It happened here

I could see it honestly

There is something really attractive about WWII for history majors. I think its because most history buffs are massive anti social nerds, I mean, we are people who get really into things, and care about things. History is a story, the ultimate drama you might say, and as of such people who get really into history (cough, me, cough) often can feel disconnected by the tedium of everyday life, espically if your a teenager and your in a quagmire of apathy and small picture thinking (no I'm not bitter thank you very much). And World War II is the ultimate example of extremes, where the people who think about ethics on a regular basis are finally confronted with a real evil, and forcing the people who just want to get on with their lives to be forced to confront "real issues". There is a great quote from "Last King of Scotland", wonderful movie, where Ida Amin says
"You think you can to Africa to play white man with the natives, but you don't understand Nicolas, we are real. this room is real. And you dying here is the most real thing you've ever done". basically he is confronting the White upper class doctor Nicolas, who has been in Africa mostly for pleasure, that he is stuck in this hellish situation for real and he has just been trying to ignore it in a sort of void. And there is a sort of satisfaction for hte Audience, who has been in on the situation the whole time, when he is finally forced to confront his selfish pettiness. so WWI is a sort of a mental power trip, because people like me can picture apathetic people suddenly being confronted by "the real world". The people are Germany find themselves in a machine they can't stop, the Soviets find themselves in a War that just boggles the mind, the oh so civilied French and British are right against the facist hoard, and normal people are forced to stand up for what they believe in, or submit to the dictatorships. Its very..empowering to those who actually feel like they know how people act under desperate circumstances and being able to say mentally "Hey, if this was 1940's you'd totally be a collaberator"
Wow this introduction has really gotten out of hand. Anyways, the greatest problem with learning history is that we can't really know what it was like. When we read about it, its tedious dates, when we watch most movies, we are following heroes. If you believe Saving Private Ryan, its a way to be a hero (yeah, if only that mattered compared to the Eastern Front...), and if you watch Schindler's list you feel like a good man who did the right thing. But where it really strikes home is well...the home front. In England and America, the nations in WWII that we actually you know...care about, the home front has this image of patriotic unity, as everybody does their part to fight the Nazi threat, with lost of comradely and helping the cause and stuff that you know is too idealized to be true. But its really in France, or Poland, or Germany where the real challenge is presented, what would you do if the Fascists took over your nation, and were slowly taking away the "unclean". what would you do, and beyond the dramatic "I'll fight them to the death", but seriously, what would we do?
And that brings us to one of the best movies I've seen all year, It happened here, an alternate history where the Nazis take over in 1940. It was made in the mid 1950’s, and took eight years to make, entirely with volunteers. And of course, it got into a lot of trouble by the British, cause it took the idea of British resistance and made them like the French, IE a bunch of Nazi collaborators.

What makes this movie great is that it is clearly very smart, and was made by people who can think. The film main theme about collaboration. In most film’s about the Nazis, collaborators are either complete pansies, or selfish opportunists who are totally out for themselves. However in real life, whole nations allied with the Nazis during the war. The movie empathizes that most of the common people don’t want war or instability, with one women saying something to the effect “remember just after the war when we didn’t have any food or heat. At least the Germans brought back a degree of stability, lets just work with them until we are able to get back on our feet again.” There is a very British phrase when somebody says “I hated the chaos, I’m glad they made things orderly again. When you have troops in your nation, especially when they are more than willing to slaughter you and your family, working with them is only natural, if not excusable. Not to mention the fact that Fascist movements got rather powerful in England, as the Germans had been trying very hard to appeal to the English, thinking themselves the same race. Its like watching Vichy France but its in English, so we can actually. The film shown some chillingly authentic looking propaganda reels about how the British and Germans are the same people and need to work together for the sake of National Europe, especially with the focus on the fight against communism. Germany and England are somewhat similar culturally anyways, a fact exploited in WWII as Hitler, who never wanted to fight England and tried to make it an ally. The Nazi video inside the film shows the famous Soccer match in Flanders Field on the WWI Christmas Truce, where German and British troops almost ended the war on their own, and twists it to talk about the “natural bond between Germans and British”, much as the Nazis were subvert anything if they could make it serve their message. Even the

The main character is really normal. She isn’t a political in the least, she just wants to get by and not get involved. And in doing so, she become an unwilling compatriot of the fascists, because that the way radical groups take power. They assume, often rightly, that the majority of the populace just wants to get by, or be content with their bread and circuses. Thus, when the Nazis take power, people just let them go by without protest, because they don’t really understand this stuff always. This is the danger of apathy, because nobody asks questions or challenges the regime, which lets it pick up momentum, as it takes more effort to look up stuff to contradict its claims than to just go along with it. And when she finally sees the darker side of the regime, IE the euthanasia, its too late. The regime doesn’t do anything all at once, it slowly draws the people into its fold and by the time they discover the true nature of the Nazis they can’t turn back.

Also the resistance isn’t totally good. The main character is rather passive towards the Nazis, but hates the partisans because they kill some of her friends in the beginning of the film. And we see the resistance in the end act remarkably like the people they are fighting, slaughtering one of the British SS units after they have surrendered. You know, just like the allies did in real life. This film does not pull punches, as it also makes an effort to show the Fascists perspective. On one hand we have the British SS man who says “Lets get the country back on its feet, then we will worry about Germans”. And we even have the British Black-coats, and the film gives two real life British Neo Nazis six and a half mins of explaining their beliefs, even when they argue with each other over how to treat the Jews (Banishment vs. Final Solution, real life German argument).

This film is brilliant, and it really doesn’t pull its punches. There is no Hollywood attempts to color events, this is basically neorealism with Nazis. No other film really explores how occupation works in such depth, making this one of the few films that I’d recommend all history teachers showing in class. Check it out, it’s a B-Movie, but worth the quality fail. Also i like how even with taking England, the Soviets still defeat the Germans, it just takes much longer

From

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