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"Please Wear a Poppy".

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I just wondered if Nov 11 had ever beeen a statutory holiday in UK. It's always seemed odd to me living in Canada that the whole place shuts down on Nov 11, Remembrance Day,whatever day of the week that happens to be, whereas in UK life goes on as normal and tributes are paid on the nearest Sunday. In the US, Nov 11 is respected the same as here in Canada. It's called Veterans Day there. But whatever the day,it's worthy of respect and the poppy is symbolic of that.

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I agree wholeheartedly with your comments, Bullerboy. I too have friends in Germany.

It doesn't alter the fact, however, that once Hitler took control of the Nazi Party in 1921 and was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933, he established a totalitarian regime which, for whatever reason the general population went along with. It couldn't have happened with just one megalomaniac.

It's usually ordinary, often innocent, people who suffer in wartime but it raises the bar when whole religious, ethnic, political or disadvantaged groups are persecuted and killed just for being different.

The thought of what the Nazi Party would've done in this country had they been victorious in WWII doesn't bear comprehension.

I give thanks to all the people who died or were injured in securing my freedom and, as a corollary to that, they provided the German nation with freedom also. Hence I wear my poppy with pride.

 

All of which is true but my point was that the average German soldier was a normal run of the mill bloke just like the average British soldier.

Your average infantryman is not a political animal. Living here I have met many German veterans and most of them were conscripted ino the Army and did their bit pretty much as our lads did.

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Poppy Day is a fun-raising charity which would be unnecessary if the government provided for war veterans.

There are not many left from WW2 and I have not agreed with most of the conflicts since then. I don't wear a poppy because I don't want to be seen as supporting all the invasions this country has engaged in over the years.

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Yes you do - thanks to those who fought, died and suffered so that you now enjoy the freedom to choose.

 

It seems strange how some people are thankful that we now have this freedom, but have hatred for those that use it.

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Poppy Day is a fun-raising charity which would be unnecessary if the government provided for war veterans.

There are not many left from WW2 and I have not agreed with most of the conflicts since then. I don't wear a poppy because I don't want to be seen as supporting all the invasions this country has engaged in over the years.

 

Wearing of the poppy does not show agreement with government policy but shows we remember those who died in conflicts.

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Well said Blade most british people seem to think all germans were Nazis how wrong they are,during the war there were many anti nazi groups in germany...I also have been with groups of german ex soldiers and there was no ill feeling towards us only extreme kindness and friendship.
Quite right - as someone who has visited Germany dozens of times, this has also been my experience.
I agree wholeheartedly with your comments, Bullerboy. I too have friends in Germany. It doesn't alter the fact, however, that once Hitler took control of the Nazi Party in 1921 and was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933, he established a totalitarian regime which, for whatever reason the general population went along with. It couldn't have happened with just one megalomaniac.
Also correct - Hitler came to power as the result of a democratic process and (at least in 1933) the Nazis had the support of a great many Germans. But that was in 1933. Ten years later, if a majority of Germans had realised that they were losing the war and should try to make peace to stop the killing and destruction, there was nothing whatever they could have done about it. Democracy was dead in Germany, and the power-crazed Nazi elite did whatever they wanted. In the end they led Germany to disastrous defeat - and it's important to remember that this was a defeat not just of Germany as a nation - it was a "symbolic" defeat of fascism as a totalitarian, undemocratic system. The widespread support that the Nazis enjoyed in the 1930s is something that to this day does not reflect well on the Germans as a nation - though of course, 21st century Germany is a very different country. Buying a poppy shows support for the sacrifice made by our armed forces in defeating fascism - as modern-day Germans know only too well.

 

Karl Fauser (1914-2002) was a German soldier stationed in the Channel Islands. He was taken prisoner in 1945 and brought to Lodge Moor Camp, where he stayed (between stints working on the land etc.) until June 1948 when he was finally repatriated. In the meantime he had become such a good friend of my family that he was my godfather when I was christened at St Polycarp's church, a few weeks before he went home (to his wife, and to a daughter he had never seen). He often came back to Sheffield to see the friends he had made here, and his last-but-one visit, in 1987, was for my grandmother's 90th birthday, which happened to be in early November. He bought a poppy. I think that says it all.

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Well said, hillsboro. Whatever one's nationality, buying a poppy is a small, personal gesture in support of those who fought to preserve our freedom. Freedom to live in a democratic country, freedom from the police state, freedom from oppression and, yes, freedom to buy - or not to buy - a poppy.

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All of which is true but my point was that the average German soldier was a normal run of the mill bloke just like the average British soldier.

Your average infantryman is not a political animal. Living here I have met many German veterans and most of them were conscripted ino the Army and did their bit pretty much as our lads did.

Only our lads wouldnt have been shot for refusing,these were terrible times for most ordinary Germans.just imagine,how anyone would feel if they saw their neighbours,friends and aquaintences who they had grown up with for years being marched away,never to be seen again and being helpless to do anything about it.By all means wear our poppies with pride but lets not forget all sides suffered in many ways.

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"Please Wear a Poppy" is the title of Tuppies Poem, not an exhortation to buy a poppy. People who buy a poppy do so of their own free will, to remember the dead and help the injured and certainly don't need encouragement from me.

If you actually read this moving poem before you posted your reply Bensonhedges, you must have a heart of stone.

Edited by cat631

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