To wonder why the Brits are so obsessed with WW2?

[MrsSchadenfreude]

My Mum is 87. She was 12 when the war ended and went through it in London. She remembers being terrified and hungry and getting grief because her grandmother was German. Other elderly relatives don’t have lovely memories either, apart from relief when it was all over. So why do we glorify it all, at every opportunity? Why do we always look back instead of forward?

Well we should learn from the past to have a better future. We don’t. But we should.

Eh?

Doesn’t sound glorious to me. My parents were kids/teens during the war. It sounded terrifying.

Because we came out of it looking good. This isn't the case for an awful lot of our history.

Because it was in some of our family’s living memory
Because it was horrific
Because lessons need to be remembered
Because we have been fortunate enough to not have lived through it ourselves but appreciate and value the sacrifices of those at the time and of those since who have kept us safe
Because it impacted life as we know it today
Because it is seen as good overcoming evil through working together

And to quote my grandad.... because.

(Collective memory is a really interesting part of historical studies though)

It's not the war that's being glorified, it's the people who sacrificed their time, effort, health, money and lives to try to bring lasting peace for others.

It's not the war that's being glorified, it's the people who sacrificed their time, effort, health, money and lives to try to bring lasting peace for others.

This.

It’s not the war itself that’s being celebrated, it’s surviving / the end of the war. I would have thought that was obvious.

Wow. Just wow.

I've seen French, Dutch, Norwegians, Swedes all posting about the end of the war over the last 2 days.

have you asked your mum this op... ?

You see what the Russians think about it.

I wouldn't say that it's glorified, and the darker side of it has been talked about more in recent times and brushed under the carpet less.

It is important to remember over 6 years of devestation that affected the lives of pretty much everyone in the UK. More so on the home front than WW1. Britain is fortunate that in the last few hundred years there had been little conflict carried out on this island otherwise. Other wars in our history were geographically more remote apart from the Civil War since the Tudors came to the throne.

As a nation we need to remember the costs and sacrifices of conflicts and while methods of war have changed European nations still have a stronger appetite to maintain peace in the face of difference than to settle it with conflict.

Because More than one million British military personnel died during the 1st & First 2nd World Wars.

Nearly 70,000 British civilians also lost their lives, the great majority during the Second World War.

Do you think we should just forget these people and their sacrifice?

I don’t.

Because it was the catalyst for a new society in Britain that we have all benefitted from; the Education Act, the National Health, the welfare state.

People didn't go through all that to go back to the unfairness of the inter-war years. We think there's a divide in society now? It's nothing to how it was in the 20s and 30s with the General Strike, Jarrow Crusade etc.

We walked around my mums home town when I was young. She pointed to where she remembered a bomb landing. It,s still in living memory. I don,t feal comfortable with all the vE celebrations but at the same time it might be an opportunity for poeple to learn history. I also know someone who still (well up 10 years ago at least.) had an Anderson shelter in their garden. A lady recently found a bomb in her garden.

No one is glorifying anything. Nor are we particularly obsessed with WW2 - we also remember WW1 pretty frequently, as well as other smaller conflicts and earlier wars.

We do, however, quite rightly, want to remember those who gave up so much, including their lives, and make sure we avoid as far as possible the same things happening again. It is still a good thing that Hitler's vision of a Nazi Europe was prevented and we still enjoy the benefits that came from the successful end to WW2. That is still something worth remembering and celebrating.

I agree OP.

It should be remembered but not glorified. Singing Vera Lynn songs, dressing up, street parties etc it is all a bit tasteless in my opinion.

Everyone seems to want to remember it as a time of 'bulldog spirit', national pride and white cliffs, not for the unimaginable horror it was.

@CyberNan - yes I have. She thinks we should have stopped “all the hoohaa” as she puts it, after 50 years. I know other nations are celebrating (I live in Europe, and they’re not here, due, I imagine, to an “interesting” role they played), but it seems quite an obsession with the Brits.

I don't think it's glorified. The end result is celebrated.

Do Americans go on about it to the same extent? Genuinely curious! They're really the ones that won it, aren't they?

My dad was in the war, he hardly spoke of his experiences, it upset him too much. Mum was 14 when the street behind her was obliterated by bombs.
It sounds utterly terrifying.

I know what you mean op, but we have to listen to history to hope it isn't t ever repeated.

Because we won.
We stood alone against most of the world to defeat Germany.
A massive point of national Pride.
Something we remain grateful for