Master’s Thesis on WWII souvenir hunting

MikeP · 05-18-2019, 10:04 PM

I guess you can be shocked if you choose.
Pretty unsophisticated view in my opinion, all things considered.
Young guys yanked off the farm or streets and tossed into a meat grinder where their life expectancy becomes questionable minute to minute.
Witnessing things they never imagined or ever wanted to imagine.
They are told their job was to defeat a great evil and save the world from it.
A great many had fathers who had been thrown against German aggression just a few years before.
Germans were not held in high regard in terms of those events.
My father was 506th PIR. He was involved in liberating a couple of camps. We had pics he took with a captured Leica when I was a kid.
You seem to think looting was wide spread and extensive. Not necessarily so, but it did happen. I grew up surrounded by WW2 vets and most all souvenirs I saw were military related.
To simply and quickly assess these men as other than "The good guys" is very short sighted, unrealistic and disrespectful.
War sucks. Bad things happen. Sometimes a GI does what he can to make the best of it.

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05-18-2019, 10:04 PM	#7
MikeP User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: ILL Posts: 686 Thanks: 36 Thanked 452 Times in 198 Posts	I guess you can be shocked if you choose. Pretty unsophisticated view in my opinion, all things considered. Young guys yanked off the farm or streets and tossed into a meat grinder where their life expectancy becomes questionable minute to minute. Witnessing things they never imagined or ever wanted to imagine. They are told their job was to defeat a great evil and save the world from it. A great many had fathers who had been thrown against German aggression just a few years before. Germans were not held in high regard in terms of those events. My father was 506th PIR. He was involved in liberating a couple of camps. We had pics he took with a captured Leica when I was a kid. You seem to think looting was wide spread and extensive. Not necessarily so, but it did happen. I grew up surrounded by WW2 vets and most all souvenirs I saw were military related. To simply and quickly assess these men as other than "The good guys" is very short sighted, unrealistic and disrespectful. War sucks. Bad things happen. Sometimes a GI does what he can to make the best of it.