A model of the nonexistent Nazi UFO "Haunebu II" produced by model company Revell will no longer be produced after criticism about its historical inaccuracy. The model's packaging, which falsely proclaimed the "round aircraft" was the first object able to fly in space with a top speed of 6000 kph (over 3700 mph), failed to mention that the craft was never built, drawing fire from The German Children's Protection Association (DKSB) and Dresden's Military History Museum (MHM), according to German publication, The Local.

While Revel produces plenty of models depicting fictional spacecraft and real-life Nazi war machines this crossover product drew criticism because its lack of disclosure that the craft never existed or flew plays into prevalent, ahistorical narratives that overestimate the Nazi's level of technology and scientific innovations and serve to mythologize the fascist regime.

As Military History Museum historian Jens Wehner told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung:

"At that time it was technologically impossible to build something like this. ... Enthusiasts can use this as a strategy to cast doubt on what we know today about National Socialism."

The true legacy of many of the Nazi's most ambitious technological projects is not success, but unrestrained excess and abject failure. Look no further than Hitler's frenzied dreams of the Landkreuzer P.1000 Ratte, a tank so large as to be a land battleship. The project was ultimately a boondoggle, abandoned because its gargantuan size would have rendered it both extremely vulnerable and tactically useless.

Revell, for its part, agrees with the criticism, saying in a statement: "Unfortunately, our product description does not adequately express this and we apologize for it."

While we're at it, there was no secret Nazi base in Antarctica either, though the pollution from one of the Nazi's actually existent battleships still affects Norway to this day.

Source: The Local via Motherboard

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