D-Day +28 124

Meltdown99 said:

Spiritual_Chaos said:

Meltdown99 said:

There are lots of YouTube videos that discuss D-Day from the Germans point of view.  I'm sure most Germans would just like to forget WW2 happened, I suppose.

Yet, they did one of the best WW2 movies ever with "Der Untergang". 

So maybe there is a depiction of D-Day out there.

If anyone know of any, I'm not that knowledgeable in German and French film, please hook me up.

Somewhere in my comment, I missed where I said there were no good German WW2 films.

Don’t be too hard on us non native speakers I think he was agreeing and merely trying to emphasize your point 

JPPJ84 said:

There’s a few really good German movies about the war but not about d-day in particular I think. Das Boot, Der Untergang, Operation Walküre, Stalingrad to name a few. There’s also one from the Russian point of view, I‘ll find out the name. 
Personally I’m not sure if we (Germans) want to forget. Sure, we wish it had never happened but now that it has we mustn’t ever forget! Hope you get what I’m trying to say 

My understanding is that Germany has made a concerted effort over the years to remember the war, lest it be repeated. 

Meltdown99 said:

For one I do not believe for a minute that just because you remember, does not mean history will not be repeated.  I have only ever watched youtube videos on the German perspective...I have never had an interest in watching WW2 movies from their perspective.  

Of course not! But it starts with not forgetting/ignoring what‘s been done 

JPPJ84 said:

The Russian miniseries is called Liberation https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0198811/?ref_=m_nv_sr_1

I would be really interested to hear how German schools teach the Holocaust and World War 2.  Any insight?

mcgruff10 said:

JPPJ84 said:

The Russian miniseries is called Liberation https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0198811/?ref_=m_nv_sr_1

I would be really interested to see how German schools teach the Holocaust and World War 2.  Any insight?

I honestly don’t know what it’s like today, I don’t know any history teachers or school children. I was born in 84 and our history classes left a lot to be desired when it came to German history in general. A main focus was on the first and Second World War and the politics in between (Weimarer Republik) so of course we learned about the Reichskristallnacht, Anne Frank, the concentration camps, the resistance group white rose, the assassination attempts on Hitler and so on. But I honestly think it should have been more or at least have a wider focus on what it did to the entire world really. It did take a lot of space and rightly so. What bugs me though is that there’s hardly any room for the rest of German history. A bit about Bismarck and the late 19th century and that’s it. Nothing about post war Germany. Again I can only speak for my school time and even only my region. Education is part of regional politics so it could have been very different in other parts of Germany. I honestly think the German-German history is even touchier than the wars. With the wars everyone agrees about the cruelty, the responsibility. Post war German history is a lot more complicated and „personal“ . Boy I hope you understand what I’m trying to say. Even today the inner German division is still in people’s heads, there’s loads of prejudice.

mcgruff10 said:

JPPJ84 said:

mcgruff10 said:

JPPJ84 said:

The Russian miniseries is called Liberation https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0198811/?ref_=m_nv_sr_1

I would be really interested to see how German schools teach the Holocaust and World War 2.  Any insight?

I honestly don’t know what it’s like today, I don’t know any history teachers or school children. I was born in 84 and our history classes left a lot to be desired when it came to German history in general. A main focus was on the first and Second World War and the politics in between (Weimarer Republik) so of course we learned about the Reichskristallnacht, Anne Frank, the concentration camps, the resistance group white rose, the assassination attempts on Hitler and so on. But I honestly think it should have been more or at least have a wider focus on what it did to the entire world really. It did take a lot of space and rightly so. What bugs me though is that there’s hardly any room for the rest of German history. A bit about Bismarck and the late 19th century and that’s it. Nothing about post war Germany. Again I can only speak for my school time and even only my region. Education is part of regional politics so it could have been very different in other parts of Germany. I honestly think the German-German history is even touchier than the wars. With the wars everyone agrees about the cruelty, the responsibility. Post war German history is a lot more complicated and „personal“ . Boy I hope you understand what I’m trying to say. Even today the inner German division is still in people’s heads, there’s loads of prejudice.

Why would post world war 2 be so personal?  Are there a lot of people that side with east Germany?

It’s not easy to answer that and I couldn’t really speak from my own experience during that time obviously. A main thing is that the division separated families. Half my dads family was in the west, the other half in the east. Funny side story: my parents were in the west when the wall came down. They were visiting an aunt for her birthday and were only allowed to go because they left us with our grandparents. So basically my sister and me were the guarantee they‘d come back and not defect. Can you imagine their panic when the news came late that night?! No one knew what was going to happen. Ok maybe it’s not funny but we do laugh about it today and shake our heads in disbelief.
Anyways... I don’t think there’s a whole lot of people in the east who want the GDR back. Hell no. What they do want back is their jobs, their social security. Loads of regular workers lost everything because the factories were closed. The system wasn’t self sustainable and it showed once capitalism came. So people left in droves. My home town had a population of 100.000 in 1989, ten years later it was hardly 70.000. One main problem was and still is that it was the better educated people who were leaving, so poverty in the east rose even more. 
So of course there were and sadly still are a lot of stereotypes. The rich and smart west vs the poor and backwards east. When I went to uni (in the west) one of the first things some dumbass said to me was, „all Ossis (Ost = East) are Nazis, except for you of course, Julie!“ ... like, seriously?! Two weeks ago a guy who I had a date with said he unfortunately can’t date an Ossi girl... wow! So yeah, basically it’s still „we and them“ a lot of the time. Of course I’m not saying everyone still thinks like that but a lot of people do. 
A lot of my friends make Ossi jokes and most of the time I know how to take it but more often than not it stinks, especially when it’s people I’ve literally met ten minutes ago. 

JPPJ84 said:

mcgruff10 said:

JPPJ84 said:

mcgruff10 said:

JPPJ84 said:

The Russian miniseries is called Liberation https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0198811/?ref_=m_nv_sr_1

I would be really interested to see how German schools teach the Holocaust and World War 2.  Any insight?

I honestly don’t know what it’s like today, I don’t know any history teachers or school children. I was born in 84 and our history classes left a lot to be desired when it came to German history in general. A main focus was on the first and Second World War and the politics in between (Weimarer Republik) so of course we learned about the Reichskristallnacht, Anne Frank, the concentration camps, the resistance group white rose, the assassination attempts on Hitler and so on. But I honestly think it should have been more or at least have a wider focus on what it did to the entire world really. It did take a lot of space and rightly so. What bugs me though is that there’s hardly any room for the rest of German history. A bit about Bismarck and the late 19th century and that’s it. Nothing about post war Germany. Again I can only speak for my school time and even only my region. Education is part of regional politics so it could have been very different in other parts of Germany. I honestly think the German-German history is even touchier than the wars. With the wars everyone agrees about the cruelty, the responsibility. Post war German history is a lot more complicated and „personal“ . Boy I hope you understand what I’m trying to say. Even today the inner German division is still in people’s heads, there’s loads of prejudice.

Why would post world war 2 be so personal?  Are there a lot of people that side with east Germany?

It’s not easy to answer that and I couldn’t really speak from my own experience during that time obviously. A main thing is that the division separated families. Half my dads family was in the west, the other half in the east. Funny side story: my parents were in the west when the wall came down. They were visiting an aunt for her birthday and were only allowed to go because they left us with our grandparents. So basically my sister and me were the guarantee they‘d come back and not defect. Can you imagine their panic when the news came late that night?! No one knew what was going to happen. Ok maybe it’s not funny but we do laugh about it today and shake our heads in disbelief.
Anyways... I don’t think there’s a whole lot of people in the east who want the GDR back. Hell no. What they do want back is their jobs, their social security. Loads of regular workers lost everything because the factories were closed. The system wasn’t self sustainable and it showed once capitalism came. So people left in droves. My home town had a population of 100.000 in 1989, ten years later it was hardly 70.000. One main problem was and still is that it was the better educated people who were leaving, so poverty in the east rose even more. 
So of course there were and sadly still are a lot of stereotypes. The rich and smart west vs the poor and backwards east. When I went to uni (in the west) one of the first things some dumbass said to me was, „all Ossis (Ost = East) are Nazis, except for you of course, Julie!“ ... like, seriously?! Two weeks ago a guy who I had a date with said he unfortunately can’t date an Ossi girl... wow! So yeah, basically it’s still „we and them“ a lot of the time. Of course I’m not saying everyone still thinks like that but a lot of people do. 
A lot of my friends make Ossi jokes and most of the time I know how to take it but more often than not it stinks, especially when it’s people I’ve literally met ten minutes ago. 

So basically people living in the former east Germany are looked down upon because you are portrayed has uneducated and behind the times (you would be the Alabama and Mississippi of the us).  I never knew this, thank you so much for explaining.