To think there are a lot of people out there who have no grasp of WW2 history

[Stripyseagulls]

My grandfather fought in WW2 and I have visited the Normandy sites & it’s extraordinary how moving they are.

Today on Facebook/Twitter I have seen loads of really disturbing posts saying stuff like ‘our war hero’s didn’t fight world war 2 to live in a country full of muslim/ foreigners’ etc. Really really disturbing and horrible.

Aibu to think people don’t understand history and that the war was fought to defeat facism and these kinds of beliefs. Hitler didn’t start off gassing people- it was a long propaganda campaign against religious and ethnic groups that ended up with the holocaust.

Aibu to be disturbed by the lack of understanding of why the war was fought and what it was fought against. I find some of the attitudes in the UK today so troubling.

My father was u boat bombed by the Italians.

If it was a war against fascism we would have invaded Russia after defeating Germany.

Google "Operation Unthinkable"

The Poles were the only Allied troops who were forbidden to march in the London Victory parade in 1946.

Maybe a little bit of karma for them gleefully siding with Nazi annexation of various parts of Czechoslovakia in 1938, and helping themselves to the bits they wanted in turn

I think you are probably right. I'm in my 50s so born not long after the war. I was taught nothing about either of the WWs, and I was at a grammar school. Everything I know I have learnt from family stories, reading and TV documentaries. I hope I understand the basics, but it's only because I have been interested enough to find out bits for myself

I am in my 50s as well and completely agree with you The first time I learned about WWII in a school sense was in O Level history , and even then it was mainly regarding America and Russias rolls , which I always found a little odd. I too learned from family talking, documentaries, books etc.

Roles*

The Polish Government in Exile was based in London from 1940 to 1990, but most non-Poles have never heard of it

I am not Polish, and had only heard of it from a WW2 perspective. I had no idea it lasted until 1990. Another new fact to chalk up to Mumsnet!

I’m nearly 50 and the only thing I remember doing about with of the wars was WW1 poetry in English .i didn’t take history O level though so not sure what was taught then.

I would absolutely have remembered studying anything related as my Mother was German. I feel a deep sense guilt even though I know myself and my cousins have nothing to feel guilty about. It was my Grandparent’s generation who were young adults at the time.

DS is doing history GCSE and covering all this. I made sure I spoke to my Mum at length over the years before she died about it so I could pass in her memories to the DC. It’s a bit weird comparing my Dad’s childhood to qmy Mum’s (Dad from U.K.).

Post when did your mum leave Germany?

It hadn't occurred to me about Eastern Bloc countries' governments remaining in exile. Did any others?

It hadn't occurred to me about Eastern Bloc countries' governments remaining in exile. Did any others?

Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were the only other Eastern Bloc countries to set up GiE's in UK.

Other ones were France, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Luxembourg, and Greece, although they (Greece) were based in Cairo, and not London.

Their may have been others set up elsewhere, but the above are the ones I am aware of.

1961 Thighofrelief . She was a bit prone to lying and had Dementia so I can’t be totally sure about what she said plus she was very young. My Aunt is still alive and several years older. Tried to talk to her about it but she says she doesn’t remember much and i’m Not fluent so a bit of a language barrier.

My other Aunt was old enough to have to attend Hitler Youth. Mum said it was obligatory and my Grandmother used to March her off to confession after. I’ve just realised I’ve taken that on face value and never checked it’s true , guess I had better.

It's easy to judge from a distance isn't it. Would I have Anne Frank in my attic? No. If I was in desperate housing need and offered a previously Jewish owned home would I take it? Yes. Would I go along to League of German Girls? Yes. The safety of my family would always be my only consideration.

Resistance fighters in occupied countries were enormously brave. I also admire conscientious objectors.

Certainly, younger people are at a disadvantage when it comes to learning about WW2. I was born more than a decade after the war ended, but its legacy pervaded my childhood.

I obtained most of my knowledge about the war from my parents' and grandparents' first hand accounts of the events and their experiences. My father in particular was very keen that my sisters and I should know all about it and on almost every weekend lunchtime throughout my childhood, we were regaled with stories about the war.

Thank you Francis. I think I need to find my notes and go through and check out they match the facts just in case. To be fair she was young it’s just all the lies she had told about people became apparent when going through her files when she was in a nursing home and it’s a bit like having a rug pulled out from under you, I feel I need to check most things now.

Wise words Francis

When I was a child there was a program called I think The World at War’ it was on early evening and was very graphic including footage from the concentration camps, parents would get worked up if their kids saw this now. But it gave us a good understanding of WW11.

My father lived somewhere occupied by the Germans with his family and we were told all the stories.

That would be those parts of Poland previously ceded as a result of this decision in 1920

Disingenuous. Outside of any legal agreement it was a land grab in concert with Nazi Germany, pure and simple.

We might also mention the rampant antisemitism unleashed in Poland subsequent to the Nazi invasion.

I was brought up listening to stories of the older folk in my town and parents etc who had lived through the war, witnessed it first hand.
There is hardly anyone left to tell younger generations, they need to be taught the same as we were.
I was adamant I would educate my dc but it isn't easy to do in comparison to my upbringing.
Through Primary school every summer holiday we would have a world war 2 week and live as closely as we could.
We even had an old Anderson shelter at the bottom of our garden, left by the last occupants.
Ignorance is there so it's up to us to educate our children.
It is also Roma month, please look at The Holocaust for this group. and of course the rest of the persecution throughout history as well as Roma contribution to WW2

I grew up with stories of ww2 from my grandparents as my Nan was a land girl and my grandfather was a fighter pilot. He’s still alive and was involved in Dday and flew sorties every day for the whole of June 1944 and beyond. He wrote a book and I’ve just read the Dday chapter again.

It’s a period of history I’m so interested in and I’m always buying books/novels. With my grandfather still with us it feels relatively recent history to me.

I forgot about Anderson shelters! We had one when we moved into our house in the early 2000s!

I'm in my mid-60s. When I was a child, the TV programme "All Our Yesterdays" ran from the mid-60s, it was on every week and dealt with events leading up to and including 2WW. Later "World at War" ran in the 70s.

I can't pretend to know how balanced it was, but it gave a good idea of the politics, everyday life, rationing, the big battles. No punches were pulled about the concentration camps.

Much later in the 80s "Shoah" was shown on TV. I'm guessing it was a generational thing. When I look at my bookshelves, I have lots of books about the wars.