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?

It’s the last time our society was important, hard working, respectable, disciplined, self sacrificing and decent. Now we have covidiots failing to respect social distancing and selfishly having street parties in the middle of a lockdown.

Because we haven't really done anything since.

user1486131602

Well, I learn something new every day. The British 'defeated' Germany. Ok, then . . .

My nan was born in 1902 and has been gone 40 years now but hated Remembrance Day with a passion. We were fortunate enough not to have lost any relatives but she would always say 'why would we want to remember it? Living through it was absolutely terrible'.

For me it’s about never forgetting and remembering the history and learning from it. Celebrating the belief it’ll never happen again.

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.
I'm actually getting bored now by all the wide-eyed innocent 'i just don't understand why.. insert random thinly veiled xenophobic if about any other country... Brits/British think/do'.... yawnsome

“We stood alone against most of the world to defeat Germany.”
What? You really are ignorant. Oh dear.
It’s a good thing to remember and think of the people who sacrificed their lives, but the problem is it does become a nationalist thing. Other countries who suffered equally or more don’t “obsess” with it as much as people do here. It’s a time of contemplation and remembrance, but less ostensible than it is in the UK.

Because of the people who sacrificed their time and lives to safeguard the free country in which we live.
Because of all the children who were sent away from their families on trains to be kept safe, with parents not knowing if they'd see them again.
Because of all the wives who waved their husbands off to war and woke up every day wondering if they were alive.
Because of the boys who were barely men, fighting on the frontlines.
Because of a time where millions of people came together and fighted for the greater good.
Because of the elderly people who recall terrifying stories that younger generations just can't comprehend.
Because after all of that terror, people had to mourn their dead, rebuild our country, and look back on the fact that our soldiers played a big part in saving many lives.

If you don't get that...I just can't understand.

It had a massive impact on our country, the people who lived through it and the world. I'm really sad that I now know few people who are alive who lived through WW2.

I hate the street parties though and the way it is taught in schools. Evacuation was taught as being an adventure and rationing being a good thing when it actually miserable.

My granny was a teen during ww2 and absolutely loves that we still see the importance of such a significant event.

@onemorecupofcoffeefortheroad yes, I would want my children to know about significant historical events. I lived in Eastern Europe under communism and saw the fall of the Berlin Wall and the impact this had on people’s lives.

We didn’t “stand alone against most of the world”.

We had troops from the Empire to call upon, plus Czech and Polish fighting alongside us.

I don't think "we" do. Some British people do, but not the majority. Lots of people didn't do anything today, others took a short time out to commemorate the sadness of the war.

My grandparents hated people bringing up the war, they just wanted to forget. I don't know anyone who thinks it was a good time for us. You will get the odd person who obsess over the Dunkirk evacuation. or fighter planes or whatever, but that hardly characterises an entire nation of people.

We did not stand alone against most of the world. We won it with the help of many nationalities who also risked their lives. As an island we had the advantage of not being invaded (although they tried) and then subjected to years of cruel inhumane occupation. Our experience was differerent and probably explains our ambivalence towards the EU.
Fwiw ex partners dad was a desert rat and then at the d-day landings. He never spoke about it due to the horrendous things he witnessed and he undoubtedly died before his time because of it.

I mean l agree with the statement of 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.!!

We talked about the Berlin Wall today while having our tea party - it’s good to have focus and an opportunity to teach it, all parts. We’ve just watched boy in the striped pyjamas with dd1.

I agree. I have been uncomfortable with some of the images I have seen of celebrations, especially in the wider political context which is seeing the English become more nationalistic and divorced from Europe (ie: the opposite of the immediate post war sentiment).

I absolutely believe that the war should be remembered, that it's end should be commemorated, those who died or were injured should be honoured, and the horrors of the conflict should be remembered. But stringing up bunting and eating cucumber sandwiches and Victoria sponge cake while listening to Vera Lynn is a twee rendition of celebrations that meant something at the time (to people who endured nearly 6 years of war).

I would rather just remember without all the fuss.

1. Commemorating the day when peace in Europe came after six long years of hell is not 'glorifying' it.
2. Other European countries also commemorate the same date, e.g. France.
3. Article on BBC new website today about Berlin starting to mark 8th May as being the date of liberation from Nazis. Greens and the left are in favour of it being a national holiday in Germany, the far right are against it.

But all of this “celebration”, just seems wrong to me. It seems nationalistic and insular.

Agree. We don't do this for WW1.

My grandparents (all long dead now) were young adults or teenagers during WWII, and all actively involved except my dad's mum, who was still at home.

Aged 10, I had to do a school project on the war, for the 50th anniversary of VE day. We were asked to talk to them and record what they said. It stayed with me.

My dad's dad, who was then very ill and in a home, said very little and was upset, and then said very passionately that he didn't want to hear people playing Vera Lynn, because 'it was alright at the time but I don't want to remember it'.

My mum's parents, who were then slightly younger, talked to me about what they did and how it was, but they were quite awkward about it. My granny 'only' did what women got to do. My grandpa worked the radar - he failed the tests for active service and he lost friends. They both said very little about this, but I know from clearing out my granny's house that they had lost a lot of people they loved.

I don't think any of them imagined that VE day would have been turned into such a horrible, jingoistic exercise. They were all sure that it wasn't about fighting 'Germany' but about fighting a country that had killed millions of its own people in death camps.

'We' didn't stand alone against the world, wtf kind of history did some of you learn in school? The Russians, French, Poles, Indians, Americans, Aussies, Kiwis, Dutch and several colonised African countries fought on the side of the Allies.

@user1486131602

www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/britain-stood-alone-ww2-myths-brexit-debate/

Because it was an enormously traumatic shared experience that lasted years and came hot on the heels of The Great War "the war to end all wars."

Surely it's the celebration of the end of war? Not glorifying it in the least bit. Don't like it. Dont celebrate it.

Lest we forget