Forget WWII

Everybody is dumping on the unripe British Twitteroid who said there’s no reason to keep teaching about WWII but I think he’s onto something.

Putin is exploiting the “we defeated Nazism so we are entitled” narrative to invade countries all over the world.

Americans are hunting imaginary Nazis under every bush and around every corner. They are about to erase the entire constitution to thwart non-existing Nazis.

Germany is so tortured with guilt that it’s been enacting an embarrassing “white man’s burden” spectacle for years.

People seem increasingly incapable of discussing anything related to WWII without going batshit nutsazoid. I think we all need a break from incessant repetitions of words like “genocide, fascism, concentration camps, Hitler, Mussolini, etc.” I suggest we leave the subject of WWII in peace for a couple generations and come back to it when everybody calms the fuck down already.

So yeah, I’m with the unripe Brit (if anybody has a link or the name, please share. I lost my link to the story). Young people deserve a break from our inane expressions of guilt over something that happened to somebody else a gubizillion years ago. It’s hardly fair that they should experience housing shortages today because Hitler murdered Jews. Belated repentance and expiation on somebody else’s behalf are ridiculous.

Let’s talk about the Mongol invasion of Europe in the 13th century instead. That’s a fascinating topic that hopefully won’t produce any self-flagellation excesses.


11 thoughts on “Forget WWII”

  1. \ if anybody has a link or the name, please share. I lost my link to the story

    Is it this?

    // Stop teaching about the holocaust so that children see Germany in a better light, says Lord Baker

    I disagree with his focus on British history only. How does it fit with today’s global world and EU integration? If anything, children should study more European history, not more re British only events.


  2. Be careful what you ask for! In India 13th and 14th century Muslim invasions are already being used to foment hatred.


  3. Looking from another angle, the offer to stop teaching Holocaust in Germany and EU in general right now would coincide with the huge rise in the number of Muslims in Europe. As we all know, Muslims are the most Jew-hating group today (partly because of the conflict but not only) and I don’t think scrapping Holocaust from school history books as Muslim influence in Europe rises is a complete coincidence.

    If anyone needs to be sent a social clear message that Jews are also people and that “Mein Kampf” isn’t considered a great bestseller in modern Europe (*), it’s new (im)migrants to EU.

    As for Russia and America, ‘Nazism’ is only an excuse. Everyone would behave the same without studying it. Besides, your students already don’t know Hitler is dead, what ignorance would be more pure?

    (*) “In translation, “Mein Kampf” has been a bestseller in the Arab world and Turkey, where anti-Semitic propaganda is pervasive in some circles” (article from 2014).


      1. \ Hey, there wouldn’t be a huge rise in the number of anti-semitic Muslims in Europe if Germany laid off the original sin a bit.

        I don’t think it’s true in the long run. UK and other richer EU countries have sizable Muslim communitites without Holocaust, Canada – ditto. Germany’s Muslim community was created by German plan to use Turkish guest workers to rebuild their country in the 60ies, without any connection to any guilt or shame over anything.

        Considering the combined effects of globalization, global warming and the state of the Middle East and Africa, huge migration to the West seems only a matter of time, regardless of any connection to WW2.

        I still have a dream that education can have a civilizing effect, and when it could do the most good, the cry is to ditch it and study “the Mongol invasion of Europe in the 13th century” which has exactly zero relevance to understanding modern politics and sensibilities.


        This TV star’s words made me think whether there is any Israeli or Jewish history he would Ok for study. 🙂 Even religious holidays are ‘they tried to kill us, but we survived’ kind of narratives.

        Also, he talks about studying “so many problems going on in the world like Brexit” at school, but one cannot understand the present w/o knowing the past. One can be indoctrinated though …


        1. The Brits feel guilty over colonialism.

          I’m starting to feel Russians are on to something with their refusal to feel guilty over anything.

          I have no idea why you think that the Mongol invasion had zero relevance, though. I think it’s massively relevant. Since 711 and until the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the struggle of Europe to resist the push of the vigorous and aggressive Muslim invasions and defend Christianity was the foundational fact of European history and of the entire Western Civilization.

          Obviously, the Mongols weren’t Muslim from the start but the Golden Horde islamicized completely at the peak of its power. The Mongol invasions created the current split between the Eastern and the Western Europe just like the Muslim invasion of 711-1492 set the Hispanic world apart from the rest of the West. And we can clearly see that legacy in both regions today. So I wouldn’t despise this subject that much.


  4. Just want to add that TV star’s words and seemingly your post too fit the ‘eternal present’ of our Brave New World. History is erased, there is only here and now. Learning about the past may hurt somebody’s feelings. In this case, according to Lord Baker, German feelings and (this he doesn’t say directly, being a politician) since Germany is the strongest EU member, one has to tread carefully. Schools should either mention 13th century or the latest news of Brexit, global warming and etc.

    Why not study more history of Europe after WW2? Something from the works of thinkers like Bobbitt and Bauman and historians like Judt and Snyder?


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