Thread: to Germany and other non-USA nations

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    l'Anziano DavidP's Avatar
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    Question to Germany and other non-USA nations

    This is mainly directed towards people who live in nations other than the USA, mainly Germany...

    How do your history classes teach the history of World War II? How do they teach Hitler? I realize that Britain, France, and other nations from the old Allied forces of World War II probably all teach the same things about Nazis and Hitler, but how do the nations of the old Axis governments teach about Hitler?

    This post is not meant to deride in any way, I am just interested in what kind of image Hitler holds in the minds of Germans in this day in age, and in nations other than the USA, especially since several world war II vets are still alive, both on the allied and axis sides. I am sure there are still many Nazis alive that fought for Hitler back in the 40's. What are their opinions of the war? Do they still feel they were fighting for the right cause, or have their opinions of what they were fighting for changed over time?
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    There's not many JAPS - anese here but I know that they don't even teach there ppl anything about WWII. They treat it as a period in time to forget - like it never happened. Their ppl have a complete ignorance about the subject, and thusly they believe weird things, like they were justified for Pearl Harbor and the US was not justified for Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
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    Registered User Aran's Avatar
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    the japanese have a mindset that does not except defeat, and therein lies the problem.

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    Just one more wrong move. -KEN-'s Avatar
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    You know you could've just named this thread "Flamey McFlameMe" and gotten the same end result as you'll wind up with, I bet.

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    l'Anziano DavidP's Avatar
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    You know you could've just named this thread "Flamey McFlameMe" and gotten the same end result as you'll wind up with, I bet.
    hahaha yes i realize that this probably will become a flame war, but I honestly would like to know what other countries teach about WWII.
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    ¡Amo fútbol!
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    Originally posted by Aran
    the japanese have a mindset that does not except defeat, and therein lies the problem.
    I wouldn't be so quick to attack them. I admire their new governmental policy. They cannot attack other nations, only defend themselves. Also this was probably semi-forced on them, I admire how they have not changed this. Japan is one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world. However, you do not hear of them developing nukes and other powerful weapons.

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    Registered User rick barclay's Avatar
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    It's my guess that German's have written more history books
    as it pertains to Germany than any other nation. I read a book
    on the life of Josef Goebbels, written by a German, and his
    reference bibliography in the back of the book ran about five
    pages. Every one of the authors listed was German. Thr book
    itself was very, very interesting, giving little known details of
    just why Hitler came to power, why the German people supported
    him so avidly, and Hitler's mindset for starting WW II.

    As one small example, it was pointed out in the book that
    during World War One, not one hostile shot was fired or
    bomb dropped within the borders of Germany proper. The
    German press constantly heralded the coming end of that
    war with complete and total German victory. So when the Armistice was finally signed and the war ended, the German
    populace, including Hitler, Goebbels, et, al, were a little more
    than slightly perplexed to find that Germany had lost a war
    they had been led to believe they were winning. This fact, plus
    the overwhelming terms of surrender enforced by the victorious
    Allies, plus the onset of the Great Depression all combined to
    set in motion Germany's and the World's fateful trek down the
    path into the Second World War. I am pretty sure the best
    and most truthful accounts of Germany's role in WW II are told
    by Germans, themselves.
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    >>especially since several world war II vets are still alive

    My uncles who were at Normandy and Dunkirk will / would not talk about it.

    They tell anecdotes about their mates 'outside' the war (on leave ect) in a time and place far from their normal situation.

    We were taught to be proud of the Australians as we were the only nation with 100% volunteer armies in both WW1 and WW2 (even if we did put a Yank in charge).

    A lot of this nation is defined by how we responded to WW1 (Gallipolli). As a nation we celebrate our first and greatest defeat. Hopefully we will soon revere as highly those who were at and Kokoda Track (Isurava, our greatest victory) .
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    Registered User rick barclay's Avatar
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    And don't ever forget Gallipoli, Churchill's Waterloo, where
    thousands of Australians were shipped and died needlessly
    thanks to British stupidity and arrogance. The blokes actually
    thought they could drive the Turks from their rocky perches
    through naval bombardment alone, and then mop up with
    the Aussies as an afterthought. As the battle raged and the
    Australians were fighting inch by inch against a well entranched
    enemy, British reinforcements were inexplicably held back off
    shore even though the navalk commander was well advised of
    a bloody battle raging onshore. Seems, he didn't want to send
    British youths to their deaths and have to account for it back home. Thus, the Brits rationalized the naval bombardment.
    An engaging fictional account of Gallipoli can be found in Leon
    Uris' Trinity .
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    I go to Germany quite often, and I know quite a few Germans.

    All of them are ashame of all that stuff. None of them will feel proud to have someone in the family who fought for the Nazis (I know some as well).

    Here's go a true little anecdote, that reflects the general idea about this:

    my fiance's grandma is German, and she lives in Germany. Her husband fought with them, as he had to. Last year, she found in her basement an old picture of Hitler, from the previous owner of the house.

    What do you think she's done with it?

    Nothing! She's not able to throw it to the bin, because she's affraid that if someone would happen to look into her garbage, they'd find out the pictuer in there. So they could believe it's hers.

    Well, that's how they feel about it. As the saddest chapter in their History.

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    Registered User hk_mp5kpdw's Avatar
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    The German press constantly heralded the coming end of that war with complete and total German victory.
    In the same vein as this, I recently saw something on TV (Discovery/History Channel?) that said that many of the Iraqi's believe they won the Gulf War because Saddam told his people that they won. With near total control of the media would they even be able to doubt what they were told by him?
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    Registered User Vber's Avatar
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    here in Israel...

    We still learn this every year, no matter how old are you, we still learn same thing. Most of people see Hitler as an monster, and not an human, but not Germany. We see germany as a friend country of Israel. This date is an 'special' date to Israel, no one's works, and if someone's works, at an specified time, all Israel stop to hear the alarm, that sounds in every side of the country.

    About he WWII, we learn more about the facts, why? who? when? and so on..

  13. #13
    The Earth is not flat. Clyde's Avatar
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    "like they were justified for Pearl Harbor "

    As far as i'm aware the Japanese were under the impression that the US already knew they were at war when they attacked pearl harbour.

  14. #14
    Registered User codingmaster's Avatar
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    I'm German......

    PS: I'm the best in our history class...

    We're currently talking about the 2. World War

    Hitler is a very bad person, who had exploited the bad conditions of the people and made usage of very bad and horrible ruling


    I lack the words to adequately express my dislike for him in a civil fashion.

  15. #15
    Cheesy Poofs! PJYelton's Avatar
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    I lived in Japan for a little while and while not being told EVERYTHING Japan did in WWII, they are definately now slowly being taught that their country made mistakes which culminated in the disaster at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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