"Stockholm Syndrome" Affects Historical Reenactor

Getting just a little too close to his subject!

Historical reenactors do us all a favor by bringing us closer to the past, but without a strong moral center, one can end up sympathizing with one's subject. It's a similar condition to "Stockholm Syndrome", where kidnap victims end up sympathizing more with the kidnappers than law enforcement.

Iott is wrong in several respects. During WWII, Americans did sit down and make judgements and take action against the Nazis. In response, Patton's army, among others, invaded Germany, and my father, among others, fired artillery at the Nazis. And as to why they fought Nazis rather than Communists, it was because the Nazis posed a far bigger threat. War ultimately proved unnecessary to dislodge the Communists: not so the Nazis:

Iott defended the members of the unit, who he said "wanted to fight what they saw as a bigger threat to them than Germany," so they joined up with the Nazis to fight the eastern front of the war against Soviet forces. "I don't think we can sit here and judge that today. We weren't there the time they made those decisions," he said.

Iott called "what happened in Germany during the second World War one of "the low points in human history," but defended the Wiking Division when Cooper referred to them as collaborators: "I don't know that I would put that label on them. They were doing what they thought was right for their country. And they were going out and fighting what they thought was a bigger, you know, a bigger evil."

What are the key characteristics of "Stockholm Syndrome"?:

• Hostages who develop Stockholm syndrome often view the perpetrator as giving life by simply not taking it. In this sense, the captor becomes the person in control of the captive’s basic needs for survival and the victim’s life itself.
• The hostage endures isolation from other people and has only the captor’s perspective available. Perpetrators routinely keep information about the outside world’s response to their actions from captives to keep them totally dependent.
• The hostage taker threatens to kill the victim and gives the perception of having the capability to do so. The captive judges it safer to align with the perpetrator, endure the hardship of captivity, and comply with the captor than to resist and face murder.
• The captive sees the perpetrator as showing some degree of kindness. Kindness serves as the cornerstone of Stockholm syndrome; the condition will not develop unless the captor exhibits it in some form toward the hostage. However, captives often misinterpret a lack of abuse as kindness and may develop feelings of appreciation for this perceived benevolence. If the captor is purely evil and abusive, the hostage will respond with hatred. But, if perpetrators show some kindness, victims will submerge the anger they feel in response to the terror and concentrate on the captors’ “good side” to protect themselves.

Historical reenactment has brought Mr. Iott nothing but praise to this point, and there is no physical danger, so one can see why he might develop an attachment to the Nazis. But it's a demanding hobby, requiring many hours of work, and partly as a result, he may be a little too isolated for his own good.