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Collecting this time period..........Why Not Me ?

Article about: Hey Gents and Ladies. After a conversation I had with a close friend of a few decades.,,and has come back around full circle..which there is much to talk about. After a long lengthy conversa

  1. #1

    Default Collecting this time period..........Why Not Me ?

    Hey Gents and Ladies.

    After a conversation I had with a close friend of a few decades.,,and has come back around full circle..which there is much to talk about. After a long lengthy conversation getting caught up with the direction our lives has taken us..we began to talk about hobbys and interests. We both shared each others..but it seems as though the hobby in which I study and also collect and participate of this forum..has sort of unseated my friend.

    The first words of course that I expected to come out was the evil of the Third Reich regime. I proceeded to tell my friend about the history and a the items I collected..which seemed further to aggravate their personal resolve with this time period and all involved.

    We also talked about the deniers and how they railroad the truth of what has happened at the camps. A few photos later of my collection drew out a response from my friend asking me..why you? ...I replied... " Why Not Me ? ...who would report these findings to keep truth alive?

    These items we collect are a testimony of that time..without these items that we hold ....there is no history.
    Would I not also be called a denier...for not upholding the truth? ....who then ...I said is more acceptable person than me to collect. ?

    Who? Museums? .....Scholars? ...high end collectors...then who? ....am I beneath those people that im not allowed to study..or am I within the realm of closet Nazis that share the same interests in collecting..but for different reasons?

    Am I not allowed?.....would I be a denier if I was not allowed to collect and to teach about it?...Do I need a degree?

    Of course Not. >_< ..I am as entitled as anyone else....and as my wallet allows.

    has anyone else been confronted that we are not the right people to collect..or is my friend concerned for me because of not being educate enough that there is more to the swastika then what the media and 3rd party armchair liberals profess?

    Your thoughts? Comments ? .. Why Not Us?

    Regards Larry
    It is not the size of a Collection in History that matters......Its the size of your Passion for it!! - Larry C

    One never knows what tree roots push to the surface of what laid buried before the tree was planted - Larry C

    “The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” - Winston Churchill

  2. #2
    CBH
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    A very difficult topic to approach with people , and these are very polarizing times . This hobby is tainted with it's fair share of wackos , but from my observations Larry you don't seem that type . Maybe he wasn't your friend in the first place , just A-hole . Some people today are so revisionist they don't want any reminders of the bloody past , only sanitized snapshots of the high points . With safe spaces and political correctness the realities of the passed have been erased from the collective memory . I collect the relics of a powerful and evil regime , and these symbols once venerated and feared , now lay in a box for my amusement . Their power was stripped with the blood of generation of men from around the world , these men pick up these trophies and put them into boxes . To show what might have been .

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    I tell them that it is better to have the relics of the Third Reich hanging on my wall than relics of the US hanging on a wall in Berlin.
    Then there is a lead into the discussion about why things happened the way they did. There is so much more to the Second World War than the Nazi ideology and the death camps. By that I mean the leaps of technology, the new strategies, the new weapons, and the battles where our forefathers gave their all, and many their lives to preserve the ideals of freedom and liberty as well as to send the oppressive and twisted Nazi ideology to the ash heap of history, along with the Imperialism of Japan and Fascism of Mussolini's Italy.
    (Edit - Those who fought for the countries of Germany, Japan and Italy were also the forefathers of many, and I don't seek to minimize their suffering and sacrifice. Not every German was a Nazi. My great great grandfather died in Messina, Sicily in 1942 at 86 yrs old. Not a fascist but a Sicilian. We shouldn't let the bad actors cast a pall over many who wanted no part of genocide or war crimes.)

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    Larry,
    I feel for you sir and understand your pain. I have to be selective as to who I share my collection with. Just the way it is, some people will never understand. Bob

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    Cool

    I have set up WW 2 German displays at gun shows and other event for better than 60 yrs. Sometime I also do US, Brit & ruskie.
    I have had more than one individual get really PO'd about the German stuff and make nasty comments. My reply has always been: Perhaps you would rather destroy all this stuff and not mention it in the history books? That would be the single best way to be positive that it happens again, because No One will have remembered the past.
    What is the saying - something like, If it is not remebered it will happen again!
    Sarge

  6. #6
    JMM
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    Because of that reaction I usually don't talk about or show the items I have - peolple just don't understand and immediately label you. I have reached a point in my life where I just don't want to waist time. Why bother?

  7. #7
    MAP
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    To be honest. I don't care what people think. I really don't. I'm too tired of closed minds...

    Not to sound "snobbish" but the reasons we collect are well founded on solid principals....so I don't need to explain. Most of these people have been "educated" by the media...thus they have no clue.....

    That said...to date, I have never had anyone get upset (initially startled? yes) and I do show respect to other points of view and will enter into conversations. But EVERY TIME I have shown my collection (guns, swastika's and all), I've typically had to kick them out as they can't get enough...LoL. Maybe I'm lucky or just a great teacher...who knows...who cares...
    "Please", Thank You" and proper manners appreciated

    My greatest fear is that one day I will die and my wife will sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them

    "Don't tell me these are investments if you never intend to sell anything" (Quote: Wife)

  8. #8
    CBH
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    Larry , I wanted to add something to this thread as it has been on my mind . I worked at a local antique store while in high-school , I'd been collecting for a few years by then and had a few Ek's and awards etc . The landlord of the store was Holocaust survivor , he had escaped from a train while being transported . One day he asked to see my collection , at first I didn't know what to say , but he was a really nice man so I brought it over . He was very interested to see it all , commenting that he remembered seeing some of these being worn . It was a very strange encounter but I was happy it happened , if anyone had a right to be offended by my collection it was this man , and he was fine with it . Don't let these these politicly correct , *ssholes bother you my friend .

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    I think some people just love to be "morally superior", at least that's how they view it. Aside from the usual odd looks at collecting wartime German militaria or political items, I've also had people critique me for collecting something that's related to war, as if I somehow have a fondness for it. You honestly have to be quite a simpleton if you can't see the difference between a person being interested in a subject and a person who loves war itself - human suffering and cruelty.

    But I really don't care anymore. I'm just happy to collect and be around like-minded people.

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    Although new to this forum, I thought I might weigh in with a few thoughts. I collect WW2 items because I had a father that fought in both WW2 and Korea. We were stationed in Hemer Germany for 3 years 1957-60 with The CDN/ British NATO group. I grew up in a military environment. As kids in Germany shortly after the war, we played in places that were not quite cleaned up and some of the kids found neat German war stuff. I was envious and couldn't wait to get my hands on my own artifacts. It wasn't until I got much older that I could actually start to afford some of the things available on-line. I also collect 8th-11th C. Viking weapons. I'm discreet when it comes to discussing my German war interests. It's still a hot stove issue with many. The awful history lesson is addictive and if people don't understand, that's fine...just don't judge me or dismiss my interests. If I had Nazi ideological tendencies and other wacko anti common sense inclinations then that's another issue. Being a serious student of WW2 history is never going to cause me concern that this may be less than a noble occupation. From what I've read on this forum I'm in a comfortable place.

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