By Jabir Deralla
in cooperation with the CIVIL Hybrid Threats Monitoring Team (CHTM)
A Facebook post disseminated through social media locally in North Macedonia claims the circled man in two photos is the same person—Adolf Heusinger—“Hitler’s chief of staff,” who later became “president/commander of NATO,” and uses this to insinuate that today’s NATO/EU are tainted by Nazism. The post further links this narrative to Ukraine and to migration. The claim mixes a few facts with exaggerations to build a guilt-by-association smear.
Risk assessment [MEDIUM]
Facebook post spreading disinformation in Macedonian: claims that Adolf Heusinger, a WWII Wehrmacht officer, later became “President of NATO,” using this to link NATO/EU with Nazism, and tying it to narratives about Ukraine, the Balkans, and migration.
Facebook post targeting an Italian-speaking audience: “Did you know that Hitler’s chief of staff, Adolf Heusinger, later became president of NATO?”
What’s true—and what’s not
Yes, the person in the photos is Adolf Heusinger. He was a senior Wehrmacht officer in WWII (operations chief on the army general staff). Near the end of the war he briefly acted as chief of the general staff; calling him Hitler’s long-term “Chief of Staff” is misleading.
After the war Heusinger served West Germany and NATO, and became the first Inspector General of the Bundeswehr (1957–61). In April 1961 he was appointed Chairman of NATO’s Military Committee – NATO’s top military adviser role – until 1964. He was not NATO’s “president” or overall “commander,” positions that don’t exist.
NATO’s political decisions are made by the North Atlantic Council and led by the civilian Secretary General; military operations are commanded by strategic commanders (e.g., SACEUR). The Chair of the Military Committee is the senior military adviser—not a political chief. (Link to NATO’s Military Command Structure)
Among others, here’s a short quote from the Italian fact-checker Open: “Heusinger was indeed part of NATO, but he never was its president.”
Where did this narrative come from?
It is very indicative that the “Heusinger = NATO President” talking point has circulated for years across different languages.
In 2016, English-language conspiracy blog Now The End Begins posts an article titled Adolf Heusinger, Hitler’s Chief Of Staff, Was Never Prosecuted And Then Went On To Lead NATO. In 2017, more blogs and social media posts tied Heusinger to a “Hitler–NATO connection,” debunked in August 2022 by the Italian fact-checker Open.
Now The End Begins – UK based conspiracy theory blog
In April 2024, a fresh meme wave went viral. Then, the Snopes wrote that the meme is correct about Heusinger’s wartime rank and later NATO post, but wrong on the job title and implications.
Collage about Heusinger – published by the Spanish media outlet El Ciudadano
Today, the claim is recycled by anti-NATO pages and click-bait sites in Italy, Spain and other countries, and frequently injected into regional Facebook groups and Telegram channels, including across the Balkans.
Why push this story now? The propaganda objective
Portraying NATO and the EU as continuations or sponsors of Nazism is a standard pro-Kremlin narrative used to delegitimise Western institutions and smear support for Ukraine. EUvsDisinfo, RAND, and the Atlantic Council have repeatedly documented this tactic: the “Nazis” label is wielded to demonise opponents and whitewash Russian aggression. (EUvsDisinfo, RAND Corporation, Atlantic Council)
The Heusinger meme fits that script perfectly: it cherry-picks a historical figure, overstates his Nazi-era role, inflates his NATO role to “president/commander,” and then implies that NATO/EU are ideologically compromised—thereby seeding doubt about Western security assistance and European integration.
The facts
- Who: Adolf Heusinger (1897–1982), senior Wehrmacht staff officer; survived the war; later served West Germany.
- NATO role: Chairman of the Military Committee, 1961–1964 (NATO’s senior military adviser; not a political or supreme command).
- No such title as “President of NATO.” Political leadership = Secretary General; decisions by the North Atlantic Council.
How the facts are manipulated
- Title inflation: Upgrades “Chair of the Military Committee” into “President/Commander,” implying control over NATO.
- Guilt by association: Uses Heusinger’s wartime post to taint today’s institutions.
- Narrative docking: Plugs into the broader “NATO/EU = Nazi” storyline pushed by pro-Kremlin channels since 2014 and turbocharged after 2022.
The viral collage is a textbook case of disinformation by exaggeration. Adolf Heusinger did serve as a senior Wehrmacht officer and, two decades later, as Chair of NATO’s Military Committee – the Alliance’s senior advisory military post. He was never “president” or “commander” of NATO; such positions do not exist. The meme’s purpose isn’t historical clarity – it is to weld the label “Nazi” onto NATO/EU and thus poison public trust in trans-Atlantic institutions.
Caution recommended
These narratives are present at [LOW to MEDIUM] intensity, but the infrastructure for amplification exists and requires close monitoring. There are recent posts that explicitly accuse EU/NATO of “neo-Nazism” or fascism, but they are far from being huge viral waves.
However, the EU and NATO = Nazi or neo-Nazi are part of an active propaganda operation, and these posts are relatively easy to find, there’s risk they might get amplified. Therefore, CIVIL recommends that monitoring is necessary to catch if and when one of these becomes widely shared in FB groups and Telegram channels with large followings.
Recent findings – What’s active now?
[MEDIUM] Serbian Telegram Channel (public channel) – “Nacisti > NATO > SNS”
A Serbian Telegram outlet (“Code 17”) has multiple recent posts pairing the word “Nacisti” (Nazis) with NATO/KFOR, e.g. a tile reading “Nacisti > NATO > SNS,” and another alleging “Ranjeni nacisti iz NATO/KFOR” (“Wounded Nazis from NATO/KFOR”). These circulate alongside domestic-politics content, so the “Nazi” label is normalized in the feed.
[MEDIUM] Bosnia & Herzegovina (regionally visible FB share) – “EU je Hitlerov projekat”
A publicly accessible Facebook share states: “EU je Hitlerov projekat treći rajh” (“The EU is Hitler’s project—Third Reich”), tied to a debate about EU membership and sovereignty.
[LOW] North Macedonia – anti-EU/NATO FB group
An open FB group positioning itself “Референдум против членство на Р. Македонија во ЕУ и НАТО” (Referendum against MK joining EU/NATO) is active. While not every post uses Nazi language, it’s a hub where such framings often appear or are amplified.
A public Facebook group with over 3,000 members spreading anti-EU and anti-NATO messages, portraying the Alliance as a “terrorist organization” and the EU as a continuation of Nazism.
[LOW] Regional media ecosystem (evergreen sources resurfacing)
Serbian portals (e.g., Webtribune and similar) keep a steady flow of WWII/Hitler nostalgia-frames that feed social captions about the EU/West; while not all are new, they are actively updated and recirculated in September.
Conclusions & Takeaways: Labeling EU or NATO as ‘Nazis’ is a Kremlin-style smear
Nazi labeling (“EU is Hitler’s project,” “NATO/KFOR = Nazis”) is present right now in open feeds (Telegram Serbia; FB posts tied to the region).
In North Macedonia, the explicit “Nazi” wording appears less in mainstream pages last week (Sept. 15-21), but the infrastructure is active (anti-EU/NATO groups).
The Serbian Telegram sphere remains a key vector for blunt Nazi tags attached to NATO, then echoed in FB/TikTok/YouTube shorts.
Labeling EU or NATO as ‘Nazis’ is clearly a Kremlin-style smear that is being created and infused in European countries’ public communications for years.
In this report on recent threats we see it again on Serbian Telegram (‘Nacisti > NATO > SNS’) and FB shares (‘EU je Hitlerov projekat’).
MK info-space is exposed to attacks through open FB groups opposing EU/NATO membership, such as the Referendum against MK joining EU/NATO page.
This narrative is not accidental noise — it is a calculated effort to erode trust in Euro-Atlantic institutions and weaken democratic resilience. These are not harmless distortions of history, but deliberate use of disinformation designed to divide societies and undermine confidence in the EU and NATO. Exposing and countering such propaganda is not only a matter of historical accuracy, but a necessary act of defending truth, stability, and the future of Europe.
This report was prepared with research and analytical assistance from AI (ChatGPT, OpenAI). The AI tool supported open-source monitoring of regional and international media, social networks, and fact-checking databases, and assisted in drafting and editing. All interpretations, conclusions, and responsibility for the content remain exclusively with the author and CIVIL.
This article is part of the Democracy Navigator project – A Strategic Response to Disinformation and Hybrid Threats, Building Democratic Resilience.
