Reply To: Midwinter Minis Historical Wargames are not popular because it has Nazi's

[wolfie65Participant 1240xp 1]

I’ve never had the impression that the presence of Germans (or National Socialists) in a game, book or movie made it somehow less popular, quite the opposite.

Now, the portrayal of them is quite another matter, much like the portrayal of sharks in Jaws – or just about anyone in every movie or TV show ever made. It’s a MOVIE…..

One notable exception would be Die Brücke (the bridge, 1959), probably the most realistic WWII movie ever made, anywhere, by anyone. A group of schoolboys decide to try to defend their little town in western Germany from the massively huge American tank army approaching. Honorable mention goes to Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben (dogs, do you want to live forever), also released as Stalingrad.

For those of you who feel queasy about playing WWII Germans, maybe Benton Bradberry’s The Myth of German Villainy or Mad Dogs and Englishmen will change your mind. Also recommended: Thomas Goodrich’s Hellstorm and Summer 1945.

Take a gander at what Rudolf Heß tried to do and how he was received in Britain.

http://www.rarefilmsandmore.com have a huge selection of movies from the 1910’s-80s, most of them German, some of them subtitled, including a series of DVDs of Die Deutsche Wochenschau (weekly newsreels) 1939-45. You can contrast them with US newsreels from the same period, available from http://www.ihffilms.com.

Always keep in mind that history is written by the winners (naked Celts, ‘illiterate Barbarians’, Nero crazy, Napoleon short, etc.) and what that means. A good look at Dwight D. Eisenhower and how Germans were treated after the war might make you feel pretty queasy about playing Americans, just to name one example. Bombing campaigns directed squarely at civilian areas along the Rhine starting in 1940 doesn’t look good for the Brits.  Dresden (Hamburg, Würzburg, Pforzheim, etc……) have already been mentioned. Look into the French occupation of the Saarland after WWI, Polish actions during the 1930s, exactly WHY Germany ‘lost’ WWI……

The list goes on. And on…..