This is me - Bio, Thoughts and Other Ramblings

Thoughts: Greatest Events of WWII in Colour

12.05.2020

Okay, so here's the thing: In general, I don't watch war movies.

A pretty odd statement considering that I am the author of two multi-chapter fanfictions for the Band of Brothers fandom, a miniseries following a company of US paratroopers over the course of World War II.

But as a rule, I don't watch movies or tv shows that are heavily centered around war or set in a war (past or present). Especially not if they have a reputation to be incredibly accurate portrayals of what war is like or what a certain battle was like.

Why?

Because I can't stand it. I can't stand watching so many people die in horrific ways, knowing that this is real. That this is exactly (or very close to) what happened. I have no problem seeing blood and I admit that I like a certain amount of whump, but gore? Nope. Count me out. Especially when combined with realistic or otherwise horrifying sound effects.

I have yet to really figure out why Band of Brothers is an exception, but that's beside the point.

The point is that I saw maybe a two-minute excerpt of the D-Day landing scenes from Saving Private Ryan before I had to walk away. I was feeling sick to my stomach and to this day, I haven't seen the film because I know I probably couldn't make it through that part of the film.

When we watched a documentary about Auschwitz and the Holocaust in history class, I spent most of the time staring at my desk, hands over my ears so I didn't have to listen to the narrator.

When we had two topics to choose from for an essay in German class, I deliberately picked the 'current events' topic that I had only very limited knowledge of because the other option would have been to interpret "Todesfuge" by Paul Celan and while that would have been a very easy good grade since we'd discussed that poem in class, I couldn't think about all the horrors that poem was describing.

You might ask yourselves: why did I add "Greatest Events of WWII in Colour" to my viewing list on Netflix if war bothers me so much?

Good question.

I'm not a history buff. I'm terrible at remembering dates and names and the whole 'who did what where when to whom and why and what were the consequences' thing that my history teacher wanted us to learn.

But I still find history interesting. How society worked during a certain period in a specific country, how people lived, what they achieved.

And since WW2 constantly seems to be reduced to the Holocaust (and I don't mean to diminish its significance and atrocity because it was horrendous and we should never forget about it and make sure that it never happens again), I thought that this might be a good learning opportunity because honestly, apart from what I knew thanks to BoB and my research for my stories, everything else I had learned about World War II could be summed up in maybe two pages of key words.

So, one afternoon, I told myself "Okay, let's see if this is good", got comfy and clicked play.

The first episode, Blitzkrieg, obviously discusses the German attack on Poland and the subsequent rapid invasion of pretty much all of central Europe.

Of the bat, I found the narrator's voice to be neutral and easy to listen to. The images were fascinating to look at because up until now, most war footage I've seen has been in black and white.

The series has historians and military experts weighing in and I was in no way surprised when the first experts shown were Americans or Brits. I was pleased to hear how factual and informative their commentary was, though.

Even so, I thought to myself "Oh here we go, another American/British one-sided narrative".

And then a German historian came on.

You would not believe how delighted I was. My jaw literally dropped. And I was hooked.

It might sound odd that the simple fact of the series having experts from both sides of this past conflict really drew me in. But really, it is the logical thing to do if you want to have a factual, as-objective-as-possible picture. Because a German historian will have a different perspective, different knowledge of what was going on in Germany at the time or how the German mentality was at the time.

The trend continued and in subsequent episodes that focused on events like Pearl Harbor or The Battle of Midway, Japanese experts provide interesting and important insights into what the situation was in Japan at the time. Similarly, Russian historians commented in the episode dedicated to the Battle of Stalingrad.

I finished the last episode today - there's 10 in total, usually about 45 to 60 minutes long - and can honestly recommend this series to anyone who is interested in history or who would like to expand their general knowledge. It is a well-rounded overview that also provides fascinating details and includes an analysis of the initial situation, the causes and driving forces behind the events depicted in the series.

Was I shocked, horrified or disgusted by some scenes? Yes, no doubt. Did I feel sick to my stomach sometimes? Yes, absolutely. I cried a few times, too. The testaments from veterans and eye witnesses were at times absolutely gut-wrenching and some of the footage was incredibly hard to look at.

Which is to be expected in a documentary about war.

Meanwhile, the commentary from the experts was refreshingly animated, professional and easy to follow. The various historians also made a point to highlight how certain individuals - their decisions, ambitions and shortcomings - influenced and in some cases actually changed the course and outcome of a battle or campaign.

What is more is that the experts don't try to make apologies for the mistakes that happened, for miscalculations and failures on the part of the leaders or for the atrocities committed. Instead, they put them into context before making any sort of judgement or statement on the strategic, logical, moral or ethical aspect. And every time they added a personal opinion, their tone was appropriately serious and solemn. There was no derision or sugar-coating.

And this is exactly what I think makes this documentary so good. It's informative, well-structured, honest and it doesn't push an opinion onto you. It just says 'here are the facts, this is what we think about it, form your own opinion'.