Ordinary men (WW2 German police execution battalions)

[martin goddard]

https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81672035

A book and a film. It is less than an hour. The film makes the point that these are ordinary men swept up in the war and it could be any of us.

Although these are very different times in terms of defference ; on a personal level I think these men can be classed as malleable under social pressure.
Despite their denials they were actually allowed to opt out.
Bad men.

martin

[Panzer21]

I see some SS reinactors who attended a WW2 rally in Sheringham Norfolk got lots of hassle from the public and had to be escorted away by the Police.....
Neil

[Leman (Andy)]

I would need a lot more information to be able to make a judgement. If they are re-enacting elements of the German army, then fair enough. No point pretending that the SS did not make up fighting units in WWII. Were they strutting about in black SS dress uniforms? Then that could well be seen as somewhat offensive as that would rather smack of glorifying the SS and what they stood for. Or, were they part of a far right group using the event to push a particular agenda? One should never jump to conclusions. I remember a WWII event about 20 years ago where a couple of people turned up as members of the Gestapo. Nobody seemed that bothered.

[Panzer21]

I would need a lot more information to be able to make a judgement. If they are re-enacting elements of the German army, then fair enough. No point pretending that the SS did not make up fighting units in WWII. Were they strutting about in black SS dress uniforms? Then that could well be seen as somewhat offensive as that would rather smack of glorifying the SS and what they stood for. Or, were they part of a far right group using the event to push a particular agenda? One should never jump to conclusions. I remember a WWII event about 20 years ago where a couple of people turned up as members of the Gestapo. Nobody seemed that bothered.

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/23800089.sheringham-nazi-row-ss-not-germans/

It's an odd defence saying we are portraying the SS not Germans.....
They claim to represent the Foreign SS legions.
I think they are the same group that caused objections at Salute one year......
The guy in the long leather coat may be one of the issues I suspect, it being a particularly sinister look IMHO.

Neil

[Ben Waterhouse]

Reading between the lines it looks like the reptiles stirring up a controversy that didn't exist to any great extent..

[Leman (Andy)]

A bit like objecting to people dressing up as Romans because they too committed genocide, had slave workers, and lots of other nefarious practises. But, one of the things which seemed to emerge in the 1990s in the UK was the national sport of taking offence at everything.

[simmo]

Groan just as I'm trying to get over my fixation with the Roman empire you remind me.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/sep/19/the-roman-empire-why-men-just-cant-stop-thinking-about-it

Martyn

[Leman (Andy)]