"The Evacuation still proceeds..." GR Part 1 Section 1

[Paul Mackin]

On Oct 31, 2005, at 1:05 AM, Bekah wrote:

> At 11:51 AM -0400 10/27/05, Paul Mackin wrote:
>
>>
>> It is clear to everyone, isn't it,  that the war between the  
>> Allies and the Axis powers  was NOT over the Final Solution.   
>> Rather, it was that the  Nazi war machine had consumed much of  
>> Europe, at one point almost to the point of an all out invasion of  
>> the British Isles. The fate of Europe was in the balance. The  
>> attempt on the part of the Allies to reverse the disastrous  
>> situation  would have been the case with or without the Death and  
>> Labor camps. And the effort of the Nazis to hang on until the  
>> bitter end would  also have been the same with or without them.
>>
>>
>
>
> But today, in people's minds,  WWII is far more about the Holocaust  
> than it was in 1944-45.    In 1950 a book about Europe and WWII  
> could have been written, and many were,  which totally ignored the  
> "Final Solution," focusing instead on the "diplomacy"  and military  
> strategy/maneuvers/heros  (look at all the war movies).    Today's  
> readers would be very cognizant of the holocaust no matter what the  
> specific WWII in Europe topic.   In the late 60s there was  a  
> growing awareness of the enormity of the genocide,   but there was  
> a more immediate awareness of the bomb.
>
> Bekah

Yes, in the early 60s (where I lived at least) it was as if, in the  
prevailing conversation, someone had rather abruptly changed the  
subject.  It was a big cultural adjustment for America to make.  For  
Jews and nonJews alike. The topic stopped being the Blitz, the  
Resistance, Pearl Harbor, General MacArthur, the Second Front, D-Day,  
Stalingrad, but now was the Holocaust.

Of course there were OTHER momentous 60s distractions from the  
particular war I personally had remembered.  By the time Gravity's  
Rainbow came along  WW II was for me almost a distant memory. The  
book brought  it all back.

>