Otto Skorzeny Grouping Sold At Auction

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Talking about good manners, I offered my seat on the tube today to an elderely lady and she just snorted that she wasn't disabled or anything! I really wonder why I bother sometimes...

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks again for the kind words and I really appreciate the invitation to visit the Berhtold house of horrors!

Greg, yes we are polite on this forum aren't we, makes a nice change doesn't it! I'm still in a state of shock.

Dear Sir, thanks for yours. I have not been in the UK since 1982, as my life takes place on the continent and well east of the Rhine. I am sorry if a woman in the underground was rude. My memory of the UK is very different from what you describe, but I am a romantic in this connection---all the more dangerous and confusing. The invitation to you stands to Fritz's Schreckenskabinett, if you are ever in this part of the world. Happy Tuche und Stoffe!

Postscriptum: In this friendly vein in a time of generalized doom on the cusp of the holiday season, might I write that I have made the acquaintance of Peter Whamond and can only express my great respect and admiration for his skill with this interesting material. He is a great credit to us all.

[BenVK]

Completely off topic but somehow strangely related.
I recently bought a tunic and 2 caps belonging to an RAF pilot officer, twice mentioned in dispatches during the war from his grandaughter although I didn't know that at the time. It was an ebay auction and only after the garments had arrived and I emailed her to say thanks, that the family connection came out.
What I found fasicnating was that she included a Nottingham local newspaper from july 1945 in which her grandfather was on the front page. As we all know, nowadays, our politicians and media like to point out the moral decline of our youth at every opportunity and compare it to the "good old days" of socialy obedience. Yet, in this 1945 newspaper, right alongside news about the pacific war and her grandad, are two articules that amazed me. One was about a young woman of 18 arrested, not for the first time, for drunk and disorderly behaviour and assaulting a policeman, the other about another young woman who had killed her young baby. Most of other stories reffered to thefts of food, petrol and pretty much anything that was in short supply at that time. It's quite an eye opener.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

This is my point about the reality of the past in its totality versus the mythical and streamlined version we all get too frequently in our silly world. I always find the complexity of the truth much more interesting than the myths and the legends, actually. The complexity and contradictions are the more compelling. You have to separate tradition from history, since the latter is what you and I are talking about with your newspaper articles. We maintain tradition in that we preserve important artifacts from the past and admire the virtues of soldiers in wartime; we seek to uncover the truth about these objects by the historical reality that young women in the UK during World War II were not all like the comely woman driver in the Colonel Blimp film. I forget her name, but she was a real beauty.

[BOB COLEMAN]

Freidrich-
I believe the actress was Deborah Kerr.

Ben-
Your comments are interesting and so true. On our Thanksgiving Day, I met a former U S Army officer who served in France. While being transported to the frontlines during the breakout, he was hailed by a Frenchman entreating his assistance. The man lead him to a room where is daughter was being raped by two American military men. The man placed them under arrest until M P's came and he continued on to the front. He was quickly removed from the front and sent to rear headquarters in Normandy, where he was required to testify in the court martial of the two men. The men were convicted and immediately taken to the gallows. When he asked one of the military attorneys how this would be handled with next of kin, the response was "missing in action."
Reality and what we are some times lead to believe in history can be polar opposites. About ten years ago, I met a young Japanese who thought Japan fought with the Americans against Hitler.
The young are no longer taught history and we are thus doomed to repeat the errors of the past. We custodians of these artifacts of the past have a duty not only to conserve but also educate the young. In other words Ben, I enjoyed your post and decided to go even further off subject.

[Troy Tempest]

Reality and what we are some times lead to believe in history can be polar opposites. About ten years ago, I met a young Japanese who thought Japan fought with the Americans against Hitler. The young are no longer taught history and we are thus doomed to repeat the errors of the past. We custodians of these artifacts of the past have a duty not only to conserve but also educate the young. In other words Ben, I enjoyed your post and decided to go even further off subject.

Off topic I know, but Bob reminded me of something very similar. About ten years ago (2002), when I had a furniture removals business, I often used young backpackers for casual labour. Most of them were from the UK or Ireland, but one day a couple of Japanese guys rang about some work. They were nice blokes, maybe early twenties, both had finished uni and were having a semi-working holiday in Sydney before flying back to start their respective careers. After work, they asked me what the tv news meant the night before when they were talking about the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin. I told them how, after Pearl Harbour, the Japanese invaded New Guinea, and the Aussies were up on the Kokoda Track, and actually inflicted the first land defeat on the Imperial Japanese Army.

I told them how, if they had wanted to, they could have invaded Australia, as after they bombed Darwin, apart from some American forces here, we were totally helpless. I also told them that the IJN dropped more bombs on Darwin than they dropped on Pearl Harbour. I could see they knew nothing of this, so this led to a brief history about the capture of Singapore, and the death marches, torture and execution of Aussies and other Allied soldiers, and the general brutal treatment of any non-Japanese prisoners. I couldn't believe it when both of them got angry, and claimed I was making it up! One of them got extremely angry, and I thought he was about to start punching on! I assured him that my maternal grandfather and uncle were both in New Guinea in 1942, and that they were welcome to watch last years Anzac Day march, which I had on video.

I had to take them to my place, and show them some books, we watched FOUR dvds, and where to look on the net to learn all about this. I also had to explain why their own neighbours (China, Korea etc) were mistrustful of Japan. And don't get me started on the Rape Of Nanking! Here were two smart guys, both with uni degrees, and yet NEITHER of them had any knowledge whatsoever about what had gone on in the Pacific. They learnt more during my crash course on WWII than all their previous home/school/uni teachings. They stayed the night, and the next morning both were somewhat bashful for their anger the previous day, and apologised profusely. "No worries mate!" I cheerily replied, and they left with a new perspective on their country and its history re WWII and earlier. What on earth do they teach them at home, school and in uni in Japan?