WOW. That was amazing. I didn't even know this existed. Random thoughts
--some of those soldiers were so YOUNG, particularly the German prisoners. I know that towards the end of the war some as young as 15 were drafted.
--Since D Day was a surprise, I wondered what happened to the civilians in those ruined buildings in Normandy. How long did it take them to get to safety? About 20,000 civilians died, Google tells me. About 3000 civilians during the Battle of the Bulge.
--some of the shots of young kids --toddlers--(at least in 1945) must have been born within months or weeks of me. I was born just a few days before D-Day. (No pictures of babies in 1944, thank god. )
--that Christmas tree with the grenade
--we have all been sheltered from the worst images of those concentration camp victims--that pile of bodies at Dachau. In color, much more real than anything in books. I've visited Dachau. It is sobering in the extreme even now. But that---no words.
As the film notes, much of Eastern Europe didn't really remain "free." The Cold War engulphed us all. And now the news says that the EU elections are going right wing. When will they ever learn, when will they ever, learn.
I'm not so sure...when I think of watching TV in the fifties, I remember a vast amount of very graphic concentration camp footage. Gabby Hayes and Disney are both close seconds, but it's those piles of bodies I remember most clearly.
me too. But the ones in the color film are much more shattering. I think it is true that color adds an immediacy that black and white doesn't. You can see it particularly on either "colorized" or "taken in color but printed in black and white" of pictures from a long time ago. Just scenes of the 1800s look like people, suddenly, not grainy dolls.
WOW. That was amazing. I didn't even know this existed. Random thoughts
--some of those soldiers were so YOUNG, particularly the German prisoners. I know that towards the end of the war some as young as 15 were drafted.
--Since D Day was a surprise, I wondered what happened to the civilians in those ruined buildings in Normandy. How long did it take them to get to safety? About 20,000 civilians died, Google tells me. About 3000 civilians during the Battle of the Bulge.
--some of the shots of young kids --toddlers--(at least in 1945) must have been born within months or weeks of me. I was born just a few days before D-Day. (No pictures of babies in 1944, thank god. )
--that Christmas tree with the grenade
--we have all been sheltered from the worst images of those concentration camp victims--that pile of bodies at Dachau. In color, much more real than anything in books. I've visited Dachau. It is sobering in the extreme even now. But that---no words.
As the film notes, much of Eastern Europe didn't really remain "free." The Cold War engulphed us all. And now the news says that the EU elections are going right wing. When will they ever learn, when will they ever, learn.
I'm not so sure...when I think of watching TV in the fifties, I remember a vast amount of very graphic concentration camp footage. Gabby Hayes and Disney are both close seconds, but it's those piles of bodies I remember most clearly.
me too. But the ones in the color film are much more shattering. I think it is true that color adds an immediacy that black and white doesn't. You can see it particularly on either "colorized" or "taken in color but printed in black and white" of pictures from a long time ago. Just scenes of the 1800s look like people, suddenly, not grainy dolls.