toiled for their oppressors under the banner of a mockingly false promise of "Arbeit Macht Frei", inmates wore colour-coded identity badges. An inverted triangle sewn onto the left breast and right-outer knee of the prisoner's clothing could easily distinguish to a guard the reason for their incarceration. Along with Jewish people with yellow six-point stars, convicted criminals were given green triangles, Gypsies black, Jehovah's Witnesses wore purple, homosexuals pink and Freemasons were grouped with political prisoners and given red triangles to wear. There are no accurate records of exactly how many brothers we lost in the mass exterminations, but my research has concluded a conservative estimate of some 80'000 to perhaps up to 200'000 Freemasons. Today, there is no doubt of the pride of the Jewish people in the Star of David. I have adopted the red triangle for my own, and I pray that some of you may one day also. Today my brethren, I wear a red triangle upon my lapel not only to remember the suffering of my past brothers‌ I wear it because I am a free and accepted mason.
Cross Keys Nov.. 2011
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