Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire I've built several rifles for Germans and one of them is a very good friend

but in all likelihood we'll never see each other again. I surely don't plan on traveling to Germany. Anyway, I've been reading books by Alan Furst and they are set in WW II in Europe and are not very complimentary of the Germans. I also bought the DVD set of 'The Valiant Years' and am watching it.

I find myself working up a good loathing for Nazi Germany but must realize that modern Germany is not Nazi Germany. It requires deep concentration to keep them separate.

In the books all of them deal with people who are involved with the Resistance in several countries and I find myself envisioning a resistance in the US. I pray not but still the thought keeps cropping up.

Germany is like america Some good some bad But thier not as stupid as to put a democrat in office ,an one not from thier country

well, actually, Adolf was born in Austria. And he had an accent.

The more one reads about NAZI Germany, the more you loath what Germany WAS.

If you want to learn just what one of our other enemies was like before and during WW II, pick up a copy of "Flyboys," by James Bradley, Little, Brown and Co., � 2003.

Bradley, by the way, is the son of one of the men who raised the flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima.

If you have a weak stomach, you'd better not read this one.

L.W.

If you want to learn just what one of our other enemies was like before and during WW II, pick up a copy of "Flyboys," by James Bradley, Little, Brown and Co., � 2003.

Bradley, by the way, is the son of one of the men who raised the U.S. flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima.

If you have a weak stomach, you'd better not read this one.

L.W.

letting go is never easy. That some folks never do, is why places like the Middle East, Ireland/UK, and the Balkans are still in turmoil today.

I just finished All Quiet on the Western Front. It is not a book for the squeamish. I had read it many years ago but did not remember any of it. I may give your suggestion a try. Thanks.

Mickey, You ever read A Higher Call by Larry Alexander? True WW2 story and great insight of the Germans, I was surprised to find out they were not all Nazis in the air force. It's a good read.

No, I've not read it but I'll put it on my list. I watched [i]The Desert Fox[/] not long ago and it reminded me that many Germans were not Nazi and hated what the Nazis did to Germany.

Sam, a man from my home town was on the Bataan death march. In his book Hell's Guest talks about how difficult it was for him to conquer his hatred for the Japanese. We should never not hate cruelty in all its forms but not all peoples of any race are cruel or kind.

You could look at the USA from a different viewpoint and find plenty of atrocities we have committed, especially concerning the American Indian. I'm not an apologist but I think the majority of people in any land simply want to live a peaceful life and take care of their families.

I travel to Germany quite a bit with my job. I find it to be the most like America of anywhere in Europe, you'd feel kind of at home there, the people and culture are very similar to ours. Germany pre-world wars was a prosperous and educated country. It's scary to think that a slick con-artist like Hitler could take over and cause the chaos and destruction that he did. It should serve to a reminder to us that if it could happen to a first world country like Germany then, it can happen to us now. We'd like to think that we're smarter than that, but we're not and given the right set of circumstances here the same thing could happen.

People are people no matter where they're from. Most are okay folks, a few are real good, some are jackasses, and a few are complete psychopaths. Most Germans were not Nazis, they just fought for their country like any decent person would do. The bad decisions were made "above their pay grade" as they say.

See the guy in the picture below next to Kennedy? That's Wernher Von Braun, head of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and the man most responsible for building the rockets that took us to the moon. 25 years before that he was a Nazi SS Major and designed the V2 rocket that terrorized England. It's hard to reconcile the two but redemption takes many forms. He ended his life a great American.

One of my team has been spending a bunch of time there doing some work the last year. He was very worried about the past as he's Jewish and had a Grandparent who survived the camps. He has been pleasantly surprised and admits that it's likely time to let go of the past on our part as the German's all seem to have moved on.

MC, me thinks that the mental climate of fascist Germany is developing here among "our elite". I think, for example to name just a couple, Bloomberg of NYC, Feinstein of CA (and countless in the administration) who are ideologues and arrogant in their belief that they have the right to impose their will to the diminishing of our personal freedoms.

You can read it, see it, hear it; you can even "feel" it coming.

You bet your sweet bippy it's being felt...

And there WILL be resistance - and it's up to the a-holes in DC as to what that resistance might entail...

Randy, I agree, especially with the treatment of the Indians by the whites. All is Quiet dwells on the humanity of the enemy. That's why Nazi Germany had it banned and since they couldn't get to Remarque who had gone to Switzerland the Gestapo beheaded his sister who stayed in Germany.

I've musta read "All Quiet" a dozen times while in high school.

Exceptional book.

That is well spoken Mickey. Reading the news lately shows that there are many folks in America today, that could qualify as 'cruel' by anyone's criteria. We see this, and acknowledge it, and yet we don't hate all of our fellow Americans.

My Daughter married a German & lives in Berlin. I usually spend a month each year over there. I enjoy the people & always have a good time. I grew up listening to stories of what the Yankees did to the family farm in 1863. I have more German friends than Northern friends, maybe I should let it go.