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14 votes
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The inventor of glitter, Henry Ruschmann, also helped develop the atomic bomb
14 votes -
Parenting anxieties: Contexualising WW2 for a nine year old
OK, so I have a very nerdy, mildly ADHD 9 year old boy who has been fascinated with WW2 for ages. All this started with him getting obsessed with the Titanic when he was about 4, which then led us...
OK, so I have a very nerdy, mildly ADHD 9 year old boy who has been fascinated with WW2 for ages. All this started with him getting obsessed with the Titanic when he was about 4, which then led us to look at some old Nat Geo magazines about Robert Ballard's oceanographic expeditions which then led him to get fascinated with the German battleship Bismarck and Operation Rheinubung. The drama of big gun battleships got him in the feels and in the five years since then he has been deeply into naval stuff, particularly WW2 naval combat ever since. Musically this got him into Sabaton and their WW1/2 related metal songs. He actually sat down and watched the 1960s black and white Sink the Bismarck on YouTube, along with stuff like Midway (the version from a few years back). He thinks aircraft carriers are cool and ate up both Top Gun movies and is now getting into submarines (loved The Hunt for Red October) but wistfully repeatedly tries to reason me into agreeing that navies should have stuck with big gun battleships.
However, this has manifested as a deep fascination with Germany in general- he knows the basics about fascism, the Holocaust and Wehrmacht atrocities (but still can't quite get why it happened) but to a small boy I understand the OMG WUNDERWAFFEN attraction. Coincidentally his best friend is an ethnically German girl which further gets him a bit confused because he can't quite grok the difference between "my friend is German, I think German engineering is cool" and "but we still condemn fascism".
To be clear- he understands why racism and prejudice are wrong. As an ethnic minority in our country I suspect he'll come into contact with racial prejudice sooner rather than later so hopefully life experience will lead him away from the alt-right bits of history nerdery.We're in Singapore, which means there's very little consciousness of the Holocaust in public education- our history syllabus (fairly enough) deals with the Pacific War and its effects on postwar decolonisation when it touches on WW2 whereas the European theatre is just vague background.
I don't know where I'm going with this, really- I like that my son is a history buff, and I don't want to cut him off from intellectual interests he's passionate about but on the other hand I'm wondering how I can let him enjoy this while contextualising it from a progressive perspective.
41 votes -
Who really wants megastructure cites?
3 votes -
A brief overview of Shibboleths, including their use during WW2
9 votes -
Judd Apatow interviews Mel Brooks: "The Immortal Mel Brooks"
11 votes -
Upcoming Netflix WWII film, Six Triple Eight, stars Kerry Washington in film about unique Black female American unit
15 votes -
The campaign in the desert of North Africa in 1940-1943 mapped
7 votes -
Eighty year anniversary of a speed record build of a WW2 bomber
7 votes -
Why 95% of Denmark's Jews survived the Holocaust
6 votes -
Finland's long road to NATO – Russia's attack on Ukraine in 2022 revived memories of 1939 and was the catalyst that led the Nordic country into the Alliance
2 votes -
George Takei: Love and justice beyond the stars
3 votes -
Italy has a fascism problem. Why?
4 votes -
Barrett .50 Cal.
8 votes -
Globetrotting Black nutritionist Flemmie P. Kittrell revolutionized early childhood education and illuminated ‘hidden hunger’
2 votes -
Crippling Hitler's navy – the battle that knocked out 50% of the Kriegsmarine's destroyers in Norway
4 votes -
How Edvard Munch's friend Thomas Olsen hid the masterpiece 'Dance on the Beach' in a remote barn in the Norwegian forest to foil the Nazis
4 votes -
In accordance with annual tradition, a Norwegian Christmas tree has arrived in Trafalgar Square, London – this year marks the 75th anniversary
4 votes -
Military operations in East Ukraine (1919-1942)
3 votes -
Jerry cans: The true secret weapon of WWII
5 votes -
War Sailor / Krigsseileren | Trailer
4 votes -
What happened to flying wings?
7 votes -
Landseaire, the crazy Catalina flying camper of the 1950s
1 vote -
A working flight simulator, no computers necessary
4 votes -
Denmark opens Flugt refugee museum, recognizing the contribution refugees have made to the Nordic country
2 votes -
The book that sank on the Titanic and burned in the Blitz
7 votes -
Tennessee school board bans Holocaust graphic novel ‘Maus’ – author Art Spiegelman condemns the move as ‘Orwellian’
28 votes -
Mers el Kebir 1940 - Britain attacks her ally
5 votes -
Former NJ librarian told students in DC to reenact Holocaust scenes, report says
2 votes -
The most powerful computers you've never heard of
6 votes -
Are we at war with Norway? – Brits mock sad gifted Trafalgar Square Christmas tree
8 votes -
WWII animated: Second Sino-Japanese War 1937-1941
4 votes -
Part of a Spitfire which was shot down over Norway during World War II has gone on display after being restored
5 votes -
When hope is a hindrance
6 votes -
Shostakovich's symphony played by a starving orchestra (7th, "Leningrad")
5 votes -
Finnish director Jalmari Helander has started principal photography in Lapland and Helsinki on the majority English-language World War II action film ‘Immortal’
6 votes -
What if the Morgenthau plan was implemented in Germany after the end of WW2?
5 votes -
Dame Vera Lynn, Ross Parker and Hughie Charles - We'll meet again (1939)
3 votes -
Why Hitler was obsessed with Iceland
5 votes -
Battle of Savo Island 1942: America's worst naval defeat
3 votes -
WW2 animated: Western Front, 1944-1945. Part 1
3 votes -
500 year-old Italian pizza recipe
8 votes -
Battle of Drøbak Sound, 1940 - "Either I will be decorated or court martialed. Fire!"
6 votes -
The legendary Commando raid at St. Nazaire | The greatest raid of all time
4 votes -
Betrayed review – This account of the internment of a Jewish boxer from Oslo packs an emotional punch, but pulls back from displaying any real horrors
5 votes -
Why measuring the impact of Lend-Lease is so difficult
4 votes -
The Polish doctors who used science to outwit the Nazis
8 votes -
Pacific Series part 1/5: Why attacking Pearl Harbor was the least bad option Japan had
6 votes -
Mark Bernes - Dark is the night (Soviet WW2 song)
6 votes -
The USAAF intercepts and shoots down Admiral Yamamoto, 1943 - Animated
4 votes