Mahatma Gandhi 'was one of Nazis' greatest friends' German historian claims

A leading German historian said Mahatma Gandhi was "one of the greatest friends of Nazi Germany" because the Indian activist and the Third Reich shared a shared a common enemy in Britain.

Götz Aly, the popular historian, accused black Allied soldiers of the systematic rape of German women during the Second World War.

He also dismissed their contribution to defeating the Nazis on the grounds that they were forced to fight.

Mr Aly, the author of the controversial Hitler's Beneficiaries, made the remarks during a press conference at "The Third World in the Second World War", a Berlin exhibition aimed at recognising the role of thousands of Africans and Asians in defeating Nazism.

Though he was invited to speak, Mr Aly dismissed what he called a "politically correct" version of history and argued that, in fact, people from colonised countries had a "parallel interest" with the Nazis in defeating imperial nations such as Britain and France.

He compared the behaviour of Britain and France's black soldiers to the notorious mass rapes by the Russians in eastern Germany and Berlin.

"Every town in southwest Germany could tell stories of rape by black soldiers", which was "no different to the Russian" practice of systematic rape, Mr Aly claimed.

He also described Britain and France's black and Asian soldiers as "unfree liberators", whose contribution to the defeat of Hitler ought therefore not be celebrated.

Rape was widespread during the downfall of Germany but historians agree the Russian Red Army was responsible for the overwhelming majority of sexual assaults.

Dennis Goodwin, chairman of the First World War Veterans Association, who also speaks for other veterans and himself served in Burma during the Second World War, said Mr Aly's claim made no sense.

"There's no comparison with the Russians, who openly boasted about it.

"There would be many historians up in arms about those claims. I can't speak for the French or the Americans but there were no British black battalions in Germany," he said.

Mr Aly did not respond to an email request for an interview by the Daily Telegraph.

Mr Aly, a respected but controversial figure, is best known for Hitler's Beneficiaries, which argues that the Nazis bought the loyalty of ordinary Germans by equitably redistributing loot plundered from Jews and conquered European territory.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/6140002/Mahatma-Gandhi-was-one-of-Nazis-greatest-friends-German-historian-claims.html