# WWII - Why the Eternal Interest? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 5, 2013, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382 "2013-02-05T11:36:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/21 "2013-02-05T15:11:00Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > There’s also a element of examining the “why” it came about. > > For example, Herr Hitler was not a stateman to be trusted to keep to his word on various treaties, and there were plenty of high profile people trying to sound the alarm on his regime. How did they not see his duplicity? Why did they make the decisions they did? > > Trying to learn the lessons of the past (the Interwar period) theoretically will prevent us from making the same mistakes (the long march to war) again. It seems to me, though, that as an event passes from living memory, those lessons start to get forgotten. Of course, the more popular such an analysis becomes, the more it enters public consciousness. The more it enters public consciousness, the more overused and less credible it becomes. I mean, “just like the Nazis…” is the **perfect** way to get somebody to laugh at your political argument now, so any analysis of the hows and whys of what caused Nazi Germany is unlikely to persuade anybody into avoiding the mistakes. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/22 "2013-02-05T15:17:39Z")
It’s very simple. Mankind _loves_ war, indeed, is morbidly fascinated with it, as long as someone else is taking the hard knocks. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/23 "2013-02-05T15:18:08Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Of course, the more popular such an analysis becomes, the more it enters public consciousness. The more it enters public consciousness, the more overused and less credible it becomes. I mean, “just like the Nazis…” is the **perfect** way to get somebody to laugh at your political argument now, so any analysis of the hows and whys of what caused Nazi Germany is unlikely to persuade anybody into avoiding the mistakes. When school administrators are called “Nazis” for wanting to establish a dress code in their district, you would be correct. Would you support legislation where the US Federal government tried to pass a law that all Republicans had to sew a yellow Elephant patch on their clothes? ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/24 "2013-02-05T15:19:10Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > I mean, “just like the Nazis…” is the **perfect** way to get somebody to laugh at your political argument now Way to Godwinize the thread, dude. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/25 "2013-02-05T15:25:09Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > When school administrators are called “Nazis” for wanting to establish a dress code in their district, you would be correct. > > Would you support legislation where the US Federal government tried to pass a law that all Republicans had to sew a yellow Elephant patch on their clothes? Of course I’m not saying that any analysis is suspect, or absolutely any comparison. I’m just saying that above a certain, obvious, surface level the reasons behind the Nazi’s actions become so complex that noting a resemblance to Nazi rhetoric or practice becomes, at best, suspect to anybody except the most well read WWII historian (i.e. not most people). > [@Sailboat](#): > > Way to Godwinize the thread, dude. > > 😉 Wait… if I invoke people who invoke Godwin’s Law, is that Godwinization or, like… Godwinization Once Removed? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/26 "2013-02-05T15:25:43Z")
> [@bump](#): > > There’s also a matter of scale- WWII was just so humongous relative to most wars before or since, that it’s not even funny. Indeed, _without gunpowder or explosives or tanks_, the most powerful armies ever in existence were probably in World War II. Especially the Russians, who had tens of thousands of freakin’ _cavalry_ (horse infantry in actuality, but still, outnumbering most medieval empire’s entire armies!) The Soviets outnumbered the biggest medieval army by an order of magnitude. So improved farming, bureaucracy, and transportation are almost as powerful as military weapons as all the guns in the world. ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/27 "2013-02-05T15:33:32Z")
I personally think WWII is a dopey and boring hobby. However, there was a time when boys were pretty much encouraged to obsess over war trivia; it was seen as a sign of health and good spirits. In some classes I’ve been in , half the boys could explain the difference between 5 different types of bayonets and tell you the exact widths of every tank gun barrel used in the North African theater - and that was nothing compared to their fathers. That’s probably why there is a big lingering interest out there. These days, I get the feeling that stuff is a lot less mainstream among younger people, it’s more for professional military types or crazy loners. Good riddance, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/28 "2013-02-05T15:47:40Z")
The Nazis were not only evil, but positively _revelled_ in their evilness. How many evil empire warriors had uniforms designed by Hugo Boss? With skulls on them? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/29 "2013-02-05T16:29:12Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > While I agree that the public perception of WWII in America might trend toward “not painful,” the war was plenty painful even for Americans. A few weeks ago I spent some time helping a WWII vet partly clean out his basement. The man is in his nineties, and he tearfully gave me a book about the Bataan Death March he himself was unable to read because so many of his school friends had died there. > > Of course everyone outside North America had a much worse war. > > The Falklands meets your standard for “huge armies?” No… no, I didn’t mean that the war wasn’t painful, but that reading about it tends to give a sense of pride and being on the “right” side that say.. Vietnam doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/30 "2013-02-05T16:37:57Z")
One reason is that World War II can be viewed like a giant chess game in which battles made a real difference. Midway, among other battles, could easily have gone the other way with a very profound effect on the course of the war. Compare this with Vietnam or Iraq where military outcomes were just background to political events. Another reason is the gigantic scope of World War II. There were more than a million Allied soldiers in Normandy July 1944; more than a million Soviet soldiers attacked German-held Stalingrad November 1942; etc. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/31 "2013-02-05T16:40:25Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > From a fascination point of view it can’t be overstated that WWII was the first media war. We’re jaded, now, but things like The Hitler Channel and similar jokes come about because of all the video available about it. Without that it would be fading into history as WWI has and as the Civil War (U.S. version) would have without Ken Burns documentary. I think this is a big part of it. And unlike, say, Vietnam there is a huge amount of video available from _both_ sides. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/32 "2013-02-05T16:50:31Z")
You know who else was really interested in WWII…? You know how one of the criteria of a great action movie is that it has to have a really good villain? Of all mankind’s wars, WWII is the one with the best Bad Guy. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/33 "2013-02-05T16:55:47Z")
Oh please. Genghis Khan does a fantastic job. As do the Mongols generally. Cortes in Mexico, Alexander in Persia, Pol Pot in SE Asia, Stalin through out his reign. Hitler is merely the last in a long line of megalomaniacs. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/34 "2013-02-05T17:07:25Z")
1. Adolf Hitler couldn’t have been a more perfect villain if he had been chosen by Central Casting - hysterical, maniacal, shrill, funny-looking, truly evil and certifiably insane. If he had been a good-looking, soft spoken, charismatic leader with a bright smile and a fondness for puppies, kittens and blind orphans - all bets would be off. 2. The propaganda during WWII was at its peak - both from the Nazi Party extolling the virtues of their noble efforts simply to make the world a better place by domination, and the Allies for getting their populace to support the war in every way possible back at home. Those propaganda posters are better than anything Hollywood graphic artists could even conceive of today and the messages contained in that propaganda just scream out for books and movies and television series/specials. 3. Intrigue, spies, new weapons of mass destruction, secret meetings, plots galore - and even throw in the scary foreign-looking Japanese on suicide bombing missions to add a new level of fear - WWII was chock full of compelling storylines on both sides. This was a war of Shakespearian levels of good versus evil - and it even has a happy ending with the good guys winning and saving the world! There is no possible way that World War II could not be of interest for generations to follow and be fodder for history buffs, film buffs and screenwriters for generations long after we are gone. There are simply too many stories still left untold; too many stories that can be re-told; too many major and minor characters to flesh out and discover anew. Every time someone opens an old trunk in (great) grandpa’s basement or attic, their will be yet another story to tell after combing through the documents. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/35 "2013-02-05T17:18:00Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Oh please. Genghis Khan does a fantastic job. As do the Mongols generally. Cortes in Mexico, Alexander in Persia, Pol Pot in SE Asia, Stalin through out his reign. Indeed, Alexander the Great has been pitted more recently than Hitler. (Has Hitler _ever_ been pitted?) > [@DMark](#): > > charismatic leader with a bright smile and a fondness for puppies, kittens and blind orphans - all bets would be off. While I agree with much of your post, Hitler was indeed famously charismatic (possibly not by 21st-century American standards, however). He definitely loved puppies, too. No idea what he thought of kittens. Blind orphans, however, [he specifically killed](http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/disabilities/). ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/36 "2013-02-05T17:37:30Z")
Because Nazis make the best bad guys. Even Star Wars called them Storm Troopers. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/37 "2013-02-05T17:37:23Z")
I think we’re overlooking a factor: WW2 is big right now (after a long spell being more-or-less out of the public consciousness) because the WW2 generation is dying off. In a decade or so, they’ll only be a handful of extremely old folks left who fought in it, and anyone with any personal memories will be well up there in age. (If you were a 5-year-old child in 1945, you’re 68 today, and in a decade you’ll be 78.) At this point, WW2 will start to slip into the “not quite ancient history” slot currently occupied by WW1. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/38 "2013-02-05T18:27:31Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > 1. Adolf Hitler couldn’t have been a more perfect villain if he had been chosen by Central Casting - hysterical, maniacal, shrill, funny-looking, truly evil and certifiably insane. If he had been a good-looking, soft spoken, charismatic leader with a bright smile and a fondness for puppies, kittens and blind orphans - all bets would be off. That’s definitely the case compared to some African dictators. The English accent in a lot of places in Africa is very mild-mannered and genteel-sounding, so even brutal dictators sound like professors. The overall effect is drollery rather than terror and hatred if you only watch film clips. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/39 "2013-02-05T19:40:49Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > (If you were a 5-year-old child in 1945, you’re 68 today, and in a decade you’ll be 78.) You’re off by a 5 years… Someone born in 1940 turns 73 in 2013. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382/40 "2013-02-05T23:41:57Z")
Downton Abbey has awakened my interest in the Great War. Looks to be even more fascinating than WW2. The Austrian archduke and the Romanovs are just a taster. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-why-the-eternal-interest/649382.md?page=3)