beach elvis
Member
I've been an amateur WWII historian (student? enthusiast? whatever) since my single digit years.
In '05, I did a european tour playing a band. One leg was two weeks in Germany. I saw more of Germany than some germans have and talked with hundreds of german folks. It was an incredible experience.
I gotta tell ya, knowing what I know of the history of that country, it made my head spin. Using my experience with the people I interacted with as a point of reference, it was incomprehensible to me to understand how Hitler could have happened. The only word I can use to remotely describe the vibe over there is...well...the way America used to be "civilized" except there are no guns (officially, anyway). I can't count to how many people that I said, "Y'know, if you knew me back in the States, you'd prob'ly not be this nice to me." meaning back here, I was just another schlub from down the street. But the german (british, french, dutch, and belgian, for that matter) people were amazing.
Incidentally, we had a german warmup act on tour with us and one member was a retired customs officer whose father was an SS tank commander. Some interesting conversations took place. He said guns were illegal but a lot of folks still had them.
Another surprising bit of insight occurred when we did a gig in Ulm. There was a huge amount of young, BIG ol' boys with major violent attitudes in the crowd. With their uber-short haircuts,you could easily imagine the distinctive shaped helmets on their heads. It occurred to me that I bet a large group of these type guys joined the Nazi ranks back in the day just so they could kill SOMEBODY and get away with it.
Of course overall, Germany and the world in general was a different place back in the Thirties.
Sorry, the previous references to Germany got me started.
As much as I loved it, and have been invited to move over there to work, it'll never happen. Not willing to give up my guns to do it.
May God PLEASE bless the U.S.A.
In '05, I did a european tour playing a band. One leg was two weeks in Germany. I saw more of Germany than some germans have and talked with hundreds of german folks. It was an incredible experience.
I gotta tell ya, knowing what I know of the history of that country, it made my head spin. Using my experience with the people I interacted with as a point of reference, it was incomprehensible to me to understand how Hitler could have happened. The only word I can use to remotely describe the vibe over there is...well...the way America used to be "civilized" except there are no guns (officially, anyway). I can't count to how many people that I said, "Y'know, if you knew me back in the States, you'd prob'ly not be this nice to me." meaning back here, I was just another schlub from down the street. But the german (british, french, dutch, and belgian, for that matter) people were amazing.
Incidentally, we had a german warmup act on tour with us and one member was a retired customs officer whose father was an SS tank commander. Some interesting conversations took place. He said guns were illegal but a lot of folks still had them.
Another surprising bit of insight occurred when we did a gig in Ulm. There was a huge amount of young, BIG ol' boys with major violent attitudes in the crowd. With their uber-short haircuts,you could easily imagine the distinctive shaped helmets on their heads. It occurred to me that I bet a large group of these type guys joined the Nazi ranks back in the day just so they could kill SOMEBODY and get away with it.
Of course overall, Germany and the world in general was a different place back in the Thirties.
Sorry, the previous references to Germany got me started.
As much as I loved it, and have been invited to move over there to work, it'll never happen. Not willing to give up my guns to do it.
May God PLEASE bless the U.S.A.
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