h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I shouldn't bother to read film reviews. I know that. They just sour me on humanity. (Except when they're written by Awix. He'll cheer you right up.)

I particularly shouldn't read film reviews on Netflix - but, let's face it, sometimes they're funny, and once the punters are on a roll, you can laugh till you cry. Sometimes, I just read the reviews, and never watch the film.

This is definitely true of "Dead Snow'. I'm NEVER going to watch it. I have SOME sense of self-preservation. However, the Netflix people raved about this Norwegian effort, calling it 'an instant classic'. As somebody pointed out, 'The world needs more Nazi zombie pictures'.

I beg to differ.

Obviously, enough Netflix viewers are interested in Nazi zombie pictures to make this a hit. Which explains a lot of the junk I get for suggestions on this subscription service. I keep trying to tell them that the last 'zombie' picture I ever enjoyed was from the 1930s, and did not involve flesh-eating monsters, but rather voodoo ceremonies. Hungans are interesting. Zombies...er, no. I hate slasher flicks, too.

Now, a lot of the Netflix folks enjoyed the film that riveted us last night. I suspect these were not the Nazi-zombie crowd. But the general internet - including the disgusting BBC - called the film 'weepy', 'sentimental', a nd 'saccharine'. Personally, I translate this is, 'I'd rather watch zombies than be forced to confront real historical issues and uncomfortable truths about humanity. Besides, I'm too lazy to care, so I'll hide behind a facade of false sophistication.' I blow my nose in the general direction of such 'critics'.

In addition, I venture to suggest that people should NOT write reviews like that about films in languages they don't understand. If they want to review Norwegian horror flicks, go reight ahead. I suspect they don't lose much in the translation. (And yes, we DID like 'The Troll Hunter'. It was funny. It was funnier if you can understand a bit of Norwegian, so there.)

'De Tweeling' ('Twin Sister') is half in Dutch, and half in German. If you are able to follow both those languages, you'll find the dialogue amazingly authentic.

And the movie will tear your heart out.

The plot that these heartless idiots found so 'sentimental': two little girls, twin sisters, are separated when their parents die. In 1925. One child ends up with the wealthy Dutch relatives, the other with the abusive German farmer folk. By the time they're young adults, World War II is starting...

This film raises some very serious questions:

1. How many personal decisions are based on historical luck of the draw?
2. How can an individaul reclaim his/her soul from the Zeitgeist?
3. Most important, just what will it take people to realise that it's more important to learn to forgive than to pursue revenge?

About that last point: this film apparently upset some people because, after all, ALL films about the Holocaust are supposed to be about blaming the perpetrators and lionising the victims. There's no room for talking about the millions of people who were, probably, a little bit responsible, and a whole lot victim.

I know why the book this film was based on was a best seller in two countries. And maybe those critics don't.

Because those critics didn't have the experience I had in 1975.

That summer, two young German friends of mine and I drove up to the North Sea. When we got there, we stopped at a roadside inn for a meal. We often did this in Germany. We chatted, and waited for someone to come and take our order.

We waited in vain.

After about half an hour, I realised what was going on. They'd seen my friend's car, and the 'D' sticker. Presumably, they could also see that we were all postwar young people.They couldn't possibly have expected us to have been members of the Waffen SS, or anything.

I whispered to my friends, and we left. They were completely baffled, for two reasons:

1. They didn't hate anybody.
2. They were both German Baptists. Half the people in that church had been victims of Nazi oppression, in one form or another. I'd heard some hair-raising tales. The parents of most of these kids' friends came from the wilds of East Prussia. They had about as much to do with the rise of Hitler as I did.

We mused about this, but being young, we got over it.

I hope this film helps a lot of people get over it. Especially people who were born long after the war, but seem to have a lot of opinions about whom to blame for what.

I hope you'll get a chance to see this film. The performances are amazing. I think the most important lesson to take away is this: stop thinking about how important it is to get vengeance before it's too late - no matter whether we're talking about a war, or a personal injury. Start worrying about the fact that you only have so long to extend forgiveness - before it is forever too late.

And remember what Jesus said about that.

Words to which i can only agree, Dmitri

I have a question, though: Where at the North Sea was this? Surely a D-sticker could not have upset anybody in Germany, so I'm guessing The Netherlands, the UK, Norway or Denmark? Your answer might make a difference to discussions in this thread.

- - -

I had the luck of the draw you mention. I was born too late and have never been anywhere near any of the atrocities that befell Europe in the ugly years of the former century

I can tell you this, though: Born as a member of the Danish minority in Northern Germany I was quite nationalistic as a child. Nobody was more Danish than I was! So it wasn't very much fun when I was called "nazi fry" by local kids during holidays in Denmark.

This only happened a couple of times and I soon sorted it out by telling how Danish I really was. The suggestion that I and the rest of my family should have any connection with the dark side of the German past was just too absurd to upset me. Well, not for long anyway.

- - -

Yesterday Denmark reminisced and celebrated how the Danish people (not the official Denmark, but ordinary people) helped our Jewish country men, women and children escape to Sweden 70 years ago, when Hitler threatened to round them all up and send them to extermination camps. We are extremely proud of having saved our Jews - and tend to forget how many Danes were willing to fight as volunteers on Hitler's eastern front...

There are always two sides

Oh well, time to end this rant - for now

That was well put, Pierce. And thanks for sharing that, I appreciate it.

Yeah, I'm sorry - that place on the North Sea was in the Netherlands. And I'd like to add that we met some very friendly Dutch people, as well - I always liked it there, and in Belgium, even more. But I was often mistaken for German, so I could tell where people stood.

Of course, once, in Liege, I got mistaken for Flemish, and had to listen to a speech from a Walloon about how we really needed to put the past aside and work together...I agreed with him, wholeheartedly, even though I had very little idea what he was on about...

What the ordinary Danes did during the war is legendary. People have a right to be proud. I heard about them, even as far away as Pittsburgh. From Jewish people. They held up the Danes as an example of true humanity.

A lot of Danes have a right to be proud. A lot of others not so much. But unfortunately we tend to forget the latter part. It does not suit us

What happened to you in The Netherlands might also have happened in Denmark - and as stupid as it was it it would also have been understandable. In some cases. Up to a point. While most of the German occupiers behaved very well others did not.

The common German soldier was thrilled to be sent to occupied Denmark! Almost nothing ever happened here. They called it "Die Schlagsahne-front" (The Whipped Cream Front). Some of them volunteered to join the German army in Denmark to avoid being drafted to serve on the Eastern front when they had heard about Stalingrad and the Russian winter.

I'm confused. I don't remember any zombies in "de Tweeling".

I should probably emphasize that when I wrote "A lot of Danes have a right to be proud. A lot of others not so much..." I meant "A lot of Danes have a right to be proud. A lot of OTHER DANES not so much..."

And thank you for your kind words, D

Mala, the zombies were in some Norwegian film called 'Dead Snow'. It's Norwegians being silly again. Stick to 'Troll Hunter', much less traumatic, and no zombies.

I hear you, Pierce.

Forgive me (?) but I have to comment on your 1975 experience. Why did you resort to whispering before leaving - why didn't you go up to the relevant person and ask them what the protocol for ordering was & ask if there was "any problem" - sorry but I am sort of an inquisitive type (imagine yourself to be a reporter sniffing out stories). Of course if you felt that your life was being threatened etc then I too would have made my way to the exit.

What a good question, SA. In fact, I've never thought of it. So let me do that now. Hm...

I think there were at least three reasons why I didn't confront those people:

1. I was a foreigner. I spent most of my time trying to be inconspicuous. (I have a natural refugee mentality.)
2. I was with two very naive friends, one male, one female, who were a few years younger than I. I wouldn't have done anything to embarrass them. A few hours before, they'd blundered into the red-light district of Amsterdam. I'd definitely felt danger there, and extricated us immediately.
3. Even at 23, I was pessimistic about the prospect of changing people's minds - perhaps unduly so?

I'm not saying that tackling hostility head-on might not have been a good way to open up a dialogue. But you know, I wasn't self-assured enough to try it.

People's reactions to the events during WWII were (and are) sometimes very stupid, sometimes irrational, sometimes absurd - and sometimes very understandable.

Not serving people with a D-sticker on their car may fall into more than one of these categories - of which there probably are a lot more.

I had a Jewish colleague who rowed a small boat containing him and his pregnant wife (and maybe other relatives and friends) over the Øresund (which divided German occupied Denmark from neutral Sweden) on that fatal October night 70 years ago, when some drowned, some were caught but almost all 7,000 Danish Jews were saved from the extermination camps.

I'm telling you this because some 40 years later my colleague and I and 20 other colleagues were invited to fly to Munich and see a number of radio-, television- and film companies there. A very interesting business trip combined with a holiday from work and screaming babies at home. Plus a lot of pub crawling and other kinds of fun in the Bavarian capital.

But my old friend turned the offer down immediately and quite adamant: "I am not putting one foot on German soil as long as I live and breathe!"

Grotesque or understandable? The man had lost family members and friends from around Europe together with millions of people he shared faith with.

I never told him how many German relatives I have...

I'm with you, Pierce. I can see both sides of that.

I think it depends on how strong your personal associations are with a place or event. There are places in the US I don't want to visit again, purely because I didn't have a very good experience there before.

When we first moved to western Pennsylvania - I was 12 - my dad had a funny reaction to what was to me a beautiful place. It made him nervous, because it reminded him of where he'd been in Germany during the war. I only realised years later that he was afraid it would trigger PRSD - he'd been through a lot in combat. But he adapted to the place, and made a lot of friends.

I think it helped that I had such a strong interest in all things German. We could talk about it. It also helped that he didn't have a blanket hatred of the people - he had too much sense for that. During the fighting, he pitied most of the people. They didn't make the mess. They were just caught up in it, farmer folk like his own.

Two discussions emerge again and again:

1. How much did the ordinary Germans know?

There is no simple answer to this.

2. Does knowledge alone decide whether you are innocent or not?

There is no simple answer to this either.

Sure, a lot of Germans knew too much to be considered innocent today

But even those in the know didn't always have any chance of changing anything

And one should not forget that mass medias like we know them today were not existing back then. How many ordinary families in the German heartland (as in far from the borders to other countries) could afford a radio? And even if they could, how many could understand anything else than the propaganda that their "Volksempfänger" told them - in German?

Forget about newspapers!

So you had to rely on hearsay - and we know what that means: You choose to believe what you want to believe. So that goes a lot of ways also - and seldom in a 100 percent correct direction.

This feels much like preaching to the choir

But that's okay, it helps me to gather my thoughts - and maybe other researchers will read this as well and benefit from it

I may have mentioned it before: My uncle from Texas (married to my father's sister) used to drop depth charges on German submarines during WWII. My uncle from Denmark (father's brother) volunteered to join the British forces. My father-in-law from Germany was drafted to fight for Hitler.

They are all dead now and it's such a shame I didn't get to know what I wrote about them above in time. It would have been great fun to have them meet and talk to each other. They were all great guys and I'm quite sure they would have liked each others company - at least now more than back then - when they could have killed each other...

Good points all, Pierce.

Yeah. The more you know the people, the more nuanced your view of the complexities of the situation.

For instance, your point about communication is well taken. Remember, too, that if you listened to another radio station besides the 'official' one, you were committing a criminal act. And they had detector vans...and have you seen what was on their TV?

I recommend the writing of Hans Fallada. He was there, he knew.

Translate this to modern times. What do most of us know about what's going on around the world? How much can most of us do about it?

During my lifetime, people have taken my tax money and used it to pay murderers, topple governments, and do a lot of things I would never willingly be part of. Not once, but over and over. And I don't know the half of it, probably. Not being a politician, an international spy, or a supernatural being, I can't do a thing about it.

So people, please don't tell us that some farmer in the m the mountains is personally responsible for everything his government did. He didn't even have a computer.

I have been in restaurants / cafes where the service has been slow, I have been in restaurants / cafes where our table has been overlooked, I have been in cafes where I hadn't followed their protocol of having to go to the counter to order (although one normally cottons on to the fact - although if you're chatting away you might not notice). I can imagine several other reasons why people might not be served in a given time ... so I would be hesitant to "accept" that this example was due to hostility without further details ... and if it was due to hostility I would be hesitant to accept that this was due to them thinking that you were German. Some cafes will tend to overlook non-locals for locals, some might not want to serve what they think to be "riff-raff", or students etc. It might depend on who was waitering at the time rather than being some house policy.

If you weren't served because they thought you were German then the next question would be to investigate why they/he/she was hostile to Germans etc & one of the reasons might be unfounded bigotry.

Anyone this is just my thoughts & I hope you don't find that I am hijacking your personal space .... but the title was interesting & you raise so many issues in the OP ... and you were using this café example as part of argument that showed something about human nature.

The film De Tweeling seems interesting on several levels - but since I don't speak Dutch nor German I would be dependent on the subtitles & translation.

Replace "Anyone" for "Anyway" ... (repeat to myself: "perview is your fried")

We had the same thing when we were in France. They are also very unfriendly as soon as they notice you speak German. As soon as we told them we are in fact not from Germany but from Austria they were a lot nicer again.

So, Stone Aart, even if you don't want to believe that something like this happens, it really is that way.

On the Internet I've also experienced the hostility of people from Great Britain and the US towards German speaking people. Some, if they notice you speak German, will not hesitate to call you Nazi and other things like that.

Some people will always be hostile to "Germans" in the same way that some people will always be hostile to "coloureds".

Basically, some people are stupid idiots.

I wasn't alive when the Nazis took power (although my grandmother did meet Hitler) and let's be honest, most Germans alive now weren't either.

We have to stop persecuting people for the sins of the fathers, or the grand fathers.

Boy, Pastey, I'd love to hear the story about how your grandmother met Hitler. I'll bet that's a tale and a half.

The closest my dad ever came to a Nazi bigwig was when his outfit arrested Franz von Papen.

In 1992, Elektra and I had a really intersting conversation in the breakfast room of a hotel in Gotha. The man we were talking to was from Cologne. Turned out that as a boy, he'd acted in the propaganda film 'Hitlerjunge Quex'.He had tales of meeting Hitler, Mussolini, and British royalty as part of the film promotion. Of course, he grew up to become quite cynical about the way those people used him and the other kids. His grandson listened pretty intently to our conversation.

SA, how do I know this wasn't just bad service? Well, you'd have to know the country inns of that period. The place wasn't that big. Everybody else was local. The customers were all eyeing us and muttering. Several of them looked out the window at the car...I mean, it added up.

And Tav is right. People do this. I've been mistaken for enough other nationalities abroad to know this - never mind the times somebody's tried to make me responsible for the evil US government. And yes, it turns up online, too. Don't read Youtube comments.

And Pastey is right. It's dumb.

My dad's side of the family used to be loaded, some still are.

My grandmother spent her late teenage, and early twenties as a nanny in Europe for the rich and powerful, and one evening Hitler came to dinner. This was before he became what he did. But still she always described him as "A nice enough man who was just too easily swayed by those around him."

As much as he did do wrong, I think that summarises something important: it wasn't just him.