this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2023
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A fool once told me that Sabaton is a Nazi band because of their song "The Final Solution"
They said only Nazis call it Kristallnacht, because it sounds too poetic
In Germany this is true. Most people call it Reichsprogromnacht because Reichskristallnacht is a term coined by the Nazis and it really sounds kinda poetic.
But I wouldn't blame non native speakers for not knowing all the nuances and I don't know how old the song is and the context makes everything clear.
The song is also a poem. It's not a high energy exciting song like Sabaton's usual fare, it's just a poem with drums and guitar. You can hear every single word clearly. Is it considered appropriate to use such poetic language in poems?
Maybe poetic is the wrong word. Kristal means cristal (if not obvious) which is a shiny and very positive conotated word. The message is that destroying all the synagogues with all the violence included is a good thing because it makes Germany look better.
So would you consider this webpage in bad taste?
https://www.sabaton.net/historical-facts/kristallnacht-the-night-of-broken-glass/
I never used the framing "bad tast". I explained why the term isn't used in Germany anymore and why it's ok that Sabatan used it. What even is your problem?
Curiosity
Ok, I don't think it's bad taste because I don't blame non native speakers for not knowing all the nuances. If it was a more or less recent German homepage, it would be a different story. But anyway, I think it's more important what you say than which words you use.
I don't know how common these words are in English and I don't blame anyone for not following the discussions held in another country.
It's a fallacy called cherry picking, picking something specific and ignoring context. One could easily cherry pick parts of other Sabaton songs as "defense" for nazis (Ghost Division) or even the soviets (Attero Dominatus)
Now that I think about it, the history book I had during my high school called it Crystal Night, I guess because it sounds more memorable than "Pogrom Night"