Europe vs America

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Jack Funk

You probably have your own reasons why you deleted all your posts from this thread, but i don't really see why.

I've read everything you said inhere, and it were all intelligent non offensive posts. You made your point, and you made it clear, so why on earth would you delete the things you said ?

If you're pissed, i can relate to your motives, really, but taking away your replies isn't the right way to deal with this. You kinda crippled the thread now, don't you see ?

 

Speaking as an American, there is a huge hairy elephant in the room...

Are European woman really as unshaven as my ignorant imagination would have me believe? I'm picturing armpit hair matted down from underarm sweat, legs with peach fuzz at the top and courseness at the bottom, and a bush in the twain that is just like *KA-POW!*

Seriously, what is the deal?

 

Let me assure you, European women are as tidy as they come.
All the women I know make sure to have a nice shaven haven.
There is NO bigger turn-off than a woman with excess body hair... bleurgh.

 

Well Barmy, that is a relief...

 

Sorry, dmc; I did wander off there more than a bit.

"Speaking of unshaven women...", said the Baron, toying with his aperitif...

 

This is an open-ended question to any European: Have you ever discussed WW2 with your grandfather or grandmother? What did they have to say?

As an American, it is hard to learn what it was really like back then because it is difficult to see past the glow of the "charge!" trumpets...

Does an eighty year old Polish man feel he did wrong by turning in his Jewish neighbor? Does a German great-grandmother feel her husband died for a good cause?

Is this a topic that is just not discussed?

 

Speaking as an Englishman, a lot of our WW2 was spent defending our shores from invading Lufftwaffe. Most old 'veterans' speak of the dread of the next bombs falling on their town and the super-fast mobilization of the RAF in response.
Sometimes our 'liberation' of France then swift 'tactical evacuation' of our troops when we got a licking. Then the Japos did us a massive favour and bombed Pearl Harbour (cheers Japos) and so the Yank joined in (better late than ever, eh Sammy?). The Allied assault on Normandy beaches etc. is not talked about that much in comparison to the other stuff before. Possibly because it didn't 'directly' effect lifes in Britain - obviously it effected them, but not in a tape-up-your-windows-and-watch-for-the-bombs kind of way.

 

LNT, I know I'm not European but in my younger years I knew a woman from France who had to have a freezer stuffed with food because of the starvation she had suffered. She didn't talk about the war though. Nor did she over eat. Just had to know the food was there.

 

What's next? "Polish concentration camps?" As in every nation, there were heroes and villains. Probably less villains than in some other nations, I would say. You could probably find a couple of people who turned in a Jewish neighbour, but how many died for helping Jews? If you're putting Poles next to Germans like that, you've got your sides mixed. I really suggest reading up on the Vichy government, Quisling's government, Hacha, Tiso and a couple of other people. I wonder what kind of history books you read.

An eighty year old Polish person probably feels bad about having been sold by the US and UK to Stalin and his red hordes in Yalta, especially after being the beating boy and doing dirty job (such as Monte Cassino or Arnhem, not to mention the airmen in the Battle of England) on all European, Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern fronts. Alternatively, being betrayed by the Allies after struggling with the Nazi for life and a scrap of freedom in the occupied Poland, risking his life to help his Jewish neighbours. Definitely feels bad about "Polish concentration camps" and being mentioned next to Nazis or put on the same side with Germans.

 

My grandfathers haven't talked much about WW2, just few words about the starvation, the black market, the fear of the bombings in the early days of the war and the fear they felt every time they met an enemy patrol. The only thing that has been mentioned and doesn't fit in the above category is the fate of the italian garisson in Corfu after Italy's surrender.

Now speaking about Greece in general, the taboo issues about WW2 is collaboration and the civil war between communist and nationalist guerillas, which was taking place the same time. As far as I remember in the school history books, there isn't a single paragraph for things like the security battalions (units which were supposed to be under the orders of the german controled greek administration for police duties, but mainly served as anti-guerilla units under german command)or formations of volunteers like the Poulos Verband, who wore the Wehrmacht uniform and served as anti-partisan units in the entire balkan area.

 

N.Ireland seems to be written out of both World Wars, but we were especially important during the 'Battle of the Somme'.

Unfortunately the Republic of Ireland stayed neutral which helped the Nazis. Its also interesting to note that the war vetrans from the Republic side (many believed in the cause and joined the British side) were looked down upon by their government, and never received a war pension.

But hadly anyone talks about their experiences. We are a positive people that look to the future, not dwell in the past.

 

WWII and all that stuff. I nearly appreciate that sensitivity hidden in a sarcastic shell. Must be big city mentality. That's probably the biggest of all sources from which divisions on world views stem and end up being so completely different.

So different, it sometimes makes conversation nearly impossible, because the levels of knowledge of facts and events and theories to explain them are by no means evenly distributed.

I think it's fair to say, Europeans in average have spent a lot of time with the history from 1789-now. There is an huge amount, an enormous amount of history in books, history or fiction-wise, tv-series, tv-documentations... In-depth knowledge about everything connected... There is more than one can possibly swallow in one single life.

And it may be even said, that simplistic black and white painting out of ignorance with an patronizing undertone can come over as extremely arrogant, presumptuous, stupid and offensive. Et voilà, just a another source for stereotypes... but I am not that arrogant!

My Grandma was a refugee. So food was something that had to be eaten and there were no left-overs allowed.

I mainly used them as a general example for an hyperbole argument. But I'll PM you the details.

 

That is the biggest piece of crap from this thread! Always the same anti-semitic BS!
Instead of slandering the Polacks, maybe we should focus on the great "help" the allies - mostly England who was supposed to help - them during the Warsaw Uprising. Or as Chevalier mentioned, giving Poland on a plate to the commies after the War.
Just because the half zhid president of Poland apologised "in the name of Poland" - curiously enough, he was bashed by 80% of the population - for only he knows what crimes Polacks committed against zhids, it does not make it the least true.
Some people have a nerve!

 

Britain joined the out of the goodness of our heart, we could have just left the rest of Europe to their fate! Nevermind taking digs at out help, how's abotu showing gratitude. Us and the Yanks won that war.

Plus, our intervention cost the lives of many British citizens and tied up nearly the entire Lufftwaffe.

 

LOL! Sure. I could not expect any less from megalomaniacs! England did absolutely nothing - sorry, I can only remember the pitifull Dunkerk "retreat", which was SO shameful, Haha. The Americans joined the fight against the germans when we had crushed them already. They did beat the Japs though, but that was a minor task.
Well, before you chose to reply something refuting my claim, let me put an end to the discussion by saying that till the "D Day" we Eastern Slavs were responsable for 90% of german losses. Facts speak louder than whatever prettentious rhetoric you might come up with. These numbers say it all, end of story.

 

Hm. Could we settle for the time being on the assumption that the war was one by those that were the last ones standing, i.e. Russia, Latin-America, Australia and North-America ?

 

No, because Latin American did **** in the War.

 

You're an idiot. You honestly believe that the war would have been won without our help?

Whatever, I'll leave you with it you one-eyed fool.

 

They declared war... and they stood at the end, which the most important detail: To be still standing...

The point I tried to make was... We should wait another 200 years until a history book is able to tell us who one. Or someone should open a new topic and we find out what we could know until know, considering the who won and who didn't.

Conversley, I say, is it not obvious who won? The Germans, Italians and the Japanese. Whatever they could hope to win in those wars came true for them. After the war, British, Dutch and French colonies were open to them. In this war, the Germans, Italian and the Japanese were the ones that got what they wanted. Maybe not a mare nostrum, but some parts of the mare at least.