To the topic:
If I should look out for a pilot, I would opt for a successfull guy, who really did a great job. A kind of exemplary for other pilots, like a "represantative" should be. Who would send the most normal of his personal to a "representation"
?.
My choice:
Gerhard Barkhorn
- he flew like a work animal with his >1.100 missions
- he was very successfull
- he never had the strange masses of kills other super-aces filed
- and apparently was "clean" enough to get into the Bundesluftwaffe
To another topic:
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisS
Sorry chaps I just don't buy this 'they were just decent blokes like our boys' stuff.
Most Germans under the age of 20 in 1939 had over 6 years of service in Nazi political youth movements of some sort especially those who had glider training. Nazism wound it's evil coils around the the very fabric of German life, books, education, radio, voluntary organisations etc etc there was no way anybody escape it's all-pervasive influence. Most of the Luftwaffe was heavily indoctrinated from the top downwards this only began to crack as the true nature of Nazism began to become evident, and only then when defeat and the falibility of Hitler was plain for all to see.
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I support this. I am german, and believe me, I thought a lot about "how these ancestors of mine were". The main question inside this for me is:
- Where they all racists and militarists?
My answer is: Maybe not all, but most of them were racist. They were nationalists (like many people today are), but not militarists.
I just spent a week together with a relative who was born in 1913. It is fascinating to hear her talk about her grandparents (who were born ca. 1860!) and about former times she lived through.
But it is really strange, when she starts talking about "Jews, the annihilation of our culture and other races". She has a "Weltanschauung" (picture of the world) which still reflects the racism and a fight between different groups, at least that "somebody" wants to destroy Germany.
On the other hand: These generations had to change their way of life (and partly, thinking) so strong... there was a lot of "Antisemitismus" also in other european countries, and they did partly support the german holocoust-system. And as the grew up in such a totalitary and media-controlling state, I cannot point my finger to these people born in the 1920ies.
PS: For sure we are definitely also indoctrinated, see stuff like:
- "bio-weapons" in Iraq as THE argument to attack
- the "axis of evil", Al-Quaida etc.
- the "good USA", who protect the world from XYZ
- "Democracy"
- maybe even "CO2 will kill our climate"?
Let's see what lies in front of us all...