Don't have a poll option on the site'so just have to ask plainly and hope for Honest replies that unfortunatly won't be Anonymous.
I was wondering what reasons bring people to Feldgrau and their reasons for the interest in the Wehrmacht
I would probably break these down into following reasons'but if there are others'can you advise.
Also if someone does however unlikely state option number 6'please respect their honesty and don't comment on this or the individual.I would prefer an honest poll'rather than one many of us would like to see.
1 Author
2 Academic (Teacher)
3 Academic (Student)
4 General Military/History interest
5 Family Interest KIA/MIA etc etc
6 Right Wing Interest
7 Collector
8 Veteran
I myself am
4) General Military/History interest.
I have taken interest in General History all my life'but am most Knowledgable and interested in this subject.
Thanx for any replies
Reason for your interest in the German Armed Forces in WW2
well,
2...4...7
also, while I was really young, lets say, about 10 years old, I started to get interested in the other side (ie: the germans) because they were always portraited as the "bad" (and stupid") guys. , leaving aside the "holocaust" thing.
regards
Xavier
also, while I was really young, lets say, about 10 years old, I started to get interested in the other side (ie: the germans) because they were always portraited as the "bad" (and stupid") guys. , leaving aside the "holocaust" thing.
regards
Xavier
"Assiduus usus uni rei deditus et ingenium et artem saepe vincit"
Constant practice devoted to one subject often outdues both intelligence and skill:
Cicero
Constant practice devoted to one subject often outdues both intelligence and skill:
Cicero
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charlie don't surf
- Associate
- Posts: 844
- Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2002 3:26 am
- Location: Sweden
Sorry mate, but this is the only way i can explain it.
From the my earliest memories when we used to play war in the playground at school, i always was the one stood on my own wanting to be a German soldier.(five or six years old)
(this also goes for when we played Star Wars. I always played the 'Storm-trooper'!)
When we were at high school and we were being fed all that left wing boloni (like Understandably a 'few million' people 'might' of died in Stalin's five year plans. This had to happen though for such a tremendous industrial surge forward, or the Russian controlled Eastern bloc was nessesary and understandable because of all the times Russia had been invaded from the West, it was mearly a buffer to protect the Russians!), we had to write an essay on Himmlers SS from what we'd learned.
I got home, pulled out my 'Teutonic Knights' by Bruce Quarrie (which i'd swapped for some old hardback footy books an Aunt had left me from a second hand shop) and wrote a four page essay on the origins of SS and the Waffen SS to 1945. It was bloody brilliant (for a 14 yr old!), i wrote down the histories of the SS PNZR divs and THEN i even drew the Division shields. It was pretty informative and even noted atrocities plus herioc actions by the Waffen SS.
I handed it in.
The teacher got in touch with my mum and said that "she didnt think I was 'getting the idea of what they were trying to teach'" The teacher said it all i think!
I worked in the Ship yards a while back with a lad who's Dad (he was an ethnic German) was saved from an Allied run concentration camp after the women and babys were expelld from Yugoslavia in 1945 (his Grandfather, all the men and boys were hearded into a barn by Tito's Partisans and burnt alive), my friend told me the truth of what happened, of the stories my friends Grandmother passed down to him.
My Great Uncle told me what German soldiers said to him when talked to German POW's in Normandy before my Uncle pushed up into the continent and the things he said to me of what he saw.
These main bits (apart from me in primary school!)and then other bits and bats that dont conform at all to the 'Propaganda' (can i say that?) about the second world war has made me want to study as much of the untold story as possible.
That is why i am interested in studying and learning about the Wehrmacht.
Jez.
From the my earliest memories when we used to play war in the playground at school, i always was the one stood on my own wanting to be a German soldier.(five or six years old)
(this also goes for when we played Star Wars. I always played the 'Storm-trooper'!)
When we were at high school and we were being fed all that left wing boloni (like Understandably a 'few million' people 'might' of died in Stalin's five year plans. This had to happen though for such a tremendous industrial surge forward, or the Russian controlled Eastern bloc was nessesary and understandable because of all the times Russia had been invaded from the West, it was mearly a buffer to protect the Russians!), we had to write an essay on Himmlers SS from what we'd learned.
I got home, pulled out my 'Teutonic Knights' by Bruce Quarrie (which i'd swapped for some old hardback footy books an Aunt had left me from a second hand shop) and wrote a four page essay on the origins of SS and the Waffen SS to 1945. It was bloody brilliant (for a 14 yr old!), i wrote down the histories of the SS PNZR divs and THEN i even drew the Division shields. It was pretty informative and even noted atrocities plus herioc actions by the Waffen SS.
I handed it in.
The teacher got in touch with my mum and said that "she didnt think I was 'getting the idea of what they were trying to teach'" The teacher said it all i think!
I worked in the Ship yards a while back with a lad who's Dad (he was an ethnic German) was saved from an Allied run concentration camp after the women and babys were expelld from Yugoslavia in 1945 (his Grandfather, all the men and boys were hearded into a barn by Tito's Partisans and burnt alive), my friend told me the truth of what happened, of the stories my friends Grandmother passed down to him.
My Great Uncle told me what German soldiers said to him when talked to German POW's in Normandy before my Uncle pushed up into the continent and the things he said to me of what he saw.
These main bits (apart from me in primary school!)and then other bits and bats that dont conform at all to the 'Propaganda' (can i say that?) about the second world war has made me want to study as much of the untold story as possible.
That is why i am interested in studying and learning about the Wehrmacht.
Jez.
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Tom Houlihan
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- Contact:
Interest
I'd have to go with 4 and 9, though I'd like to add a subtopic to 9 if I may. Based on my interest in military history in general, and Germany-WWII specifically, I try to spend time playing wargames as well as building models of German armor.
Why interest in the forum
#8. Joscha
PS: I believe that, after 50 years or more, the truth in all aspects has a right to emerge, whether leftist liberals like it or not.
PS: I believe that, after 50 years or more, the truth in all aspects has a right to emerge, whether leftist liberals like it or not.
4/5
My father was killed in WWII, 6 weeks after I was born. My step father was Polish, who never said a bad word about anyone and had respect for my father, who he met whilst a POW in Germany. Stepfather always encouraged me to look past the propaganda and look for the truth.
I think this is a great site, sometimes spoiled by the ratbag element. I have found more truth however in a very short period of time than in many years of listeniing to people who weren't there.
People like Josha make a difference, as do people with open minds.
My father was killed in WWII, 6 weeks after I was born. My step father was Polish, who never said a bad word about anyone and had respect for my father, who he met whilst a POW in Germany. Stepfather always encouraged me to look past the propaganda and look for the truth.
I think this is a great site, sometimes spoiled by the ratbag element. I have found more truth however in a very short period of time than in many years of listeniing to people who weren't there.
People like Josha make a difference, as do people with open minds.
Was haben wir für dich gewollt
Du deutsches Vaterland?
- H Gehr IR 21./17.ID
Du deutsches Vaterland?
- H Gehr IR 21./17.ID
.
Hi Hans
Can i ask some questions if you would'nt mind as thats interesting.
So your father was German'but your Stepfather was Polish and also a prisoner of the Germans'but bore no ill will generally towards the Germans or at least your Real Father? Is that right?
I always thought there was so much hatred between the Poles and Germans'unless your Stepdad was From the Parts of Germany given to Poland after WW1?
Anyway best wishes and i'm glad you had such a Stepdad.
Can i ask some questions if you would'nt mind as thats interesting.
So your father was German'but your Stepfather was Polish and also a prisoner of the Germans'but bore no ill will generally towards the Germans or at least your Real Father? Is that right?
I always thought there was so much hatred between the Poles and Germans'unless your Stepdad was From the Parts of Germany given to Poland after WW1?
Anyway best wishes and i'm glad you had such a Stepdad.
I think I speak for many of us who somehow, as we grew up, and politically incorrect as it may seem:
1) Could not help but see some positive qualities in the German fighting men, even through the relentless haze of Hollywood and school-taught bias in films and books; the qualities I remember being impressed by included self-sacrifice, courage, discipline under fire, professional soldiering, pride in their cause, and, complementing all this, let's admit it, striking uniforms, equipment, and vehicles. On a psychological level, some of these self-sacrificing qualities may have been missing from our fathers or from the prevailing culture around us.
(Come on, who did not admire Robert Shaw in Battle of the Bulge the first time they saw the movie? Even though the writers had to give him SOME villainous characteristics.)
2) The persistent notion that Hollywood and our schools were not telling us the whole story...somehow it seemed just too simplistic for tens of millions of people from one of the world's most developed, cultured, and resourceful nations to simply decide to be bad.
By the way, I think some of us, including me, got into German WW2 armor modelling and other related pursuits because we had the above feelings to begin with. In other words, modelling, studying the Wehrmacht, reenacting axis, and so on are really secondary effects that come from the above basic causes. Otherwise, we would be happy to be modelling ships or Polish armor, or something else besides Tigers and Panthers.
By all means, please feel free to add, delete, and comment. This is an important subject and a great thread.
1) Could not help but see some positive qualities in the German fighting men, even through the relentless haze of Hollywood and school-taught bias in films and books; the qualities I remember being impressed by included self-sacrifice, courage, discipline under fire, professional soldiering, pride in their cause, and, complementing all this, let's admit it, striking uniforms, equipment, and vehicles. On a psychological level, some of these self-sacrificing qualities may have been missing from our fathers or from the prevailing culture around us.
(Come on, who did not admire Robert Shaw in Battle of the Bulge the first time they saw the movie? Even though the writers had to give him SOME villainous characteristics.)
2) The persistent notion that Hollywood and our schools were not telling us the whole story...somehow it seemed just too simplistic for tens of millions of people from one of the world's most developed, cultured, and resourceful nations to simply decide to be bad.
By the way, I think some of us, including me, got into German WW2 armor modelling and other related pursuits because we had the above feelings to begin with. In other words, modelling, studying the Wehrmacht, reenacting axis, and so on are really secondary effects that come from the above basic causes. Otherwise, we would be happy to be modelling ships or Polish armor, or something else besides Tigers and Panthers.
By all means, please feel free to add, delete, and comment. This is an important subject and a great thread.
Nick A.
The truth shall set you free.
The truth shall set you free.
To Kameraden,
Happy to respond. My stepfather was Polish to his boot straps. Proud as you can get. Proud of his Polish heritage, proud of his family, proud of his boys, me and my two half brothers. He hated no one. However he hated war, war for whatever reason. He put the blame for conflicts squarely on the shoulders of the politicians, all politicians. The ordinary soldier he believed had no choice nor had the ordinary citizen.
Upon my application he was awarded the Officer's Cross of Merit by the Polish Government on 2000 and promoted to Lieutenant. He never knew about it. Word came through the day after we buried him. It was the saddest day of my life.
His story is not unusual. His oldest friend, a Polish Jew, a survivor of the holocaust is married to a German woman who he has adored for over 50 years. No anger, just sadness. "These things happen." Other friends, Ukrainians, ex POWs, all suffered, but they know where the blame lies. They blame the warmongering bastards on all sides of the fence.
Glad to respond. - Hans
Happy to respond. My stepfather was Polish to his boot straps. Proud as you can get. Proud of his Polish heritage, proud of his family, proud of his boys, me and my two half brothers. He hated no one. However he hated war, war for whatever reason. He put the blame for conflicts squarely on the shoulders of the politicians, all politicians. The ordinary soldier he believed had no choice nor had the ordinary citizen.
Upon my application he was awarded the Officer's Cross of Merit by the Polish Government on 2000 and promoted to Lieutenant. He never knew about it. Word came through the day after we buried him. It was the saddest day of my life.
His story is not unusual. His oldest friend, a Polish Jew, a survivor of the holocaust is married to a German woman who he has adored for over 50 years. No anger, just sadness. "These things happen." Other friends, Ukrainians, ex POWs, all suffered, but they know where the blame lies. They blame the warmongering bastards on all sides of the fence.
Glad to respond. - Hans
Was haben wir für dich gewollt
Du deutsches Vaterland?
- H Gehr IR 21./17.ID
Du deutsches Vaterland?
- H Gehr IR 21./17.ID
