Netflix, WWII and Holocaust documentaries
My grandfather was in WWII, fought in the Battle Of The Bulge and was MIA for a week during that battle. Listening to the few stories he would tell I gained an interest in WWII, during school I read a lot of books, watched a ton of movies and documentaries trying to learn as much as I could.
Today, the internet has helped fuel my curiosity of this war and bow with Netflix the documentaries are never ending.
Having watched just about every series and documentary Netflix has had I?m now watching one called Einsatzgruppen, The Nazi Death Squads. This show is one of the few that has driven me to tears. While most of this show is in German and Russian there is text to follow along with. One particular man being interviewed was a gunner, a Lithuanian man who gunned down Jews under orders of the Germans. His description of how children and babies were shot caused me to grab my iPad and toss it across the truck and break down bawling. Oh my God, I would die a thousand deaths before I could do such a thing.
Anyone else here watching this show or others like it? I?ve been hooked on this war for 40 years and even though sole shows are horrifying I can?t stop watching and learning.
Today, the internet has helped fuel my curiosity of this war and bow with Netflix the documentaries are never ending.
Having watched just about every series and documentary Netflix has had I?m now watching one called Einsatzgruppen, The Nazi Death Squads. This show is one of the few that has driven me to tears. While most of this show is in German and Russian there is text to follow along with. One particular man being interviewed was a gunner, a Lithuanian man who gunned down Jews under orders of the Germans. His description of how children and babies were shot caused me to grab my iPad and toss it across the truck and break down bawling. Oh my God, I would die a thousand deaths before I could do such a thing.
Anyone else here watching this show or others like it? I?ve been hooked on this war for 40 years and even though sole shows are horrifying I can?t stop watching and learning.
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There is no limit to the horrors of war and the wanton killing in every manner imaginable.
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Like you I have a big interest in WWII history. I was watching a documentary of a division of the Waffan SS that was stationed in southern France.
They were called up to Normandy for the invasion. On their way from southern France to Normandy every town they went through they killed all of the towns people and destroyed the town,
After the war none of the officers were ever convicted and sentenced to death. Most moved back to Germany and just lived a normal life.
I cannot understand how no one can be convicted of anything when committing atrocities like I saw in the documentary.0 -
I am watching the Docuseries on the evolution of tanks. 0 -
I was friends with an old Waffen SS soldier (paratrooper) for forty years. And no I didn't buy into around 30-40% of his politics. We did have more in common than you'd think. We were both professional soldiers and shared many of the same experiences in the military.
Until he died he was shocked, outraged and bitter about the French. In his mind, it was like your best friend stabbing you in the back. He was convinced the Germans were loved and respected by the French. Take a look at Vichy France in your studies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vichy_France
He told me how German POW's died by the thousands (supposedly 50,000 in one location). I expected him to be bitter and hateful about it but he wasn't, he said nobody had enough to eat at the end of the war, Allies or Axis.
What really got me was talking to some of the women who spent time under Russian occupation. The Russians sent all of the men into the forest to cut timber, then took all of the infants and children to young to work and threw them in the river.
The winners always get to (re) write history.
My Dad told me a story about the occupation of Germany after the war. He was Commander of a detachment in a small town. Some of the locals were taking potshots at his troops. He rounded up the whole town outside of the town Church and had a tank blow a hole through the wall of the Church. And said the next time somebody took a shot at one of his soldiers, he would repeat the demonstration but this time you all would be in the Church. I went to that Church and you can still see the patch in the sandstone wall.0 -
Had a good friend, now passed away. In WW 2 he was a medic. He was present for the liberation of one of the concentration camps. He, with his wife, were semi-retired, ran a small used book shop.
It got REAL interesting one afternoon. Motor mouth type was in the shop, started lecturing about how the Holocaust was a fraud, never happened, etc. I was privileged to be present when that took place. Epic. Truly epic. Seems that my friend had a 35mm camera back then, And still had the pictures that HE had taken.0 -
The Germans were SAINTS compared to the Japanese. Proof is in American POW casualties.. 10% died in German camps. 50% in Japanese camps..
Was it Patton who said, "War is Hell''? l worked on building an lncenerator to burn chemical weapons in Aniston Al some years back.. Most of those to be burned were left over from WWII made just for Japan BEFORE the lnvasion of the Home lslands.. Pres Truman was prepared to ''Erase The Japanese People as A Culture'' rather than sacrifice MILLIONS of American Lives. l heard a recording of him saying that awhile back... Read Bill 0riley's book ''Killing The Rising Sun''.. War has ALWAYS been HELL. Having spent 67 to 93 with our Army and Navy l can say we are quite capable of dealing with most any ENEMY.. Esp 2003-2004 while in lraq/Afghanistan...ln WAR its always been easy to tell the good guys from the BAD guys... Good guys WON.. Bad guys LOST
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There's a thread running on the CalGuns forum that started with a 1917 S&W being purchased from a pawn shop, with the previous owners name engraved on the backstrap. A couple of the members dug up his service history, and his name on the forum led his daughter there with a Google search. She filled in the rest of his history. He was the guy that got 16mm footage of the rape of Nanking, and smuggled it out. It was the prime piece of evidence in the prosecution of Japanese officers. Some of that film has been aired, and like fatcat said, the Germans were saints in comparison.
Most of my interest in WWII has been in the German/Russian conflict. The Germans were extremely brutal as they rolled into Russia. The Russians didn't forget that on their way into Berlin, and showed no mercy on military or civilians.0 -
My dad served in the USN, fighting in the south pacific 1941-45. He took his hate for the Japanese people to the grave with him. Never got over it, as he saw way more atrocities first hand than he could ever speak about, and never did.
As for those on any side of that great war, who seem to have gotten away with all of their mis-deeds.
Most have stood in the presence of The Almighty by now and have been "sorted out"0 -
REAL truckers read books. :twisted:
There are a ton of great history books on almost every aspect of WWII.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, The Bridge at Remagen, and The Monuments Men are among my favorites. A guy can find them used at Amazon pretty cheap.0 -
Granddad, dad and I (1972-2002 reserves) all served but none of us went overseas and I find military history very interesting.
I just listened to "Flyboys," the book about some pilots during the Pacific War.
I highly recommend it for the serious student of WWII. It is not "family safe" -- LOML made me change books -- but it does give a fascinating view into the "Spirit Warrior" culture that determined much of Japanese strategy and doctrine, including the treatment of prisoners.
It shows very clearly why an invasion of the homeland would have been a horrific process for both sides.
W.E.B. Griffin's WWII series "Brotherhood of War" and "The Corps" also have a lot of information about prisoners and atrocities but they are part of the story.
We need to study our history better; I fear it is being revisited.0
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