Seventy Years Ago Today

Seventy years ago today (8 May 1945).....the European War ended.

Across the continent, there are speeches being made, wreaths being laid, and comments over what happened or what didn't happen.

German political figures will hype up that they were "liberated" by the Americans and Soviets.  The Russians will hype up they took down an evil fascist giant.  The Americans.....well....the Americans will just say that they did what had to be done.

There are a thousand 'what-if' scenarios attached to the Second World War.  What if the peace treaty of WW I had been worked out to a better degree with no reparations involved and the Kaiser could stay in charge of the government?  What if the Germans had taken advantage of Dunkirk and stopped the British evacuation?  What if Hitler had been killed in 1940?  What if the Japanese had stuck with 'plan-A' and staged their entire initial campaign against the Soviets in far-east Asia?  What if the US had figured out the approaching Japanese fleet at Pearl Harbor?  What if the Germans had done a four-star defensive job at Normandy and stopped the invasion?

The war lasts for roughly eight years for the Germans.....an eternity in the minds of those who sat and watched each month go by.  The Nazis were only in a great position and public perception for roughly four years.  When the Battle of Medenine came to a close (March 1943)......as the Nazis were retreating....this was the beginning of the end.  Within a year....if a German could see through the propaganda.....there were no positives in the strategy or results.  Trust in Hitler had peaked out.

An American walking around Germany will come to note some odd things.  There are no statues of German generals of WW II, or any of the Nazi leadership.....NOT a single one.  You can still find non-descriptive statues of a common German solder and common statues of men from a town or city that went off to the war.  Statues from Waterloo, the French wars, and WW I?  There are plenty of these statues.  Political German figures of the 1950s and 1960s?  You will find a handful around.

In my village where I live.....there's a memorial to the WW II German solders from the village.....those who served and those who died in the war.  Most small towns gave up an abundance of young and old men for the war.  Some were prisoners held by the US or Soviet armies for months and months after the war ended.  An entire generation of young men was lost in 1919, and the same could be said a second time for what happened after 8 May 1945.

It is the not the same Germany that existed in the 1930s, and politically.....it is more structured and anchored now than anyone could have hoped for in 1932.

I noticed this week a documentary piece that talked on the negative aspects of the Americans who came in the spring of 1945, and the various crimes they committed after the war ended.  There's probably an ample amount of truth to the various comments made.  After three long years of fighting in North Africa, Italy, France and Germany.....the guys who'd made it to the end weren't exactly pepped up on goodness, friendliness, or charity.

Oddly, after screwing up on the peace aspects of WW I......the US wasn't going to allow that scenario to repeat itself.  The Germany that grew out of the 1950s.....was a different type of society.

The odds of this friendly US and German attitude continuing?  It's hard to say.  It would not surprise me if NATO dissolves over the next decade, or if the US is asked to leave, or a somewhat different political environment comes to exist in Germany.  People tend to forget history, stupid previous mistakes, and bold actions.  If you listed the thirty-odd political themes of the Nationalists Socialists (Nazis)....most Germans would actually support twenty of them easily (I might admit that the same number of Americans would also fit into this profile).

How many Germans really care about this anniversary of seventy years?  Maybe a 100,000.  Those were participants in the war and still live.....will care.  Those born after 1950?  Much less so.  And those born since 1980?  Almost no notice of the date or why it matters.  The same is occurring with the fall of the wall and how many young German teens still remember a East Germany existing.

So, seventy years ago today.....as the sun rose across the Rhine and the wind drifted around the hills of Germany.....some men came to a point of ending a long war.  A war over......?  Well....Germans will say the war was over some desires and strategies of marginal and incompetent leaders....failed art students....and supposed to avenge the loss of WW I.  If you were an American Army private and still alive on this day.....you probably dug out a pack of smokes....lit one.....laid down on the grass.....and just felt awful lucky.  It was finally over.