#politics Spoiler.. Sebbies father was 14, not a big war hero, and the people fighting the communists in his story were nazi aligned. Anyone ever hear of the Budapest ghetto? Yeah. That.
probably because you were nazis.. moral of the story, Sebastian, is to stop being a nazi.
@AnnetteTRemain I don't know this guy but my mom was there too at roughly 14 years old. My grandfather was imprisoned during the revolt, my grandmother was sent to the countryside, and my mom and aunt fled to Vienna. I do know that there were still some far right factions and Nazi sympathizers but they were a tiny minority after 11 years. The saddest part about that period is that it may have been for nothing. Hungary eventually returned to fascism under Orban. The lessons are forgotten...
@AnnetteTRemain or are you talking about during the war?
@hallmarc They can't gloss over the ugliness of what happened in WWII. Just like Americans can't gloss over indian wars, slavery, eugenices, american bund, klan, etc. It is what it is. Sebastian romanticizes the part about fighting for Axis.
@AnnetteTRemain didn't know about his history but just read some of it. As with everything, Hungarian history during that time is complicated. For example, there's something to be said about Horthy's govt resisting deportations all the way until 1944. That in fact probably saved part of my family (and smarts on my grandfather and great grandmother's part). We know that Hungary primarily joined the Axis to regain territory and prestige lost in WWI. But fascism was already afoot. /1
@hallmarc All of our history is complicated including US. Many of them were fascist just like many of ours were then and are today. Yes lots of people died opposing groups in power and some capitulated to save themselves or their families. Tale as old as time. That is partly how victims were created was people protecting themselves and not their neighbor.
@AnnetteTRemain and there is the little matter of 12M+ directly killed by Stalin through executions, famine, and Gulag conditions. Probably 25M+ via war-related policies and the indirect consequences of his paranoid governance.
@hallmarc Here is my reasoning... the soviet soldier would view me as a human being. Sure he might shoot me or send me to Gulag or reeducation camp but he wouldn't view me as a bug. Gestapo and Ultranationalist Shinto viewed anyone not in their elite group as bugs.
@hallmarc True on all. Stalin lived longer than Hitler. I'd still rather face soviet soldier than gestapo or imperial soldiers.