drummer93
Member
It is a pretty cool show. But it has some errors. For example, the Gefreiter operates an MG-42 in 1941
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What's the most terrible World War II movie you've ever seen?
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It is a pretty cool show. But it has some errors. For example, the Gefreiter operates an MG-42 in 1941
VonMudra
Well-known member
Also their portrayal of the Polish Home Army is basically a stereotype that was created in Germany in the 1960s/70s to shift some blame for the holocaust to the Poles. It has little to no basis in reality, many jews served with extreme distinction in the Home Army from grunts to generals, and the Polish Home Army was responsible for the rescue of about half of all surviving Polish Jews. There WAS anti-semitism in Poland, like all of Europe, but not in the manner depicted in Unsere Mütter Unsere Väter.
drummer93
Member
I think that they don't pretend to say that the Polish Home Army was anti Semite, but there were a lot of anti Semites in Poland. The movie "Poklosie" generated much controversy for the same reasons. In my country a lot of years ago, they were murdered a lot of natives (something similar to the American campaign), and I'm not happy for that, but I think that we have to accept our history, and more important, learn about it
VonMudra
Well-known member
There were, however in Unsere Mütter Unsere Väter they portray the underground cell as wanting to kill all the jews, and when they stop a train bound for a concentration camp, they just want to leave the jews in it to die. That has nothing to do with the reality of the Polish Home Army. It is as if, in portraying the US Civil War, they depicted Union troops talking about wanting to butcher all the slaves, just because historically not all Union soldiers were pro-abolitionist. Or Americans landing in Normandy and promptly shooting all the French civilians because not all American soldiers were Catholic.
drummer93
Member
yes you are right in that point. Probably that topic was not portrayed in the correct way and it pretends generalize. Of course, that is not acceptable
Aniallator
Member
In Germany, I imagine there will always be some amount of downplay or ignorance of Germany's atrocities during the war. You see the same thing in the US with the Vietnam War.
drummer93
Member
Unsere Mütter Unsere Väter show a lot of German atrocities. Remember when the SS oficial kills the Ukrainian girl, the shootings or Friedhelm killing people in the gallow
Aniallator
Member
Oh, and on the subject of good WW2 media, has anyone else seen Valkyrie? I wouldn't call it stellar and I'm not sure how accurate it is, but I enjoyed it and thought it had an interesting take on the war. Plus, it has Tom Cruise.
drummer93
Member
I fell in love with the stages and the gorgeous German uniforms, visually is fantastic. I really don't know if the movie is accurate or not, but I had fun seeing it.
Aniallator
Member
Seeing the beginning when von Stauffenberg was in Africa makes me want to see a film from the POV of the Afrika Korps! Visually, it was indeed a good film.
drummer93
Member
the details in that scene are really really fantastic
VonMudra
Well-known member
Nowadays there is little downplaying of the holocaust/German atrocities in Germany, especially after the Crimes of the Wehrmacht exhibition. That said, the "Polish underground were just as bad as us" myth is dying hard over there.
Aniallator
Member
In 2014, during one of my stays in Penang, Malaysia, I went to see a British fort from the 1930s on Bukit Batu Maung. Once the Malay peninsula was conquered in 1942, the Japanese used the fort as a hub for torture and executions, and it was the site of numerous atrocities. Many locals knew it as Bukit Hantu (Ghost Hill), from the hundreds of laborers and POWs beheaded and hung there.
When I was there, one of the only other people was a Japanese woman. Going into the torture chambers, seeing the gallows and the tools of torture the Japanese used, she was pretty shaken. She told me she didn't realize Japan had committed mass atrocities. When I asked her what she knew about the war as someone from Japan, she told me that in school, they were basically taught that Japan went around the Pacific building airfields.
But awareness is not what it used to be, and I think that, for example, the "comfort women deal" between Japan and South Korea in December helps to change that.
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drummer93
Member
drummer93
Member
But I think they don't have to. You don't have to carry the blame of your ancestress. If so, we should all apologize for the atrocities of our countries, but it doesn't have sense to me. In other hand, it is very wrong that the people can't learn the real history in their schools, they have to know what really happened, and reflect. That is the relevant reason to study history.
FlyingR
Member
Sure they don't have to, but what would've happened if Germany didn't apologize for their war crimes?
As for your second point, I agree, but as usual, the history is always taught from a point of view, either winners or losers.
drummer93
Member
I really don't know. I think that is important for the diplomacy and the rapprochement between peoples , but bothers me the stigmatization and the hypocrisy. I mean, it seems like only a couple of countries have to apologize for the rest of the eternity, and there were hundreds of wars with hundreds of countries involved only in the last century.
FlyingR
Member
Yes yes definitely. That's what I was trying to say. It's so stupid and hypocritical how some countries have to apologize, some don't, and some nobody cares about.
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