I don’t either, unfortunately.
-XT
+1
After** WWIII **ends
Until the Holocaust, the Jews survived slavery and two Diaspora by being pacifists. During the Roman Empire and afterward, fighting against the conquering army would get you and your entire tribe wiped off the face of the Earth. So long as they posed no threat to their conquerors, they were more valuable alive than dead. I doubt there was any way they could have anticipated the Holocaust. They were well aware that if one group of Jews fought back, the Nazis would only start killing all Jews. They just didn’t know the Nazis had already made that decision.
And there was no way to know that things had radically changed and that this time, going along meekly would get a large percentage of them killed. 
I know. Add to that the fact that, afaik, most European non-military citizens (no matter what their religious tendencies) of the time weren’t generally armed in any case, and basically what I said is a lot of wishful thinking. I still wish it were so, and that magically they could have known their fate and known that this time things were different, and that fighting back, while ultimately futile, would have been a better course anyway.
-XT
nvm
My mother was in a slave labor factory making munitions for the German army, and still carries an improperly set broken arm from that time. Her job was to weight bullets (or some such ammo) to ensure they were properly loaded. She always sent the underweight bullets along and pulled as many full weight ones as she could. She kept hoping she was saving some allied soldier’s life out there.
I’m 45 and I don’t consider myself that old.
I don’t think it’s the reason. If you look at other examples of atrocities, you can see that people almost always let themselves be mass-murdered without much in the way of resistance. The last time I read about such a situation (not the last time such a thing happened, of course), for instance, was a massacre that happened in Yugoslavia. Victims were driven to a bridge, a first group disembarked, put against the railing, shot dead, the bodies were thrown into the river, then the next “batch” would be disembarked, put against the railing, etc… No revolt, no attempt to escape, to jump into the river, to attack the murderers, nothing.
From all what I read, it seems it’s the typical human reaction when faced with the prospect of being slaughtered like sheep : actually turn into sheep. It doesn’t make any sense (killed for killed, why not trying something?), especially in view of our survival instinct, but so it is. So, as much as I would like to think that I would try to do something, I can only assume that I would do the same as everybody else, and would just let them slaughter me, as baffling as it seems.
I’d like to think I’d at least run like hell. 
When will we get over the 1960’s? It is like Groundhog Day over and over.
well, first off i’d like the OP to define “obsess”.
With reference to Slivey Tove’s post and Sam Stone’s post, kids these days are definitely well aware of all the inner workings of WWII. Not only that, they know the dynamics of WWII better than pretty much every other 20th century war (though the dynamics of the civil war is probably more thoroughly taught than WWII). If you ask a typical HS student about WWI, you would probably get you a cursory answer of “Archduke assassination” and if you’re lucky the kid will have cursory knowledge of “alliances” but a lot more kids would be able to name Axis and Allies than Central Powers vs the Triple Entente. As for the later wars, I’m also positive that the school system now really gloss over the Vietnam war and probably never even get to the 1st gulf war, much less the current one.
also, kids these days might not know that what a cunt cap is, they’re shelling out major dollars for video games like Call of Duty, which replay WWII campaigns, not Vietnam or WWI campaigns.
i guess there IS a degree of WWII-centricity and an overglorification of that war, but… i wouldn’t call it an obsession.
I agree about the embedded reporters/internet, and nearly said that when I first posted, but I was at work, and you know how that can go…
Thanks to nuclear weapons, it was probably the last time in history that a total conventional war between major powers will ever be fought. Air, armor and sea power will never again be used as unrestrictedly, since nuclear armed powers either would never let things come to such a pass or would resort to at least tactical nukes first.
That’s not really a long time.
Huh? What makes you think we stopped being the premier industrial power in the 60s-70s? Last time I checked, the U.S. is still the world’s largest manufacturing country.
Hint: the Chinese no longer just make fireworks.
Stranger
Let’s not act too noble - many WWII buffs are sick freaks who are secretly deeply obsessed with fascist dictatorships. Simple as that.
Hint: Industrial output is no longer the only measure of a nations economy.
Agreed, but that comment was in response to the claim that “Last time I checked, the U.S. is still the world’s largest manufacturing country.” This hasn’t been true since at latest the early 'Seventies, when the United States transitioned from being a primarily industrial economy (making stuff) to post-industrial i.e. service and technology development (selling information, specialized capabilities, and developing and capitalizing on innovative technologies).
Regardless, the echos of WWII are still present in both our economic dominance (for better or worse) and the long reaching cultural impacts.
Stranger