That is truly shocking, LInda. Tourism? Baghdad? Wow.
My partner feels as you do about war movies. I firs read "All Quiet" when I was 10 or 11, and it made an enormous impact on me, so I was interested--but it was very grim.
I'm with you all the way (except my reluctance to watch war movies, even anti-war movies like All's Quiet on the Western Front). The last anti-war demonstrations I went to were against the Iraq War. They didn't help. But now I'm watching CNN a day or two ago and all the coverage is about how much better life in Iraq is now that we Americans have gotten rid of "the worst dictator in history" and brought western values to the country. Even Richard Dunn, who was in Baghdad when the bombs first hit, waxed ecstatically about how much things had changed. And the proof? That it's become a popular destination for American tourists who now feel safe and are being welcomed with open arms by the Iraqis. What can I say?
One of the things I learned from having lived in Switzerland for four years (2005-2009) is how much WW2 is still very much in the forefront of both their individual and collective consciousness. And why not? It was not that long ago. But it surprised me still the same. I will never forget a women I met at a dinner given by the then CFO of Novartis at his lovely villa in Basel. The woman was introduced to my husband and me as one of the "old families of Basel." At our first introduction, she launched into the story of how American bombers had inadvertently leveled her childhood home. The bombs in that raid were intended for targets near and in Lörrach, Germany, a mere 11 kilometers from Basel. Much to my husband's and my relief, she ended the story with the American government having paid for the rebuild. But it was clear the bitterness remained. The narrative abroad does not match the narrative at home, especially by the British expats who represented the largest expat group, Americans were second. Americans are not seen as their saviors but as the isolationists we were until Pearl Harbor forced us to engage. To end wars will be to fundamentally alter human nature. So let's hope we have the courage to create our androids not in our own image.
In 2014 my husband was teaching at a a craft symposium outside Paris and I accompanied him. Being a 19th and early 20th century European history buff, particularly WWI, and having nothing better to do, I took the train to Compiègne to visit the armistice site outside the town. I was filled with enormous sadness while walking around the various monuments and the railroad tracks where the trains had stood. It was so peaceful and lovely there in contrast to the atrocities of the war. Later while walking in Compiègne I came across a monument to the Jews who were detained at the Royallieu transit camp outside Compiègne. To my shock and horror my great aunt and uncle were listed among the victims deported to Auschwitz from this camp (I'd known they'd been deported, but not from Royallieu and Compiègne.). Two horrible world wars contained in one town.
That is truly shocking, LInda. Tourism? Baghdad? Wow.
My partner feels as you do about war movies. I firs read "All Quiet" when I was 10 or 11, and it made an enormous impact on me, so I was interested--but it was very grim.
I'm with you all the way (except my reluctance to watch war movies, even anti-war movies like All's Quiet on the Western Front). The last anti-war demonstrations I went to were against the Iraq War. They didn't help. But now I'm watching CNN a day or two ago and all the coverage is about how much better life in Iraq is now that we Americans have gotten rid of "the worst dictator in history" and brought western values to the country. Even Richard Dunn, who was in Baghdad when the bombs first hit, waxed ecstatically about how much things had changed. And the proof? That it's become a popular destination for American tourists who now feel safe and are being welcomed with open arms by the Iraqis. What can I say?
One of the things I learned from having lived in Switzerland for four years (2005-2009) is how much WW2 is still very much in the forefront of both their individual and collective consciousness. And why not? It was not that long ago. But it surprised me still the same. I will never forget a women I met at a dinner given by the then CFO of Novartis at his lovely villa in Basel. The woman was introduced to my husband and me as one of the "old families of Basel." At our first introduction, she launched into the story of how American bombers had inadvertently leveled her childhood home. The bombs in that raid were intended for targets near and in Lörrach, Germany, a mere 11 kilometers from Basel. Much to my husband's and my relief, she ended the story with the American government having paid for the rebuild. But it was clear the bitterness remained. The narrative abroad does not match the narrative at home, especially by the British expats who represented the largest expat group, Americans were second. Americans are not seen as their saviors but as the isolationists we were until Pearl Harbor forced us to engage. To end wars will be to fundamentally alter human nature. So let's hope we have the courage to create our androids not in our own image.
In 2014 my husband was teaching at a a craft symposium outside Paris and I accompanied him. Being a 19th and early 20th century European history buff, particularly WWI, and having nothing better to do, I took the train to Compiègne to visit the armistice site outside the town. I was filled with enormous sadness while walking around the various monuments and the railroad tracks where the trains had stood. It was so peaceful and lovely there in contrast to the atrocities of the war. Later while walking in Compiègne I came across a monument to the Jews who were detained at the Royallieu transit camp outside Compiègne. To my shock and horror my great aunt and uncle were listed among the victims deported to Auschwitz from this camp (I'd known they'd been deported, but not from Royallieu and Compiègne.). Two horrible world wars contained in one town.