Am going to write a completely non-TB related entry today.
Am bored of TB; am bored of how it infests my daily life; just want everything to be over with.
And that's all for TB today...
As you may or may not know, i am a complete TV addict. And not ashamed by it. TV is my healthy form of escapism & i love watching police dramas (e.g. CSI, Without a Trace, Cold Case); trashy teen dramas (e.g. The OC, One Tree Hill); animal dramas (e.g. Monkey Business, NY animal protection squad).
And that's just for starters.
But that's not what i want to recommend.
For a while History Channel have been showing 'The World at War', a documentary about WWII.
Narrated by Laurence Olivier, it was originally broadcast in 1974 and was completely ground breaking for its time. For me, the most impressive thing is the people they interviewed - holocaust survivors, regular soldiers (from all armies); high ranking government officials, high ranking German military personnel and ordinary people in the street. It's sad to think that most of them are not around any more.
It's been really interesting watching it with K and talking about it. Both of us have grown up with it in our families. Both of us have had grandparents directly affected by it.
But our grandparents were on opposite sides. I've never really thought about how the Germans were affected by it and it's been really interesting & sometimes challenging listening to the 'other side'.
This week was an episode on Auschwitz. That was hard. And the footage? Heart-breaking.
I just cannot understand how anyone could have justified what happened or stand up and say that it didn't even happen.
I remember, about 20 years ago, visiting Auschwitz. Remember the silence. Remember people crying. Remember my grandmother crying. Remember her telling me about her uncles & aunts & cousins who were exterminated there.
We cannot forget.
4 comments:
I remember going to Germany when I was in my last year of high school for an exchange, and part of the package I was given to present to my hosts was an Australian flag. I thought it was pretty cool. I handed it over to my hosts and they were obviously shocked and a bit reluctant to take it and keep it. Finally they told me that they could not give me one in return, which was part of their embarrassment, but the main problem was the overt nationalism that giving a flag represented, and they were just so uncomfortable with that. Nationalism had so many echoes of WW11 and they were very shy of it. Was a good lesson for me.
We cannot forget, but at least we can move past it. I remember right after I learned about the Holocaust in first or second grade. I had a sudden, brief dislike for a fellow student of German descent. I got over it soon after, and in fact developed one of my first crushes ;)
And here you are, bringing old enemy nations together, and discussing the war from a great remove of time and generations. It's a hopeful thing: maybe we humans can learn from our mistakes and don't completely suck. Maybe.
J-ster: K has said the same thing about patriotism in Germany. It wasn't until the world cup in 2006 (which was held in germany) that germans finally felt it was OK to be german and proud.
Sandi: Humans are pretty dumb most of the time. Somehow, we don't really learn from our mistakes and seem to carry doing the same thing over & over. Let's just hope we do really learn from the massively huge mistakes...
Phill is actually off to Germany tomorrow for a couple of days in Dusseldorf.
I went to see the Wedding Present on Monday night. They ruled! I take it you bought the El Ray album? It's almost as good as Seamonsters for me, Albini has worked his magic again...
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