Hitler's cruelty - It just keeps coming out how much evil he did.

[Gladys]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2538178/Found-guillotine-used-kill-Hitlers-enemies-But-device-executed-heroine-21-show.html

Hiding the truth is never helpful. How will children learn what really happened? As gruesome and awful as it was, this is what happened. Auschwitz and other Gas Chamber camps are now a shrine to those who lost their lives at his command. This is another example. I think it is sad and terrible for people who are alive today and who knew the people who suffered and died but showing the bigger picture by educating generations that have come since then can only be for the good. It does have to be handled sensitively always though.

[Margaret]

I have just finished reading a fascinating biography, 'A garden of Eden in hell' ' of Alice Herz Sommer, a famous pianist who is the oldest survivor of the extermination camp in Prague, she is now 110 years old and lives in London. . Her video interviews can be found on internet. She is an absolute gem.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oxO3M6rAPw

[Lex]

The anniversary of the D-Day Landings is coming up on Friday, and President Obama will be in France to take part in the commrmorations: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27671691

[rebbonk]

History is (re)written by the victors. The history books only tell us what we are allowed to know, not necessarily what happened.

War is a dreadful thing, and I heavily suspect that Mr Obama is now leaning toward Eastern Europe for deployment of his troops that are departing the Middle East. - All in the name of democracy and world peace you understand?

I believe in remembering what went on, acknowledging the horrors and of saluting the dead on all sides. I don't believe in glorifying war at all.

[rebbonk]

You know, watching the 'celebrations' on last nights news I couldn't help but wonder just how the Germans felt about things. They lost a lot of sons, brothers, and fathers too.

There is argument that WWII occurred because the treaty of Versailles punished the Germans beyond the reasonable. Are we repeating a past mistake?

[Gladys]

They went to war as Hitler dictated they must. Remember the propaganda machine was brain washing the country and knowledge of the truth was unavailable until the man in the battle field met his moment. There are many incidents that are yet to be spoken about where combatants met each other face to face and there in human kindness took over. One veteran spoke of one such thing on Friday. I don't know if anyone else heard his story but it struck me profoundly. He and his comrade had taken a gunnery in France and had 2 German prisoners. His comrade didn't last from his wounds so he was the soul captor of these two men both of whom were wounded one worse than the other with a shot to his stomach. The British captor used the morphine issued to each man for personal use in the event of serious injury for the wounded man and bandaged both men's wounds to make them as comfortable as he possibly could. Then he met a terrifying moment when a group of German soldiers arrived to assess the loss etc. The less wounded of the two germans shouted out to his comrades and pointed at the British soldier preventing them from shooting him there and then. Explaining fast what he'd done to ease them in their own distress. This group watched him and then gathered their wounded comrades and then carried them away leaving the British soldier unharmed and still free. I am quite sure that the ' Common ' German soldier, sailor, airman were equally dismayed by the whole thing as the war unfolded and they learned the reality of what it all cost in lives.

I thought President Obama's address and that of President Hollande were both terrific. The charisma and eloquence of Obama and the really superbly delivered content of Hollande's speech which wasn't given justice by the interpreter on BBC1 was so poignant and didn't spare the horses. Mr Putin as a modern day dictator must surely have heard and felt the difference because he did look very uncomfortable at times. I am assuming his interpreter was truth telling to his or her listener of course.

[Lex]

Sadly, there are many hangovers from many European conflicts:
Ukraine (Crimea/WW2)
Yugoslavia & Balkan States (WW1/Ottoman Empire/Soviet Era)
etc...........................

[rebbonk]

And we are reaping those hangovers today, just as we are reaping the results of how we carved up the Middle East!

We have a lot to apologise for, but our arseh*le politicians don't seem to have ever studied history and the mess we made of things.

Maybe that PHE degree they took really wasn't worth the paper it was written on?