75 years ago today we were celebrating defeating the Nazis...

[Soph0571]

Last edited Fri May 8, 2020, 07:19 AM - Edit history (1)

Our parents, grandparents or great grandparents, depending on how old we are risked everything and sacrificed all that was required to defeat the horror of Nazi Europe. How brave they were. 75 years later we are witness to the rise of the far right yet again. As the strong man era is seemingly being consolidated rather than defeated in this time of Covid, how disappointed they would be at the worlds lack of collective memory at how quickly things can spiral out of control when good men do not do enough.

History Repeats Itself
Has Too
No-one Listens
Steve Turner

Happy VE Day

[overleft]

1. Temporarily! We have them in the White House now. Sooo sad.

[keithbvadu2]

2. Trump "emboldened" the Nazis

Trump "emboldened" the Nazis

America fought a war against the Nazis and supposedly won.

Yet here they are in Charlottesville marching to "take back America".

When did the Nazis have America?

" Michael Von Kotch, a Pennsylvania resident who called himself a Nazi, said the rally made him "proud to be white."

He said that he's long held white supremacist views and that Trump's election has "emboldened" him and the members of his own Nazi group. "

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/fights-in-advance-of-saturday-protest-in-charlottesville/2017/08/12/155fb636-7f13-11e7-83c7-5bd5460f0d7e_story.html?utm_term=.b54a0162fe07

[The Wizard]

3. Trump is a big

Hitler fan.

[Celerity]

29. hopefully he copies Adolf's end game manoeuvre

[struggle4progress]

4. I'll be seeing you

[Soph0571]

8. We'll meet again

Still going strong at 103

[struggle4progress]

23. The Ink Spots

[Hortensis]

10. Poignant, all right. It's always with us. Here's another

as powerfully, if not as beautifully, valid today as when written:

The Second Coming, W. B. Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

[Soph0571]

14. This bit..

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

Makes me want to cry

[struggle4progress]

21. Everyone seems to have known after the Great War that another was coming

[Hortensis]

26. Yes. New patterns of extreme economic inequity and oppression

arising from the spread of industrialization were creating civil unrest, and dangerous reactions of left and right-wing extremism and destructive populism were attempting takeovers in many nations. The Russian Revolution had just taken place, and that vast stretch of Eurasia was in chaos with millions of deaths, and similar violent overthrows were being attempted in other parts of Europe.

Spiritus mundi.

[melm00se]

22. I call your Billie Holiday

and raise you a Harry James and Helen Forrest

Despite being born after WWII, I find WWII era music fascinating and how the tone of the music changed from 1939 to 1945.

[struggle4progress]

24. That opening horn is awesome! And her voice!

[melm00se]

28. Harry James blew a mean trumpet

Those Big Band Orchestras attracted some of the best voices in the industry.

Helen Forrest sang with 3 of the biggest bands of the era: Harry James, Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman.

[struggle4progress]

5. Gonna hang out the washing

[struggle4progress]

6. Run, Rabbit! Run!

[struggle4progress]

7. Beat me, Daddy, eight to the bar

[struggle4progress]

9. La complainte du partisan

[struggle4progress]

11. A wing and a prayer

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

12. If you have Amazon Prime...

Watch “Hunters”.

The series is inspired by a number of real Nazi hunters through the decades, but it is not meant to be a specific representation of any of them.[4] It follows a diverse band of Nazi hunters living in 1977 New York City who discover that Nazi war criminals are conspiring to create a Fourth Reich in the U.S.[5] A parallel plot element is the discovery of Operation Paperclip, the U.S. government operation relocating many German scientists (many of them Nazis) to the U.S.

Copied from Wikipedia...

The parallels are way too eerie.

[struggle4progress]

13. Only got one ball

[Soph0571]

16. The other isn't one at all 🤣

[struggle4progress]

19. :)

[struggle4progress]

15. Lili Marlene

[melm00se]

27. There is a very interesting back story to Lili Marleen

Originally a poem from 1915, it became a song lyric in 1938.

The poet Hans Leip despised the Nazis and disappeared into rural Germany.
The composer, Norbert Schultze, wrote marches for Hilter's invasions
The singer, Lale Andersen, had a Jewish lover and anti-fascist beliefs and was a target of the Gestapo.

Lili Marleeen, arguably, was flop until it was broadcast by Belgrade Radio when it came under Nazi control. After Goebbels ordered Radio Belgrade to stop playing Lili Marleen, the station was flooded with letters from German soldiers (including Erwin Rommel), asking for the song.

Because Radio Belgrade was powerful enough to reach most of Europe and the Mediterranean, the song rapidly rose in popularity with Allied forces as well. From the conflict rose a real crossover hit.

When Lale Andersen got on the Nazi's shit list (she had a Jewish lover), Lili Marleen disappeared from German airwaves. The British, never one to let a propaganda opportunity pass by), began broadcasting Lili Marleen into Germany with comments along the lines of "Wondering why you don't hear this song anymore? Is she in a concentration camp?"

In 1944, Marlene Dietrich recorded the song (re-titled Lili Marlene) for the OSS to be broadcast into Germany as part of the Allied propaganda.

She was the only performer who was told her that this recording was for the OSS. (Her WWII story is absolutely incredible as well. Among the stories: She was one of the 1st stars to sell war bonds. In 1944 she crossed into Germany with Patton and Gavin's troops and performed within a mile of the front. While in Naples she met a wounded soldier who was upset he couldn't let his family know he was ok, she barged into the CO's office, commandeered the phone called home for him...but i digress).

The authors and artist were forced to file claims for their royalties after the war. During WWII, their US royalties were sent to the US Alien Property Custodian and placed in a fund which the artists could file a claim. Needless to say, they received a mere pittance compared to what they would have received if there hadn't been a war on.

Hans Leip lived to the ripe old age of 90. Died in Switzerland.
Norbert Schultze also lived into his 90s and passed away in Germany.
Lale Andersen lived until she was 67 and passed away in Vienna.


If you can find it, the book Lili Marlene: The Soldier's Song of World War II by Liel Leibovitz and Matthew Miller, tells the story in full.

[struggle4progress]

33. Thanks!

[struggle4progress]

17. Mister

[struggle4progress]

18. Sinking of the Reuben James

[struggle4progress]

20. When the lights go on again

[virgogal]

30. I actually heard Vaughn Monroe live.

[FailureToCommunicate]

25. Fantastic thread!!

[The Wizard]

31. And when we have to defeat Nazis again, we will

[melm00se]

32. Seeing music has filtered thru this thread

here are some seminal songs from WWII

Dame Vera Lynn - while the superficial interpretation of this song is the blue birds are blue birds of happiness, if you listen to the lyrics you will hear that this really is an ode to the RAF during the Battle of Britain

White Christmas - Bing Crosby - the number one best selling single of all time (and no one else comes even close)

In the Mood - Glenn Miller - probably the most recognized Big Band insturmental

Sticking with Glenn Miller - his signature closing song - Moonlight Serenade.

I could go on and on with Miller but lets go elsewhere

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy - The Andrews Sisters

Miss Jo Stafford - Long Ago and Far Away

Delving into the novelty genre

Johnny Mercer - GI Jive

George Formby - Mr Wu's An Air Raid Warden Now (little racist so beware)

Spike Jones - Der Fuehrer's Face

Arthur Askey - Kiss Me Goodnight Sergeant Major

Here is one you may have never heard: the great Doctor Clayton - Pearl Harbor Blues

A very poignant scene from NCIS ('Call of Silence') with Begin the Beguine

BTW, Charles Durning was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts (one tough cookie)

here is the full version

Back to Vera Lynn - A Nightingale in Berkeley Square

Andrews Sisters - Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree

I could go on and on.

The tone of the music followed the Allies' fortunes during the war and really changed to a tone of longing in 1944 and 1945.

[Soph0571]

34. That was truly grand!

Thank you