@MissyChrissy What have you heard about WWII?

@emiliya Can we talk about in private, Miss?

@akindheart I am Jewish. It doesn't mean anything. The Nazis are fascinating, one of a kind. I am fascinated by what we can't see, by the mystical. They were very mystical. I find it fascinating how Hitler felt if you had enough will, it would change an event and make something happen. This is incredible, although in the end it failed. In the end he entered the afterlife uncaptured, with some degree of dignity.

@emiliya you know, i was fascinated by how HItler had everyone so bamboozled. i read everything about him, not because i admired him but the propaganda machine was unbelievable. the residents of Berlin didn't even know the Allies had invaded them. but it is something to my daughter in law. when my sister visted Auschwitz, she deeply offended my DIL. I am respectful of that. I did visit Eagles Nest too.

@ChipmunkErnie it's really difficult not drawing conclusions on such a subversive topic. innocent or not you can't be blamed for feeling uneasy about such as past time

@tenente The hard part is how to consider the collection of memorabilia linked to hate, racism, and the murder of millions of Jews, Slavs, Roma, handicapped, gay, etc. etc. etc. people as "innocent".

@ChipmunkErnie exactly

@Captain Did your parents have memories of WWII? Or grandparents? What did they share with you?

@emiliya My parents are 89 and 87 respectively. My mum was evacuated from Battersea just donw the road form the old power station after one of adolfs bombs blew her clean across the table. My oldest 3 aunts on her side were evacuated ot become land army girls. The oldest of those is now 99 and wit get to a hundred on Christmas day and still goes into Moreton in the Marsh every now and then shopping, and still nits stuff for charity. My dad lost one brother when he was flying into Christchurch ariport delivering a bomber and had another brother in an Italian POW camp for an age. Both were 7th born of 9. Wojld have been 7:2 splits - 7 boys in dad;s family and 7 girls in mums but two boys were lost in child birth one each side. Im now down to just dad in his side and mum plus 3 aunts on the other side. Sdaly I've lost a kid cousin - both boys - on either side ot he family. I remeber my grandma on mums side telling me she remember the Zepplins over London. I also remeber her saying she stayed out of the shelter to watch a spitfire shoot down a German plane jumping up and odwn on the bed upstairs in her excitement until the ARP warden caught her. I remember then talking about the end of rationing. I remember my oldest aunt telling me about the farmer boys running off to caputre the pilot with their pitch forks when a German plane went down. I remember dad talking abiut his dad and the shell shock form world war 1. I remember my gradma going on about the secret tunnels in Wiltshire, which it has now been admitted did exist then and are still used now. I remember it was all lies and misonformation - which of course it still is now. You know my overall conclusion is that nothing changes much. They lie to us. They expect us to get on with it. They pay us peanuts and laugh at us behind our backs. Thats the biggest story about the war, same as the peace, the masses were manipulated and the richest got away with it. My uncles father was dropped at Arnhem. He never talked about it. My mum did mention some of the older girls who hung out with the GIs and yes, one or tow got very ill over that. She also said she wa sso annoyed by provate Ryan beauce when she looked out of the bus at the tents of Americans camped between Leicester prison and the rugby ground on the park all she saw were black faces - I cant say how true that is but it wouldn't surprise me. My uncle - son of the para - who died two years ago worked at Empire Stone in Narborough that helped build the Mulberry Harbour. My mother remember Coates a local firm building machine parts palced where the M1 crosses the road between Cosby and Whestone was bombed being biombed, and the wave after wave of bombers flying overhead toward Coventry (I just got goose bumps writng that bit down). Im 1966 when we won th eworld cup, I know those wounds were still raw and came to the surface during that game of football. But htne Dad new a Polish chap who used to work with him and any wounds our families carried were nothing like as raw as the ones he carried. So I wasn't old enough to see th eresidual devastaiton but it amazes me that if yu go to Aramanche you can still see the greater part of th emulberry harbour there and think of the massive amount achieved in those first two days ond June 1944 6th and 7th, And so much was secret and is till to be revealed, I remeber my dad first telling me about the enigma code. My aunt had worked at Bletchley and knew of it but of course no one was supposed to know about it, I must have been 10 or 11 when he told me about it and how we had to let people die to keep the secret. Thats a bot of a ramble but then these things come back to you in random order don't they. SOmething else I remember if the thailidomide scandal. I remember sitting in the barbers while 1 poor kid with vitually no arms or legs had his haircut infront of me - I musyt habe been 6 or 7. At leats I was spared the horrors of the war(s). Does that help you get a picture. I don't know. I feel immenselty proud of our paras and our royal Engineers in particular and what they achieved during the seocnd world war, it was amazing. If we had the same attitude to global warmimg we could be net zero in 10 years - kick all the landowners off the land and just spend the money on dams and tidal energy. No one will do that necause rich people would lose their lands and income tax would go up. Really - when there is a will there is a way. Maybe thats a lesson form the wars we should not forget. Its everyones sacrifice but its the success of the collective.

@HannahSky learn the nuance

@deadgerbil I meant you're cringe

@deadgerbil slippery slope with that fascination people have

@TexChik They will always be historical items. At what point do they become something else too?

Agreed. It's just kinda creepy to keep that as a personal collection.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow Collecting in itself is one thing, but it's the intention of said collector that really matters.

@JPWhoo
You have your perspective, and others have theirs. The German people, led by Hitler, strove for the betterment of their fatherland. WW2 was the result of many conflicts within Europe. It was not about Jews. The modern highway is a Nazi artifact, and so is the rocket that is sending astronauts into space. And they are all good.


You have your perspective, and others have theirs. Confederate statues, flags, rifles, swords, and other memorabilia grace American towns and homes today. We have parades and re-enactments of of American historical events every year. It's our cultural history, and we are proud of what we are.

@sree251 Actually the German Rail Network was more important in moving war supplies than the road network.

@Anniedlr You could be right. I never thought about that.

@JustNik Yes why not allied artifacts as well? Just collecting the Nazi ones seems like an obsession.

@JimboSaturn I admit I’d be lookin at em sideways, but 🤷‍♀. In the grand scheme, it’s good things get saved. I’d try to think of it that way.

@Alfarrobas Thank you for the comment

@emiliya most groups in history have done barbaric things in barbaric times. The Nazis, being entirely 20c, don't have that excuse

@ImperialAerosolKidFromEP Aren't we always in barbaric times?

@whowasthatmaskedman Why do they have poor taste? It is history.

@emiliya It is. But not the better part of it. I get that people collect all sorts of things as value investments, because rarity drives up the price. But (if you will pardon the poor taste) if I decided to collect the skulls of your specific dead ancestors as a curiosity I am sure you would consider that an affront. The Nazi Germany era is one that, while it needs to be remembered to learn a lesson from, doesnt deserve to be commemorated as merchandise..😷

@Guardian Perhaps a pin cushion in the likeness of Der Führer.

Or even toilet paper with the swastika flag on every sheet.

@Guardian Of course! It could be any memorabilia, any items formerly belonging to Nazis.

Weapons, medals, coins, badges, uniform are particularly interesting.

@jshm2 What about museums exhibiting Nazi memorabilia? They say they do it for educational and historical purposes, but what if an individual wants to do it for the same reason? Is anyone being harmed?

If someone is obsessed with Nazis, it still does not make them a criminal. Child pornography will show children being harmed, and it is likely from the same era the person watching it is. Even if one were an admirer of Nazis, they can't be a real Nazi because Nazism is dead.

“This is why even rapists and murderers who are found not guilty end up shunned from civilised circles.”

This makes no sense. If they are found not guilty, why would they be shunned? Who are the civilized circles?

@jshm2
The difference is that when someone buys child porn, they're funding an industry that harms children. They're creating a demand for more children to be harmed. But when someone collects artifacts from Nazi Germany, who is being harmed? The NSDAP has already been disbanded, so it's not like the money is helping to prop up Nazi Germany. It would be like saying by collecting artifacts from the Viking Age, we're funding Vikings.

@BohemianBabe You meant to tag jshm2. I very much agree with your view on the matter.

@ImperialAerosolKidFromEP Why is that? Would it be a problem?

@emiliya because I'd have to wonder why, if it was produced to overtly promote Nazism

@sree251 That is very true!!

@caesar7 God, those uniforms. Hitler knew what he was doing when he hired Hugo Boss.

@caesar7 You didnt happen to know a tall thin guy with long hair by the name of "Oddball".. Did you?😷

@NativePortlander1970 Why?