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?

We don't celebrate VE day here. We celebrate today which is liberation day

The day the Channel Islands were liberated from German occupation. The only part of the British Isles to be occupied during World War 2

In my personal experience it isn’t only the British who celebrate the end of WW2 with bunting and parties.
I live in France and there is bunting around my small town and flags (French obviously). I’ve been to street parties in other years celebrated in exactly the same way as the UK with people dressed up, cars from the era and dancing.

Did anyone watch the film about that last Saturday

Literary Potato peel pie society

Or similar

@AnnaMaria14
That doesn’t make it true. Most French seem to think the French liberated occupied France. In fact De Gaulle was given the honour of liberating Paris. Doesn’t mean he and his troops did so...

I felt like it was all s big tasteless too. I can't see how it's something to celebrate. Remembering and honouring is important but I'm not sure about the parties. It must have been terrible for the loved ones of the men that died to see dancing in the street and parties when their sons and husband's weren't coming home. My Nan always talked about the boys in her street that went whistling off up the street to war and didn't come back. I think Remembrance Sunday and wearing the poppies is more respectful. And all those poor children that were evacuated and put into the hands of abusers and come back damaged.

A few pages back someone talked about the Russians fighting for their own reasons. I think that goes for most sides. I think the Americans leadership knew that they had the chance to stick it to the British Empire.

Because we owe all the people who came together to fight for peace and freedom so much. We should honour and remember them. As a Jew I feel particularly thankful. Celebrations are not to glorify and obsess about war. They’re to be grateful and thankful to the collective effort of that generation.

I do think that there seems to be much remembering of the famous 'battles' of WW2 (probably due to the well known films being shown regularly) without much thought about what led to it and what happened to people both under Nazi occupation and to the people of Germany themselves who tried to resist.

I also have absolutely no doubt that some of the people who were taking part in street parties yesterday are some of the same people who complain about refugees fleeing war zones, who have no issue with demonising others and who would be behind far right parties if they ever came to power here.

The day the Channel Islands were liberated from German occupation. The only part of the British Isles to be occupied during World War 2

Don’t mention (“glorify”) uncomfortable historic events in which innocent people (on both sides, all sides) were slaughtered and sent to concentration camps (less so). OP wants us to drop the whole subject, because having relatives on both sides is making her uncomfortable. Which is now your problem. Apparently.

I hadn't realised until I read a link on this thread yesterday, that even the little ships of Dunkirk is part of the mythology - in fact 70% of the troops were lifted off by regular ships from something called the east mole - like a jetty - which the Luftwaffe hadn't bombed.

Doesn’t mean he and his troops did so

Free French troops played a role though.

OP wants us to drop the whole subject, because having relatives on both sides is making her uncomfortable. Which is now your problem. Apparently

That is clearly not what the OP is saying.

Although indisputably the Allies won the war as a collective effort, could the Nazis have been defeated without US involvement? Certainly Churchill was very keen to have the US on board. Probably the USSR would have swung it, but then the Iron Curtain might have ended up on the Atlantic coast.

I believe this is what people are talking about when they say the USA "won the war for us".

In geopolitical terms the USA and the USSR were the "winners" of WWII as no other great powers were left standing.

that even the little ships of Dunkirk is part of the mythology - in fact 70% of the troops were lifted off by regular ships from something called the east mole

Yup, and those little ships that were used were generally requisition and manned by members of the armed forces/fisherman (ie fishermen for a living not leisure). not by plucky citizens taking their own boats out.

I think there is a bit of 'not moving on' about it.

@ArriettyJones I didn’t have relatives on both sides - not that I know of. My great grandparents came to the UK from Germany as refugees.

OP wants us to drop the whole subject, because having relatives on both sides is making her uncomfortable. Which is now your problem. Apparently

Nope, if you read her posts over the first few pages, OP does think we should remember and commemorate the WW2.

Those of us who have queries 'celebrating' have not suggested dropping the whole subject and have generally agreed that remembering and honouring is important.

The difference between end of WW2 (dress up, get out bunting, have a street party) and WW1 (memorial wreaths, poppies) is huge. As I have said before I personally do not feel i want to have a street party in 'celebration' when I have not experienced the horrors of the war that led to people desperately wanting to celebrate, I would much rather 'commemorate' and honour them in a way.

(And let us not forget that VE day was only the end of the war in Europe. For those in the Far East/ with families serving there WW2 was not over at this point)

It’s not celebrated every year in this way. It’s 75 years and by the time we get to 80 years the last remaining veterans will probably not be here so I am proud to mark the occasion and thank them for their sacrifices.

WWII marked the end of the British Empire. We're still stuck as a nation in that moment and unsure what we mean on the international stage now.

It's a national trauma that we had this apparently glorious victory and from then on subjugated nations claimed independence from us, we lost influence internationally.

We'll never move on until we process our imperial history and accept that horrendous things have been done by the British. WWII nostalgia is just a smokescreen trying to cover up that painful history.

WWII should be remembered, but not as our finest hour etc. We are no better than people in other nations. The lesson of WWII is that all people should be treated with humanity, not that the British are somehow better than Germans, Italians etc. The popular idea of the war is exactly opposite to the lesson we need to learn.

As I have said before I personally do not feel i want to have a street party in 'celebration' when I have not experienced the horrors of the war that led to people desperately wanting to celebrate, I would much rather 'commemorate' and honour them in a wa

I agree.

That is clearly not what the OP is saying.

TBF, OP is using tabloidese like “glorify” and “obsessed” and misrepresenting a memorial holiday as a celebration, and suggesting we al desist from remembering an enormous and wide-ranging tragedy. Because her grandmother says so.

There are plenty of learned, balanced, NUA aced and highly detailed academic accounts of various aspects of World War 2, as well as very accessible overview accounts of the entire conflict, and the aftermath l. I wish more people would read one or two instead of leaping to the two extremes.

We are becoming a nation of meme-believers who take our information from FB.

My grandfathers fought and survived luckily but my family was hugely impacted. My DF didn’t see his DF from age 0-5. They lived in central London, slept on tube platforms.I will toast them all and not feel ashamed about doing so.

*The popular idea of the war is exactly opposite to the lesson we need to learn."

My grandparents would have been horrified by the fact that there are people who have suggested that 'we stood alone' and ignored the commonwealth and allies (both the unoccupied allies and those who refugees/resistance were fighting).

They would also have been horrified that a rose tinted view of war time spirit got hijacked for the politics of Brexit (the whole we got through the Blitz, we can cope with a no deal Brexit).

They campaigned passionately for joining the common market, and for pacifist causes.

The UK has caused terrible, terrible pain, huge suffering and huge deaths in many parts of the world.

That is why I feel, why do we have the right to celebrate winning one war? Does it wipe out all the terrible things that we did as a nation.

No it doesn't

@ArriettyJones if you must quote or paraphrase me, please do so accurately.