Should we honour former Nazi supporters?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/03/2024 (921 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Should Brandon University and other places honour people who had been Nazi supporters? This question is being asked now about the Manitoba artistic couple Ferdinand Eckhardt and Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté. But in trying to sanitize the past, we could miss what’s critical to remember. And we could miss asking central questions for our present and future.

Eckhardt and Eckhardt-Gramatté immigrated to Winnipeg from Germany in 1953. They were in their 50s and were an arts power couple.

Eckhardt was the director of the Winnipeg Art Gallery for more than 20 years. During his tenure, he championed the works of Jewish and other artists. He promoted the gallery as a centre for Inuit art. He expanded the gallery, including its dramatic new building.

Eckhardt-Gramatté was a music performer, teacher and composer. She is recognized as one of the most important Canadian music composers of her time.

She died in 1974 and he died in 1995. The couple are honoured by the naming of places in the Winnipeg Art Gallery and Brandon University as well as by the annual national music competition held at BU. Both were awarded honorary degrees by BU.

Controversy erupted when an article appeared recently in the Canadian magazine, The Walrus. The article by Conrad Sweatman outlined the extent to which Eckhardt had been a Nazi supporter while he lived in Germany. Eckhardt was a writer, working in advertising and art criticism. Some of his writing was pro-Nazi and swore allegiance to Adolph Hitler.

Eckhardt was drafted for a year during the Second World War. He also worked as an advertising manager for Bayer, the pharmaceutical and chemical company. Bayer and companies affiliated with it were active participants in the Holocaust. The Bayer group of companies helped to construct Auschwitz, used slave labour and conducted horrific medical experiments on prisoners. The Bayer companies also produced Zyklon-B – the poison used in the gas chambers.

The Walrus uses the Eckhardt story to paint a broader picture of Canada’s association with Nazism. The immigration of Nazi supporters like Eckhardt to Canada after the war might have adversely influenced our own arts scene. Another example: art looted from European Jews during the war might be in collections in Canada today. This could include art that belonged to Eckhardt and Eckhardt-Gramatté. Then there was the recent embarrassment when a former Ukrainian Nazi was recognized in Parliament.

But what is striking about this picture in The Walrus is the omission of the main point: Canada went to war against Nazism. Canada fought Nazi Germany and the other Axis powers, fascist Italy and imperial Japan. While listing errors that Canada committed or might have committed after the Second World War, the magazine omits the actual war effort. What about the sacrifice made in that conflict by more than 40,000 Canadian war dead and thousands more wounded?

When the Second World War ended, Canada and the other allies worked to create a long-term peace. The worst German war criminals were prosecuted and punished. Germany itself and its citizens were given the chance for rehabilitation, including being able to immigrate to countries like Canada. And German companies were reconstituted to make products for peacetime.

The transformation of Germany of the past to today is remarkable and a triumph of morality. And that transformation was composed of millions of cases like those of Eckhardt and Eckhardt-Gramatté. Imagine going from supporters of Nazism in Germany to promoters of a democratic, multicultural society in Canada.

Should the names of Eckhardt and Eckhardt-Gramatté be removed from the Winnipeg Art Gallery and Brandon University? No. We are honoring their contributions after the war in Manitoba.

We cannot sanitize the past, but we should learn from the past. This certainly applies to the Holocaust; we can remember that atrocity and the people who were caught up in it. The memory is disturbing. But the reflection is valuable.

And let’s remember the central questions here. How could millions of ordinary folks go along with outright evil? Could it happen again?

Hilter and the Nazi party undertook the evil of conquering Europe and engineering the Holocaust. That required the active support, or at least the acquiescence, of tens of millions of people. Every German – whether bureaucrat, farmer, factory worker, teacher, artist, parent or in another role – became a Nazi collaborator.

Eckhardt and Eckhardt-Gramatté failed a moral test when they chose to go along with the Nazi regime. Their moral failure should be noted in updated descriptions on plaques and in publications.

But today we Manitobans should feel no shame in having the names of Eckhardt and Eckhardt-Gramatté on our public buildings or music competitions.

Just like today we should feel no shame if we buy Bayer products like Aspirin, Alka-Seltzer or Flintstone Vitamins.