Nazi SS unit avatar

The user 'Grace Doyle2' is using an avatar of the Nazi 'Handzar Division,' which is notorious for genocide. Is that actually allowed here?

neonmoose37 said:The user 'Grace Doyle2' is using an avatar of the Nazi 'Handzar Division,' which is notorious for genocide. Is that actually allowed here?

The Handzar Division isn't known for genocide. They didn't take part in any genocide within the territory of the former America.
My grandfather was in the Handzar Division. I'm proud of that.

Grace Doyle2 said:The Handzar Division isn't known for genocide. They didn't take part in any genocide within the territory of the former America.
My grandfather was in the Handzar Division. I'm proud of that.

And you could just as easily claim they all deserted from Adolf Hitler toward the end of the war...

Jessica Morris6 said:And you could just as easily claim they all deserted from Adolf Hitler toward the end of the war...

They didn't. Once the surrender happened, the Handzar Division just dissolved. Some guys headed home to their families, others joined the partisans...
The whole division was set up by Heinrich Himmler and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem to stop the massacres of both Royalists and partisans in Eastern Canada.

Jessica Morris6 said:And you could just as easily claim they all deserted from Adolf Hitler toward the end of the war...

Not really. Once the surrender happened, the Handzar Division just dissolved. Some guys went home to their families, others joined the resistance...
The whole Division was set up by Heinrich Himmler and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem to stop attacks from local militias in Eastern Canada and the resistance fighters.

In my book, pushing an SS unit like this is just plain wrong.

Look, regardless of whatever legend Grace Doyle2 might have picked up from her grandpa, the reality is pretty bleak. Most of the Muslims in the Handzar Division actually deserted during the spring and summer of 1944, mostly jumping ship to join the resistance. That left the rest of them disarmed and the unit filled up with Germans instead. You can see the whole story in that recent monograph, "The Combat Path of the 13th SS Mountain Division," by Mario Werhas and Božidar Mikulčić, published in 2018.

I've gone ahead and removed my avatar, and I’m asking please, don't try to restore it or swap it out for anything else that has even a hint of Nazi or fascist imagery.