Ohio GOP Congressional Candidate is Former Nazi War Reenactor

Rich Iott is hoping to unseat Democrat Marcy Kaptur in Ohio's 9th Congressional District, but the Toledo-area Republican's campaign is now receiving widespread attention for his past participation in a group that stages full-dress reenactments of the Nazi 5th SS Panzer Division's World War II military maneuvers.

The Atlantic reported the story of Iotta's membership in "Wiking" from 2003-2007 Friday evening and by Saturday morning, the news of Iotta's old hobby had spread across the country.

When contacted by The Atlantic, Iott confirmed his involvement with the group over a number of years, but said his interest in Nazi Germany was historical and he does not subscribe to the tenets of Nazism. "No, absolutely not," he said. "In fact, there's a disclaimer on the [Wiking] website. And you'll find that on almost any reenactment website. It's purely historical interest in World War II."

Iott, a member of the Ohio Military Reserve, added, "I've always been fascinated by the fact that here was a relatively small country that from a strictly military point of view accomplished incredible things. I mean, they took over most of Europe and Russia, and it really took the combined effort of the free world to defeat them. From a purely historical military point of view, that's incredible." ...

Iott says the group chose the Wiking division in part because it fought on the Eastern Front, mainly against the Russian Army, and not U.S. or British soldiers. The group's website includes a lengthy history of the Wiking unit, a recruitment video, and footage of goose-stepping German soldiers marching in the Warsaw victory parade after Poland fell in 1939. The website makes scant mention of the atrocities committed by the Waffen SS, and includes only a glancing reference to the "twisted" nature of Nazism. Instead, it emphasizes how the Wiking unit fought Bolshevist Communism.

Here's one of the group's recruitment videos:

During his reenactment days, Iott participated in the group under his own name, and also under the alias "Reinhard Pferdmann," a character he describes as being his German alter-ego.  "Part of the reenactor's [experience]," Iott said, "is the living-history part, of really trying to get into the persona of the time period. In many, not just in our unit, but in many units what individuals do is create this person largely based on a Germanized version of their name, and a history kind of based around your own real experiences. 'Reinhard' of course is 'Richard' in German. And 'Pferdmann,' 'pferd' is a horse. So it's literally 'horse man.'"

The Atlantic also asked Iott whether he thought his past participation in a Nazi reenactment group might upset voters, he said he hoped it wouldn't: "They have to take it in context. There's reenactors out there who do everything. You couldn't do Civil War reenacting if somebody didn't play the role of the Confederates. [This] is something that's definitely way in the past. ... [I hope voters] take it in context and see it for what it is, an interest in World War II history. And that's strictly all."