Kids today won't know anyone from the war

[raindropbox]

Our grandparents or parents were children during the war, and they had stories from their parents or grandparents, who had lived experience of WW1.

So we had a direct connection with somebody with first-hand experience of the world wars. It just occured to me that babies born now won't have that.

Does that mean WW1/2 will feel as distant to them as the victorians do to us? Will it have some kind of subconscious impact on society?

@dressedforcomfort
That's true, and in my own family I still have uncles and aunts who remember this very well. But I think what I mean with WW1/WW2 as opposed to the war in Ukraine now or Syria is that these were wars that affected everyone in the UK in the exact same manner. So it was a collective national experience of war.

Im in my late twenties and my dad was a war baby (1940 - alot older than my mum was) so I grew up hearing snippets of story's (American soldiers handing out Hershey bars to the kids in the street, rationing etc)
I have young DC and my dad has passed now so yes definitely by the next generation it will be. I still find it nuts that if I watch something set in the 40's on TV it feels like ancient history and worlds away from what life is like today, and to think my dad was a child/grandparents lived like that is strange.

I agree it will be second hand from now on, unless you or your recent ancestors come from a current war zone. I think however that it is important to keep the stories going, whether for family history or just awareness.

My mum has talked extensively of her experiences in the Netherlands as a child in WW2. Hopefully my daughters will pass that on to their DC if they have any.

One of my relatives was a rather famous VC holder from WW1.

My DC also heard first hand accounts from holocaust survivors as children and old soldiers used to give talks at the Imperial war museum about their experiences on DDay etc.

One of my DC was convinced from a young age that she was the reincarnation of a child who died in the Blitz!

My BIL’s maternal line comes from Nagasaki, so another perspective for my sister’s DC as well as my own.

My parents are not from the UK and my grandparents weren’t in any wars, nor were my parents.

My only concrete knowledge is when I was 15 two men brother of someone in my class and other the son of the hairdresser were killed in the first Gulf War. They were 17.

@raindropbox while technically there hasn't been a war in the UK since 1945 there has been the The Troubles in Northern Ireland and many acts of terrorism (from the IRA, the Real IRA, Al Qaeda etc) in England.
My childhood of the 1980/90s was full of bomb threats.
The UKs Threat Level is still at a high level.

What are you on about?

I'm 37 and neither my parents or grandparents had fuck all to do with ww2 let alone my kids.

I’m 28 and never met anyone who remembered WW1. My grandparents on one side experienced/fought in WW2 but never spoke about it. Grandparents on the other side were very small children/born during WW2 and didn’t really remember it, that’s the case for DP’s grandparents too.

Well now I feel extremely old. Both my grandfathers fought in WW2 and one of my grandmothers was a land girl. The other one wasn't because she was already married and had had at least one of my aunts. I'm in my late 30s!

My grandma very occasionally spoke about her time flirting with Italian POWs on the back of trucks to work, but neither of my grandfathers ever did. One of them kept a very irregular diary which my dad now has, he followed after the D Day landings and talks about finding dead German soldiers in tanks and later about having to hide behind a wall while his base was being shelled. He moved through areas newly recaptured from the Nazis and may well have seen some very bad things - I'll never know. It was a war and a genocide, people who had no part in any decisions leading to it died for universally stupid reasons, sometimes very horribly - none of it is really material for grandchildren.

I've been thinking about this too. I remember my childhood 70/80s being constant references to the war, particularly on tv and grandparents. Likewise there are adults now who weren't born pre 9/11. Blows your mind really, the passing of time.

I was born pre 9/11 but don’t remember it/wasn’t aware of it happening at the time (I was 6).

I’m 40 and my grandad was in a tank on the D Day landings. I knew about it but it was never spoken of. He found it far too traumatic to tell any stories

My grandpa was at Ypres in WW1. He would only have been 17. He never spoke about it. My mum and dad (who are both dead now) were in their early teens by the end of WW2. They never really spoke about it either and as children I don't think my siblings and I really asked them about it.

I was actually quite horrified the other day when I realised that I was born less than 25 years after the end of WW2. When I think back 25 years it doesn't really seem that long ago.

I don't think we are likely to see those types of wars again. I think the kind of weaponry which exists now makes a war where much of the world is involved for years on end much less likely. I do also think that most people in the west would struggle to understand what a war in their own country would be like. I know that, apart from the Channel Islands, there were no occupying troops on British soil but there were air raids, rationing and blackouts.

To most children the two world wars will just be historical events.

@GeraltsBathtub I was in my late 20s with a 2 year old when 9/11 happened. He says he remembers it as we watched it at my mum's house but I don't think he does, more like a learned/fake memory. As I say, the passing of time eh...

My daughter is 12 and her great grandmother is a very lively and independent 98 year old who actively contributed in the war and lived in an area heavily bombed so she does know and does appreciate

Mil goes on and about the war and being evacuated

I'm an 80s baby, I didn't know anyone in the war. My Grandad who was in the war died when I was tiny. Other grandad was too young . Neither grandparents talked about it.

Does that mean I think war is fine as you're implying today's youths will? No. Not to mention there's enough OTHER wars we've been involved in as a nation not to mention a comprehensive education system.

I was 13 when 9/11 happened and remember my mum just staring at the TV in disbelief.

It was definitely a different world pre 9/11 and after it. In many ways I think 9/11 marked a real change in chapter, especially with it happening at the millennium.

Its ok. There have been plenty other wars since they will know about/be impacted by/meet people who have been. Plus there are books.

My parents (both dead now) were both young adults in the war. My dad was conscripted into the Army, my mum was in the Land Army. They both had a horrible time and didn't speak of it. But neither would have anything to do with Remembrance Day or similar.

My children and grandchildren knew them.

i could be wrong, but yes those wars will be a memory to many but humanity will always have war or need a large military

Babies born now are not the first generation of babies to not know anyone from the war. My children are between the ages of 15 - early 20s, their grandparents where born after the war and they didn't know their great grandparents. You are about 20 years to late to post this, sorry.

My parents, both still alive were children in WWII. My lovely DGM who lived to 100 was born in 1905 and she remembered 'the boys' going off to war, she lost her cousin at Gallipoli.

I'm coming up to 52, and my poppa was 50 when I was born. He trained as a fighter pilot, got sick, and missed being called up, and got most cantankerous when upon his next call up WWII was cancelled.

The war was etched upon that generation, and the next generation's, collective psyche.

My mother (we were in NZ) remembers that rationing continued until the 1950's, as NZ continued to provide food to the Mother Country.

When I was 13, I went to the only movie I ever saw with my parents. It was about the holocaust, and showed the most appalling things about what was done to the Jews, the gays, the intellectuals, those born with mental and physical impairment, the Romany.

My kids know because my parents made sure I knew. Lest We forget.

@Maxus
Yes, babies born today will be the first entire generation not to, who your kids specifically did or didn't know isn't the point

But I think what I mean with WW1/WW2 as opposed to the war in Ukraine now or Syria is that these were wars that affected everyone in the UK in the exact same manner. So it was a collective national experience of war.

@raindropbox But what's the issue in that case? For many even an event as recent as 9/11 have a sense of detachment to its memory.