Blissfully Ignorant, I'm afraid that you are just that, if this comment of yours is anything to go on: I think any reasonably intellegent ten year old could work out that dressing up as a fascist is a Bad Idea. I was blissfully ignorant myself, on the same point, but a UK poll has just disclosed that for 60 per cent of people under 20, the word "Auschwitz" means virtually nothing. Thanks, ironically, to Harry that might change.

The guy Robomatic heard suggesting that Nazi insignia is not readily available in the UK may have been confusing the UK with certain European countries, in which displaying and trading such stuff is illegal. Until recently this was the case in France, for instance. I don't know whether it is still.

weelittledrummer, take care how far you generalise from one anecdote, especially one that has little relevance. On the front page of today's (London) Independent, a British veteran recalled people going into London in Nazi uniform during WW2 "for a bet". And when he went into Berlin in 1946 he wore an SS shirt. On the specific point about Rommel's army, his words exactly matched the sentiment of mine in an earlier post. He said he and his comrades never regarded Rommel's troops as Nazis - just as fellow soldiers like themselves. "We killed them, just so that they didn't kill us."