Sunday 17 June 2012

S and S - Steam and Soldiers

S and S – Steam and Soldiers


Reading the report about another “Re-enactment” involving actors in German SS uniforms, I find it amazing that the Heritage Railways keep getting involved in this.  The one reported on had an imitation Hermann Goering. 

This time, some bright spark had the idea of finding some Jewish locals and asking them if they wouldn't mind parading around with big yellow stars stuck to their back.  Perhaps they could take part in a little re-creation of mass murder.  Insensitive?  Just a little bit.

As a rail enthusiast, I know that many other enthusiasts are “rivet-counters”, i.e. fearsome in their persuit of accuracy.  Yet there are many instances of German uniforms being seen in these re-enactments, when the likes of Goering never set foot in Britain (Ribbentrop maybe, and not in uniform, but not Goering).  This always seems to upset people, especially when one railway had a “German spy” arrested and shot in front of visiting children.  Not quite the way spys were dealt with.  They are easier to "de-brief" when alive, you see.

If they want to create a wartime atmosphere, go ahead.  It’s good to recreate a period and show how the railways worked in wartime. Use actors in Army, Navy and Airforce uniforms, and Americans, that was accurate.  But not Germans.  They were only in the country in prisons, not on the trains.  

It’s simple:  No Axis, only Allies.  Rivet-counters unite!

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