Jewish & World News

When Marine investigators learned last November that a scout sniper platoon in Afghanistan was using a Nazi SS flag as its standard, it wasn't a member of the unit who told them. It was Iraq war veteran Waitman Beorn, a visiting history professor at Loyola University New Orleans, also a Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowship recipient who teaches at the National Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Dr. Beorn's research on Nazis and genocide is informed by his military background: He is a West Point graduate and former officer who served as a scout platoon leader in Iraq from 2003-04. Through his work he seeks to teach "ethical decision-making in a military context using the Holocaust as a vehicle."

The publication of a 2010 photograph showing U.S. soldiers with a logo resembling a Nazi symbol was greeted with condemnations by Jewish groups. In the picture, taken in Afghanistan, American Marines are shown with a flag that reads "SS" in a manner similar to the logo of the infamous Nazi police. A Marine spokesperson said the soldiers did not know the logo had a Nazi connotation but had intended the image to resemble lightning bolts and refer to sniper scouts.