Monday, December 15, 2014

Got Thousand Year Reich in a box?

Not a WWII era joke played on pharmacies by boys over the telephone, but why doesn't Uruguay let it out?
A battle still goes on 75 years later.
This time, however, the matter in dispute is not the control of the South Atlantic but rather a controversial four-tonne bronze eagle that could fetch millions of dollars at auction.
The spread eagle with a swastika under its talons was recovered off the coast of Uruguay in 2006 by private investors.
That's right, a private citizen, using his own--or his investors'--money, recovered it from the seabed, but it's now under control of the Uruguayan government. Sitting in a large wooden box in a warehouse in Montevideo for the last nine years.
It was part of the stern of the Graf Spee, which was once one of the most modern battleships in the world.
The cruiser was scuttled by its captain in Montevideo Bay soon after the Battle of the River Plate. The captain had feared that if captured, the British would steal information about its state-of-the-art technology.
Now the Germans worry that Uruguay will sell it to someone who reveres Adolf Hitler, so it sitzt. If it's such a big deal for modern day Germany, why don't they buy it and destroy it?

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