how is WW2 taught in Europe

Here in Canada we are taught the truth, the way it really happened. We learn about all the battle that Canada was involved in and how Canada actually had the worst beach to attack on "D-Day" that being Juno. The Yanks get the Hollywood version but it was the Canadians that got the most fatalities. Canada played the most role in WW2 with the exception of Britain. USA didn't get involved until 42' but Canada was along side Britain right from the beginning in 38-39. USA never would have got truly involved if Japan never invaded Pear Harbor. This is fact and it is history. If the Americans are too ashamed of this, well that is too bad. It is what happened and Hollywood will never be able to change this!

I have been studying world war history ever since I was a kid. It was my favorite even in high school..

 

Well Finland was in very tough tight spot, it did not have a real good choice, either allow Soviets to roll in and get ready for German invasion (thus giving up on the idea of independent Finland) or join the Germans.

What would you do if you were a Finn, join somebody who you got independence from several years ago or a friend nation who's about to attack the nation you got your independence from.

And don't say neither because if Finland chose neither, they'd get crushed by both.

 

Canada, was there from the start, this is known even in the backwaters up here.

//Svein

 

nah Im welsh and we were taught that we (the welsh not english) kicked some pretty heavy ass in both wars. But then throughout the ages we have, nothing like a pitchfork up the chimney to ward off the saxons coming down them

 

"one-sidedness of the war-crimes-court" this is a foolish statement. They where tried for killing people they had already captured after battles and for what they did to prisoners.
"firebombing of Tokyo, carpet-bombing of Dresden, and Nuclear attack on civilian assets"
Nothing wrong with this you have to stop your enemies ability to make war. Once they surrender then they should be treated fairly.
Civilian and solders are the same except one carries a gun the other makes the gun, killing either will win the war. Taking someones ability to make war wins it much faster.
There is no such thing as military targets if you don't wanna die surrender then, people thing war should be clean its not, kill anyone on the other side till its over that's how they are won. If we fought that war like we did in Iraq we could have never beat'n the Axis because they would have made weapons forever and they wouldn't play nice the way you think we should h ave.
Hope you never end up as a countries leader in a war! your people would be doomed!

We only trade with allies during times of war and a blockage is when you have ships around there country not allowing any trade to that country fool get your facts strait.

We had not taking sides so why wouldn't we sell to both?

Ya and every weapon they used was made in the USA, Canada supplied about 5% of the troops for the war and of course without Canada we'd had little to no chance.

 

LOL whatever...nice to see the yanks are still in Hollywood land LOL

 

In Germany, all education on WW2 is based on our guilt and and the consequences that arose out of the war for Germany and the rest of the world.
We learn how Hitler got to power and how he tricked the parliament, his political opponents and the German people to abandon the law so he could do everything he wanted.
Considering the war, in school the focus lies on the war crimes the Wehrmacht did to the population of other countries.
Internal politics is all about driving the jews out of their businesses, homes and later into the Holocaust.
We also learn a lot about resistance of the German people against the Nazis (Sophie Scholl and her brother, Georg Elser, the events of July 22nd 1944 etc.).

In Germany, no one is proud of the war. We are not talking about a lost war here, we learn that we are liberated from the ***** regime by the allies (8th of Mai is "Day of Liberation")

No one talks about the German people or soldiers being victims of the events. We are tought that we were the culprit.

Still today, our blame is pronounced by the German media and German politics in many occasions.

I don't think there is another nation in the world that handles its own history the same drastic way like Germany.

That's also the reason we play the same Call of Duty games as the Americans: We are used to being the Great Evil in history and have obviously no problem in fighting our bad ancestors.

This must sound very unbelievable to people from other countries...

 

Really?

 

And let's not forget, the oil embargo on Japan was placed because of their invasions of Manchuria and China.

 

I am American of German decent my dad always told me great stories of German achievements during the war and I was very proud as a child to be German. when I was in grade school i drew swastika's all over one of my spelling papers and my teacher who was Jewish asked me if I knew what it meant? I said ya it means I'm German she told me told research it some....so I did and lost a little piece of myself. I'm still proud of the inventions they made and they way they fought but feel awful about foolishness of following Hilter and the lack of bravery to stop his rise to power and his crazy idea's to attack and kill other nations people.

 

I don't know why you have to be so angry toward Americans "too ashamed of this.."? huh - ashamed of what exactly?

The real "truth" is that America got a very bad taste from WW1 and in the 30's congress passed laws basically stating we would be neutral in conflicts. Around 1939 when the war started Roosevelt ordered an increase of regular army and national guards - congress also amended laws to allow us to sell munitions to the British and French. Early in 1940 the US gave Britain and France some 50 destroyers and tons of ammunition (albeit it was all from WW1 stock piles)

By early 1941 congress passed new laws allowing the president to give/sell weapons to our allies. You also have to remember that the American people still had a neutral stance (rightly or wrongly) but we still did everything we could to both support and supply our allies.

Of course Pearl Harbor changed everything, the American people were no longer against us getting a lot more involved (for obvious reasons.) But we were involved the whole time doing the best we could given all the factors.

If it weren't for the bast taste after WW1 we probably would have gotten much more involved in WW2 from the start, but as it was it was another war on foreign soil and we didn't want to again get involved.

I agree with very little in regard to our foreign policies and things we do abroad in regard to us being the worlds police force - but it's ironic when we hear other countries complaining that we didn't get involved soon enough in WW2, yet when we try to be more proactive (and not get attacked like at Pearl Harbor) we're considered war mongers and imperialists, etc, etc, etc...

 

I snipped the rest.

Actually, that sounds VERY sad indeed. Especially since kids in Norway learning the difference between a "***** Beast" and a "German kid in uniform", and how there are several histories of German soldiers risking their own life to protect civilian Norwegians (among other things, when the Selma blew up in 1943 in Oslo). That German kids aren't educated that there WERE German war HEROES even in Norwegian (and presumably other countries as well) eyes, makes me really sad. And this is from one who's grandfather spent two years in Sachsenhausen, and even he painted a ... less black-and-white picture of Germans than the "they were animals" line.

//Svein

 

There's a difference between INVADING (Initiating aggression) and helping protect allies from invaders.(fighting the aggressor)

Clearly Americans don't know the difference lol

 

There's more to the story than being foolish. Remember that after WWI, the terms that ended the war sent Germany into a spiral of despair. The ***** party gave Germans back some sense of hope in the future, put unemployed Germans into jobs (among other things, building the foundations of the European motorway system, btw). This gave the ***** party a lot MORE support, for their more insane ideas. You cannot look at the WWII history without understanding that France and England has their share of the blame, for turning Germans into a desperate people, who quite frankly would've followed _ANY_ leader who'd made it possible for them to put food on the table, not matter how bad mustache or sanity.

//Svein

 

Another ignorant statement... Clearly you don't know Americans.

 

Oh relax you baby, that was a reply to a rather silly comment.

Of course not all Americans, but the person I replied to clearly does not know the difference.

 

Yeah pretty clear all right. I think that I know the difference - you replied to my post you silly person. :3eyes:

Like I said I don't agree with most of our policies, but the sense we get from people like you is we're "dammed if we do, dammed if we don't" - you clearly didn't understand the point I made - instead you decided to bring your own meaning to it with an ignorant post - and no I'm not being a baby. You basically made my point anyway. Good-day sir!

 

Belgium: Rational, as is. Mainly focusing on cause and effect and how WW1 indirectly somewhat caused the possibility for WW2 in Germany.

 

lol, you can study history all you want from bad sources, you don't have the plague the forums saying that canada was the major winning factor in WW2. But if you silly northerners are really that indoctrinated i'm sorry.c1:

 

Oh god I love Americans, nice people but not that bright