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Now it can be told


erniew

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Hello to all forum readers, I wish to recall a story, that you may be interested in, I was employed by the Sheffield and Ecclesall Cooperative society located at the bottom of Ecclesall road, from 1976 till its closure in 1986, my position as Engineer gave me access to lots of off limit areas, more on this to come in future posts

 At the end of its existence I was given some jobs that, now i`m older I should have challenged, The Coop had is own Publicity department, which was run by a Mrs Elizabeth W and her assistant, one day prior to the closure of the shop I was ordered by Mr Evans, the MD to take the entire photo archive, mostly press shots of branches, customers, ect to be destroyed, a criminal act, I know, but at the time of the destruction of the Arcade, this was indeed small fry, as I was collecting the photos, Mrs W said, have a look at this photo, but after you have seen it, I must destroy it, the photo, taken from the bottom of Ecclesall road , from outside, what is now the Baan Thai Restaurant and looking up Ecclesall Rd, showed the shocking image of a series of Nazi Party Swastika flags being flown from the roof of the arcade.

I was stunned at this image, and I asked to keep it, but it was ripped up in front of me, this story seems quite far fetched, but I can assure you that this is a true incident, the photo was in black and white, and at a guess, dated from the 1930s,, I have attached a photo showing the Coop, minus the flags of course, to give you an idea of the scene. does any forum members have any views on this, or any ideas? these,would be greatly appreciated


Cheers Ernie

sheff coop.jpg

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The existence of such images doesn't surprise me, and they shouldn't shock us, even today. The Nazi's during the very first years that they came to power, were generally seen as having been a good thing. Particularly, as they had been very effective at disguising their true agenda for a long time. When they first came to power in the early 1930's, probably from the time when this image was taken, they had brought stability to Germany, which had been close to full-scale revolution, had stabilised the rampant inflation that plagued that country and had found work for the unemployed. The first motorways were built during this time. The downsides of Nazism however, were much less apparent, supported by a generally complacent press, who were also generally deceived, and of course, by probably the most effective spin-doctor of all time, Joseph Goebbels.

The Nazis had many supporters within this country, particularly amongst the wealthy, and the businesses classes, and they were seen as a bastion against the dreaded communists. After-all, at that time, the Russian revolution had taken place less than fifteen years previously.

Nazi representatives and support groups from Germany made many trips to the United Kingdom and other countries during those early years, and there is archive footage of such groups being taken on boat trips up and down the River Thames, with all those boats flying the Swastika Flag.

So, we shouldn't be shocked, or disgusted by such images. Most people were deceived in those early years and remember that they managed to deceive an entire nation. Twenty-twenty vision only comes with the benefit of hindsight, and few at that time, could ever have foreseen, even in their worst nightmares, the horrors that were to follow.

Incidentally - welcome to the forum, and if you have any other such great images, would you be happy to share them with us?

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Even after the lessons of WW2 there is still a problem with the extreme right wing and as Bertolt Brecht wrote ,"The b*tch is on heat again".

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Not too surprised.

I went in the Moseley Arms many years ago and recall photos of the black-shirts active in Sheffield in the 30s.

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A relative of mine, long deceased, was an active member of the black shirts in Sheffield. He had previously been a minor player in the Gang Wars but had avoided arrest. Every family had a black sheep.

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I talked about this post with my friend who is a student of co-op history. He had no knowledge of this particular incident but thought  perhaps it was a misunderstanding about the motives of the Nazis winter relief programme. The danger obviously is of using our 20/20 vision with hindsight. See video below.
 
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