The 'Other' War

Yesterday....75 years ago....World War II ended. 

A fair amount of attention was spent via the political folks and the journalists.....to tell of the ending, and the new beginning.  A couple of war movies came on, and laid out the 'evil' Nazi story. 

For most Germans under the age of thirty....it's not that big of a deal and rarely discussed.  The attempt to remind this group of the war?  Most flip the channel or just 'mute' this in their mind. 

What I generally find curious is that almost no real remembrance of any type occurs with WW I.  Oh....yes, it did end well over 100 years ago, but in the general context of discussions and knowledge.....the vast number of Germans have no real understanding of the war. 

Some, if asked.....will correctly guess that the Kaiser was in charge.  A fairly large group will identify the Hapsburg Empire prince being shot and triggering the war.  Beyond that....it's just a foggy episode of German history.....enough to put on a 3 x 5 inch card.

Somewhere between 2.1 to 2.8 million German men didn't return from WW I.  Roughly 4.2 million returned with some type of wound.  Austria had similar numbers. 

Adding onto this....almost every single problem that went to create the Nazi era of the 1930s to 1945....was constructed out of the end of WW I.  You would think that some discussion would be mounted over this era, yet it barely gets mentioned.

So I end this essay with the thought that maybe some additional attention ought to be laid out over the 'other' war, and persuade people that history matters.