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There are a great many children's historic novels about WWII, many written by authors who were children themselves during the war. Judith Kerr's "When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit"comes to mind, about a small Jewish child who is evacuated out of her country, inadvertently leaving her beloved pink bunny behind (lots more to it than that, just explaining the title). There are books about the Kristallnacht, about young Londoners being sent to the countryside for safety during the Blitz, books about kids' involvement in the resistance (Marie McSwiggan's "The Snow Treasure" comes to mind), and many, many more - fiction, yes, but highly realistic fiction about how wartime was perceived and experienced by children.
It's important for today's children to learn about WWII, and historic fiction can be a good introduction.
I learned in elementary school in the midwest, with the diary of Anne Frank as required reading, as did my children in school in the south, along with Elie Wiesel's book NIGHT. It was also a part of world history classes in middle/high school.
As far as I know these books are still a part of the reading requirements at many schools, and world history still covers these topics in HS classes.
And it sounds as though you are roughly my age so maybe you heard about the documentary series The World at War, a very graphic and horrifying account of WWII that ran on TV for months in the early 70's?
I fail to see how one could manage to get through the typical US high school and not understand how horrific these things were.
I bet if that kid wore a Stalin uniform nobody would think anything of it. Even though Stalin was as bad as Hitler. He killed millions also
Thank you for bring this up. I hear people all time idolize Julius, Bonaparte, and some others and then criticize Hitler, I just give them the stupidest looks. Just like politics, people only want to hear or learn what they want so support their views. Common knowledge of history today is no better off than the middle ages.
I did say US schools, but even so one would pretty much need to have lived under a rock to not realize that some things are simply not acceptable here and now. Using the 'n' word, making fun of developmentally challenged individuals, glorifying nazis?
I did say US schools, but even so one would pretty much need to have lived under a rock to not realize that some things are simply not acceptable here and now. Using the 'n' word, making fun of developmentally challenged individuals, glorifying nazis?
You made a reference to:
"And it sounds as though you are roughly my age so maybe you heard about the documentary series The World at War, a very graphic and horrifying account of WWII that ran on TV for months in the early 70's?"
By being overseas, I never saw that. When I was overseas, the English speaking TV was on for only a few hours of broadcast each day. It's not that it signed off at midnight after a day of broadcast but rather that it was on for 2-3 hours in the morning and 2-3 hours in the evening. In one hemisphere, we didn't even have a morning segment of broadcasting and not only that, but it was subject to heavy censorship. I think most of our night movies came from the 30's and 40's since those would satisfy the decency standards of the host country.
I bet if that kid wore a Stalin uniform nobody would think anything of it. Even though Stalin was as bad as Hitler. He killed millions also
This is true. People really don't know how evil Stalin was, he easily equaled Hitler in evilness and really they say he killed more. However our nation was allied with him in WW2 so our government did not present him as an evil in the propaganda of the day. Instead he was "Uncle Joe", when in reality he was "bloody Joe". We should not forget that he murdered millions of Soviet citizens, and he had intended to work with Hitler and divide up Poland between Germany and The Soviet Union. The only reason we ended up in an alliance with the Soviets is because Hilter double crossed Stalin and invaded the Soviet Union.
For some reason we see Hitler as more evil, and those who display Nazi symbols are somehow more offensive than those who display Soviet symbols. Obviously later Soviet leaders were no where near as bad as Stalin, even if they were our enemies, and that may play into this as well. Our only example of a Nazi leader is the uber evil Hitler. We have many examples of post Stalin area Soviet leaders such as Kruschtov, Bresnev, Andropov and Gorbechov. I know I butchered those Russian names but you get the point, they just are not in the same league as Stalin. When it comes to Hitler and Stalin however, I believe they are both equally monsterous.
What differentiates Hitler from garden variety conquerors like Napoleon, or Alexander, is that he tried to actually exterminate a group of people based on their race, or ethnicity. This was not a case of him overrunning an enemy nation, and trying to wipe out the population in order to eliminate a threat (not good, but those things have happened in warfare). He targeted a group that lived in his country, and tried to wipe them out, based on their ethnicity, because he viewed them as lesser beings. Stalin was horrible, but his atrocities were typical of dictators who want to preserve their power, he just did it on a scale heretofore unseen. Both were monsters, but the fact that Hitler targeted members of a group with whom most westerners are familiar, makes his actions hit home a bit more. Pol Pot was probably as bad as Stalin, but because Stalin ruled one of the world's largest countries, the impact was much greater.
Nevertheless, when does one start reading such books? How many children these days read?
Further, when does one start to understand the horrors of such events, that they were really bad things?
In 7th and 8th grade, one of my "favorite" books in the library was an Amnesty International report on torture in Greece. Given a constant stream of Roger Corman flicks on TV and a certain encouragement to be blood thirsty, I could not appreciate that what I was readying was bad.
When does one start to learn about such things and when does one start to learn that they are indeed horrors?
When one, usually about 5th grade reads "The diary of Ann Frank" one learns quite a bit about the horror that was Hitler. Of course, if it's not on video or in a game the kidlets nowadays might not know about it.
Of course those of us who had relatives killed by that regime or have LIVING relatives with number tattoos learn at an early age what the deal was.
EPIC fail on the end of the school, I for one would love to have a "talk" with the "supposed" parents of this kid.
I agree. The Wehrmacht always looked very sharp, and the Schutzstaffel dressed to the nine's, all the way down to the cuff-links.
The Gestapo uniforms where copied from the Massachusetts State Police when the designer saw them on a trip to America.
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