28–Feb–08

The Nazi Hunters' League of Great Britain «

Most mornings the library plays host to a number of different recreational clubs for the elderly. On Thursdays it's the Battersea chapter of the Nazi Hunters' League of Great Britain.

It's widely recognised I think that most if not all of the prominent Nazis active during the war are now dead, so the League now chiefly concerns itself with small scale re-enactments of the capture of key Nazi figures.

Each week a different person is selected to play the prized role of celebrated Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal (or Simone if one of the elderly ladies takes on the part) and a number of enthusiastic volunteers change into costume and are given a 15 minute headstart to go and hide themselves somewhere in the local neighbourhood. As soon as the time has elapsed, that week's Wiesenthal leads the remaining members in a hunt to find the elderly, costumed fugitives in as short a time as possible.

Over the years the definition of Nazi has become a little blurred and the selection of hiding places inevitably driven more by comfort and availability of tea and hot snacks than ability to conceal. Last week I saw two Adolf Eichmann's, a Pablo Escobar and (rather perplexingly) a Darth Vader all hiding in the same branch of Costa Coffee.

The league is very popular amongst its members but is no stranger to controversy.

In the run up to Christmas last year an old man dressed as Peter Sutcliffe was cautioned for creeping up behind young women in Woolworths and shouting: "Ow do, 'appen I'm the Yorkshire Ripper and I'm going to cut you up you whore".

And only last month an octogenarian dressed as a suicide bomber was caught in Threshers tucking several bottles of Bombay Sapphire under his home-made bomb belt and hit the local papers the next day with the headline "Osama Gin Laden".

Incredibly, it's become traditional for some of the younger, fitter members to enter the London marathon and the image last year of an exhausted but triumphant Josef Mengele in full SS uniform crossing the finish line hand in hand with Mr Blobby will stay with me for years to come.

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