Editing History of South Africa (section)

====Pro-German and pro-Nazi attitudes====
After the suppression of the abortive, pro-German [[Maritz Rebellion]] during the South African World War I campaign against German [[South West Africa]] in 1914, the South African rebel General [[Manie Maritz]] escaped to Spain.<ref>Denys Reitz, ''Adrift on the Open Veld: The Anglo–Boer War and its Aftermath'', Cape Town: Stormberg 1999, p.227, {{ISBN|0-620-24380-5}}</ref> He returned in 1923, and continued working in the Union of South Africa as a German Spy for the Third Reich.

In 1896, the German Kaiser [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Kaiser Wilhelm]] had enraged Britain by sending congratulations to Boer republican leader [[Paul Kruger]] after Kruger's commandos captured a column of British South Africa Company soldiers engaged in an armed incursion and abortive insurrection, known historically as the [[Jameson Raid]], into Boer territory. Germany was the primary supplier of weapons to the Boers during the subsequent [[Second Boer War|Anglo–Boer war]]. Kaiser Wilhelm's government arranged for the two [[Boer Republics]] to purchase modern [[breech-loading weapon|breech-loading]] [[Mauser rifles]] and millions of smokeless gunpowder cartridges. Germany's Ludwig Loewe company, later known as Deutsche Waffen-und Munitionfabriken, delivered 55,000 of these rifles to the Boers in 1896.<ref>Paul Scarlata, [http://www.shootingtimes.com/long-guns/longgun_reviews_st_boermodel_201007/ The 1893/95 "Boer Model" Mauser]. Accessed 21 May 2015</ref>

The early-1940s saw the pro-Nazi ''[[Ossewabrandwag|Ossewa Brandwag]]'' (OB) movement become half-a-million strong, including future prime minister [[B. J. Vorster|John Vorster]] and Hendrik van den Bergh, the future head of police intelligence.<ref>Angelo del Boca & Mario Giovana, ''Fascism Today: A World Survey''. New York: Pantheon Books. {{ISBN|0-434-18040-8}}. p. 382</ref> The anti-semitic ''Boerenasie'' (Boer Nation) and other similar groups soon joined them.<ref>Del Boca & Giovana (1969) p.382</ref> When the war ended, the OB was one of the anti-parliamentary groups absorbed into the [[National Party (South Africa)|National Party]].<ref>Del Boca & Giovana (1969), pp. 381–83</ref><ref>Ivor Wilkins & Hans Strydom, ''Broederbond: The super-Afrikaners'', London: Corgi, 1980, pp.1–2, {{ISBN|0-552-11512-6}}</ref>

The South African ''[[Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging]]'' or AWB (meaning Afrikaner Resistance Movement), a militant neo-Nazi, mainly Afrikaner white supremacist movement that arose in the 1970s, and was active until the mid-1990s, openly used a flag that closely resembled the swastika.<ref>Anti-defamation League, [http://www.adl.org/combating-hate/hate-on-display/c/triskele.html Hate on Display], Accessed 25 April 2015</ref><ref>[[:File:Afrikaner Weerstandsbewegung flag.svg|AWB neo-Nazi insignia]]</ref> In the early to mid-1990s, the AWB attempted unsuccessfully through various acts of public violence and intimidation to derail the country's transition to democracy. After the country's first multiracial democratic elections in 1994, a number of terrorist bomb blasts were linked to the AWB.<ref>''Mail & Guardian'', [http://mg.co.za/article/1997-01-10-new-bomb-blast-links-to-awb "New bomb blasts link to AWB"] 10 January 1997. Accessed 14 May 2015.</ref> On 11 March 1994, several hundred AWB members formed part of an armed right-wing force that invaded the nominally independent "homeland" territory of [[Bophuthatswana]], in a failed attempt to prop up its unpopular, conservative leader Chief Lucas Mangope.<ref>Nelson Mandela Foundation, [https://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/cis/omalley/OMalleyWeb/03lv02424/04lv03275/05lv03279/06lv03282.htm ''Mandela: 'A lesson they will never forget' '']. Accessed 29 May 2015</ref> The AWB leader [[Eugène Terre'Blanche]] was murdered by farm workers on 3 April 2010.

A majority of politically moderate Afrikaners were pragmatic and did not support the AWB's extremism.<ref>[http://sun025.sun.ac.za/portal/page/portal/Arts/Departemente1/geskiedenis/docs/coming_to_terms_with_past_present.pdf Wessel Visser, ''Coming to terms with the past and the present: Afrikaner experience and reaction to the "new" South Africa''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304191439/http://sun025.sun.ac.za/portal/page/portal/Arts/Departemente1/geskiedenis/docs/coming_to_terms_with_past_present.pdf |date=4 March 2016 }}, (Seminar lecture presented at the Centre of African Studies, University of Copenhagen, 30 September 2004), p.2. Accessed 3 May 2015.</ref>

[[File:The Union of South Africa, Its Land and Its People (1956), Encyclopedia Britannica Films, Inc..webm|thumb|''Encyclopedia Britannica'' documentary about South Africa from 1956]]