Am I overreacting or is that outrageous?

[Terrysnotmine]

In a shop near me

But isn't that the MN olympic sport, who can find the most to be outraged by today?

Not sure who it is these days but, according to an excellent History teacher, in the 80s/90s whatever conflict was being taught the baddie was always Saddam Hussein, prior to this it was always Hitler, Waterloo, Trafalgar etc etc.

Silk purses and sows' ears spring to mind.

Nothing outrageous here, I wouldn't want to touch a dirty, stinking Nazi either.

Maybe stick a sign on the door saying 'Beware nazis inside this shop?'

Which bit was the joke that might cause offence though?

I must admit I chuckled when I read Max Hastings being cited on MN as an impeccable source of anything!

They probably don't want their stuff/diorama smashed up or no longer representing the scene it was meant to represent. Not unreasonable.

We can't see the rest of the scene in the photo but I assume there is an Allied force of some sort on the other side fighting the Germans/Nazis.

As the note focuses just on the German soldiers it seems as though the customers have been moving just those figures about - perhaps setting them up in hilarious/rude poses with their little Heil Hitler arms. British people fighting Hitler with humour since 1938.

www.bbc.com/culture/article/20190829-how-britain-fought-hitler-with-humour

It's fine. It's irreverent but only in the same way as many jokes about the second world war are. It isn't glorifying Nazism or anything.

@Alexandernevermind

FFS, stop trying to be offended.

Where in my question to you am I “trying to be offended”? I’ll repeat it as you didn’t answer:

Why are Eastern Europeans (who suffered far more than the British under the Nazi regime, with invasion, occupation, ghettos, Holocaust transports) more likely to find the word “Nazi” for a general German WW2 soldier offensive?

I’m not offended - I’m asking you why you think Eastern European would be more offended that Britons by the sign in the OP’s photo?

I'll play along. Sooo, it isn't the word Nazi, it the joke that MAY cause upset is what I meant, as you well know.

No, I don’t know. Genuinely have no idea what the joke is? Seriously - is it a pop culture reference that’s gone over my head? All I see is a sign saying not to touch the Nazi’s (sic). What joke?

And to answer your other question to me no, of course I don't speak for the Eastern European community

🤷🏻‍♀️ That question wasn’t from me!

I don’t understand op what do you mean the shop is not very politically correct, are you actually trying to say nazis cannot be called nazis any more? That’s an extreme level of un believable . If they are model nazi soldiers it is acceptable to call such.

@JustWork thanks for indulging my grammar diversion 🤣

So, it’s historical (if I may use that word!).
In the 18th & 19th centuries, where an “h” wasn’t sounded or wasn’t stressed it was common to use an instead of a.

Take the word “history”. The stress is on the first syllable, so the h is clearly sounded, “A History of the Second World War”.

But if you say historical or historian, the stress is on the second syllable his-TOR-ian.

Even though the h is sounded, it was just the form at the time to say “an historian” (or other unstressed h word). You can hear why if you say “an history an historian” - the first feels clunky but the second doesn’t - even if it feels wrong to you, it won’t feel as clunky.

The practice has been dying out, but Fowler’s Modern English Usage (bit of a Bible on these things!) says both are acceptable and both are in use.

The Nazis are all dead so... surely that's not too dreadful..? It's clearly not celebrating them.
You are definitely being utterly ridiculous and totally U.

presumably you can reposition the allied forces...

The Nazis are all dead on the display 😂

@Testina thats very interesting, thank you!

lol at being offended by model figures painted as Nazis being called Nazis. People are weird!

I thought most war history generally agrees that the Nazis lost the war rather than anyone else won it as such. If Hitler hadn’t been so paranoid and listened to Rommel things would have gone differently, and if he hadn’t attacked the USSR dramatically differently. I think most of the allies can say they were committed to stopping the Nazis globally, where as the soviets only fought at home (and the bits they stole during this period of course) - but there’s no denying that they - and winter - killed more Nazis than everyone else.

The Natzis do all appear to be flat on the floor dead, so no issues there.

That apostrophe though. That bothers me.

Where is anyone saying the Soviet losses and contribution was "irrelevant" @HuggsBosom? Literally nobody has. Conversely you have said that the efforts / contributions of the other Allies was irrelevant and had no effect on the outcome of the war which was won solely by the Soviets.

The not being able to edit and remove the accidental "t" from Nazis, in my last post, also bothers me. 🙈

Believe it or not The Nazis (Hitler & cronies) were not actually called 'The Nazis' in the Ww2 German Reich.
In fact Hitler thought the shortened term 'Nazi' was an offensive term for himself and his party.
The only people who used the word 'Nazi' were Hitlers' enemies.

Let’s face it, nowadays everyone seems to be “outraged” or “offended” by something.

It’s just a joke - there are model Nazi soldiers and they don’t want people to touch them?

Total over-reaction. People are constantly looking to take offence and be outraged.

I like it with the t. It means you can spit the word out 😂

@HuggsBosom The Soviet Union casualties were not all 'Russians'. Large numbers were Ukrainians, Belarusians and other Soviet nationalities.

Soviet casualties were also increased by the callous tactics of their generals - not unlike the way the Russian army is suffering massive casualties in Ukraine today, forcing poorly trained and equipped soldiers into futile repeated attacks.

The Soviet war effort was also supported to a massive extent by supplies from the west, while the Germans were starved by the Atlantic blockade.

It should also be remembered that the Soviet Union jointly started the war by attacking Poland in 1939.