Would You Fight Hitler?

[aduidarnenye]

I saw this story recently and was wondering what BG would do.

If you were alive during the early 1940s, or if this sort of thing happened today, would you be willing to sign up and fight Hitler (or whoever was behaving in that manner today)?

Do you feel the oppression of certain groups, say ethnic groups or women, in regions of the world today, say Afghanistan, is similar and worth signing up to fight? Is there even a point to trying to fight this kind of thing today when armies focus on economic goals rather than freeing people?

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/a...-canadians-say

Liberate Europe? Defeat Hitler? No thanks, younger Canadians say

OTTAWA—The results of a new poll timed to the 65th anniversary of VE Day has the Historica-Dominion Institute suggesting there is increasing reverence for Canada's Second World War Veterans but a troubling ambivalence about following their example.

A clear majority of younger Canadians say they would not have volunteered in 1939 to help liberate Europe and defeat Nazism, according to the poll.

The survey, provided exclusively to The Canadian Press, shows a significant divide between older Canadians and those aged 18 to 35 when it comes to assessing Victory in Europe Day, 65 years after the end of the most significant human conflagration of the past century.

The poll, which comes as Prime Minister Stephen Harper attends a ceremony Thursday celebrating the liberation of Holland at a cemetery near the Netherlands-Belgium border, is in some ways paradoxical.

“You have on one hand praising (and) honouring the veterans — which we didn't do for many years,” Andrew Cohen, the president of the Historica-Dominion Institute, said in an interview.

“And then we ask the question: 'But if you were in similar circumstances, would you go?' Well, yeah, there is a high number generally of Canadians, but the younger you get, the more persuaded they have to be.”

Over three quarters of 1,025 respondents in the Ipsos-Reid online panel agreed that “the men and women who served in the Second World War deserve to be called 'the Greatest Generation,'“ a term famously bestowed on their American counterparts by broadcaster Tom Brokaw.

More than 94 per cent of respondents said Canada's war veterans deserve to be called heroes.

The association that oversees polling in Canada has taken the position that online polls can't have a margin of error because of they are not random.

A clear majority, 58 per cent, said they would sign up to serve (including 23 per cent who responded “definitely yes” and 35 per cent “probably yes) if it were 1939 and they were 20 years old. But that total was skewed upward by older respondents.

“If you're between 18 and 35 — who are the people who would do the fighting, after all — four in 10 said they'd sign up to serve,” said Cohen.

Between 1939 and 1945, more than a million Canadians and Newfoundlanders served in the Second World War out of a Canadian population of between 11 and 12 million citizens.

The annual celebration in Holland, among other European countries, still elicits deeply moving expressions of thanks for Canada's critical military contribution.

Cohen would like to better understand why 60 per cent of adult Canadians below age 35 say they'd reject serving.

“Do they know enough?” he says of a conflict whose lasting scar on humanity remains the Holocaust. “Do they know what this conflict was all about? Having learned what we think they should know, do they still believe that?”

Although Canadian history is poorly taught in at least six provinces, according to Historica-Dominion Institute research, the Second World War does get widely covered through other courses on the high school curriculum.

And Cohen notes that a number of TV series have aired on the Second World War, including the highly acclaimed Band of Brothers, plus immensely popular movies such as Saving Private Ryan.

“It would be easy for me to say it's all about ignorance, but if they're not getting it in school, World War Two is a pretty popular subject of Hollywood, or video games, or comic books, or novels, or popular history,” said Cohen.

He doesn't know how the poll response would translate into real recruitment if the situation today really did parallel 1939: “It may well be that far more than 40 per cent would sign up. But it did give me pause.”

The survey also found that 50 per cent of respondents knew that this Saturday, May 8, marks the 65th anniversary of VE Day, but that just one in 10 believe VE Day is Canada's “most significant event” of the Second World War. A majority, 54 per cent, chose the D-Day invasion of Normandy as the most significant, while 14 per cent picked the Battle of Dieppe and 13 per cent chose the liberation of Holland.

Apart from the age divisions in the survey, there were also regional disparities. Quebec remains distinct from the rest of Canada on questions about the Second World War.

Cohen notes that only 56 per cent of Quebec respondents said they would feel shame if Canada had not participated in the war, compared to more than three quarters elsewhere in the country.

“That's not a lot,” Cohen says of the Quebec figure.

“There were real divisions in Canada in the 1940s, we had a conscription crisis because of it. And today I think Quebec has always been wary or skeptical of the Afghan mission. They're skeptical of the last war, which has been over (for) 65 years!”

The Historica-Dominion Institute continues its work in promoting knowledge of Canadian history, and has undertaken an oral history project with researchers combing Canada to interview all consenting survivors of the Second World War. The institute plans to publish a book in November of the stories it gleans.

“We're trying to capture those memories in a digital way so they're accessible to this generation and to the next one,” said Cohen.

“We try to wave this flag and remind Canadians they had a past and that people went off into this killing field. Some came back and some didn't. Sixty-five years later, we hope you'll remember and hope you honour their contribution.”

And yes, this is the ultimate Godwin'd thread.

[Plow]

I would say yes, the scale they took it to is about exactly what it would take for me to be willing to go out trying to kill people.

[Cadsuane]

No, in hindisght, but realistically yes, without.

[The_OG_Nelta]

Hitler was a saint.

[yayaok]

fucking pussies, if north korea and south were to fight a war i'd enlist and fight for my starcraft rights, no doubt

protect your house man, protect your rights and all that good stuff

[Deadgye]

I would... with alchemy!!

[Chun Liroy]

If it meant I could drop a nuke on western europe, sure.

[Falcon]

Nah, he was a cool guy.

[Kyo]

http://i343.photobucket.com/albums/o...t/nigasaki.jpg

[Khajit]

The title assumes that anyone would give a shit if something like that started happening again. We've had a bunch of genocides happen already. The op himself talked about the oppression of women in Afghanistan but completely ignored Palestine which is way worse and HAS been compared to the Warsaw ghetto by people whom lived in it.
It seems quite obvious to me that the answer is no. If Hitler had better PR he could have gotten away with alot more.

[Chun Liroy]

Lol mentioning women in Afghanistan and pakistan while completely ignoring darfur.

[ZarakiKujata]

Or the Democratic Republic of Congo....

But definitely I would enlist to fight Hitler.

[aduidarnenye]

I'm sure there are lots of examples, that one just happened to be what I remembered when I made the post.

In fact, there does seem to be quite a lot of examples but it seems like people in North America are oblivious or just don't care.

[Zoolander]

I'm sure there are lots of examples, that one just happened to be what I remembered when I made the post.

In fact, there does seem to be quite a lot of examples but it seems like people in North America are oblivious or just don't care.

Hardly confined to just North America lol. You call people ignorant, and although that might be true, your naivety of just how much fucked up shit is going on in the world at all times is also apparent. This article (and OP it appears) clearly misses the mark on why a lot of people enlisted and why the countries went to war. "Saving oppressed people" was hardly the main factor.

That said, If I was cured of my disease that would/does prevent enlistment, and I was back in 1940...yea I would enlist.

[aduidarnenye]

Hardly confined to just North America lol. You call people ignorant, and although that might be true, your naivety of just how much fucked up shit is going on in the world at all times is also apparent. This article (and OP it appears) clearly misses the mark on why a lot of people enlisted and why the countries went to war. "Saving oppressed people" was hardly the main factor.

That said, If I was cured of my disease that would/does prevent enlistment, and I was back in 1940...yea I would enlist.

Why did people enlist? Perhaps it can be explained with just simply realising that war was still glorified in 1939 when the war started. Since the Vietnam War people have come to realise that war is pretty darn horrible. Neither of my grandfathers fought in WWII. One was an RCMP officer and the other was deaf. Strange turn of events to end up with two grandfathers who had no war service. My grandmother was in the air force auxiliary however.

And I do recognise that wars generally don't happen to save oppressed people, however one of the major hindsights of WW2 is the Jewish genocide (and yes, they did know about it as the war went on). Lest we forget? You'd think that people would want to stop that from happening again but it does seem to occur over and over again. This particular article is about going to war to stop someone like Hitler, not about why wars start.

I also know that it's not just North Americans but I thought to keep it simple since I am from North America and the article is about a North American country. I should include Europeans, Australians, New Zealand, South Africa, several westernised Asian countries, etc, etc.

[Ksandra]

Why did people enlist?

Same reason people enlist today. Money and to protect their country (rarely to protect other countries).

Also, the DRAFT. -.-;


Keep in mind most people in the US didn't even know about the genocide of the Jews until very late into the war. News then wasn't like today, the government could easily hide wh at was going on.

There are debates iirc over whether the government didn't tell the people because they didn't want to have to go to war, or because they didn't believe it was really happening (or bad as people were claiming it to be).

[BerenTebogo]

No fucking way lol.

In fact, I'd send him a telegraph telling him to brush up on his history of Russian winters. Man knew how to build a good highway.

World would be better off with global autobans, trufax.

[Brill Weave]

Yes. Without a doubt.

[ZarakiKujata]

[QUOTE=SathFenrir;3927554

World would be better off with global autobans, trufax.[/QUOTE]

Don't forget the additional benefits of no jews or queers either.

[Gadritan]

Same reason people enlist today. Money and to protect their country (rarely to protect other countries).

Yeah. A huge number of people initially enlist here simply because they don't know what else to do, or have no other options. It's a good way for them to make some money for school or provide for an unexpected family.

I live about 45min from Ft.Bragg, so I see this all the time. Idk how many people I know that joined because they finished high school, knocked someone up, and had to decide between working in a factory, or going military. 9/10 they go military, lol.

The protect your country and all that stuff is nice, and it's pretty much ingrained in people during their time in the military, but realistically it's hardly ever a motivating factor for enlistment.