Remembering the horrors of World War II

Karachi
The Alliance Francaise was on Wednesday host to the screening of two one-hour duration movies that took the audience back in time to the by-now foggy past recalling the horrors of World War II.
To an overwhelming number of us today, WWII may be nothing more than a distant event in history like umpteen others, shrouded in virtual oblivion, something that just happens as the years roll by into decades.
However, for those of us who were there to watch the movie, it was not the foggy past that it would seem to be. The viewers were catapulted back in time to witness WWII, a war that caused 50 million to lose their lives for no fault of theirs.
It shows the monstrous destruction of human lives and property that resulted with political leaders gloating over their murderous exploits.
The opening scene is the Berlin of 1933, a pulsating city with all the activity that makes a city buoyant, with street cafes, affluent shopping centres and people going about their daily chores, all the gaiety and merriment.
Then comes Adolf Hitler’s takeover of Germany and rapid industrialisation and militarisation begins. As history has it, Hitler, who had fought as a corporal in World War I , a war which Germany lost, is hell-bent on avenging Germany’s humiliating defeat in that war.
The scenes show the Jews being herded into ghettos and prisons by the Nazis as Hitler held the Jews responsible for the defeat and the problems that always follow a defeat.
This is followed by Hitler attacking Poland on September 1, 1939 and devastating Warsaw mercilessly, followed by the French declaration of war on Germany on September 3, 1939.
There follow gory, stomach-churning scenes of fighting with bombs and cannons decimating multi-storeyed buildings into insurmountable walls of smoke, and causing the most pathetic human displacement with bonnie babies bearing most of the brunt of the situation.
The films, which have been “colourised”, have been taken

from the archives and show all the political and military leaders of the time. This includes Hitler, his foreign minister Von Ribbentrop, his Air Force chief Hermann Goering, General De Gaulle, Marshall Petain, UK prime ministers Neville Chamber and Sir Winston Churchill, Marshall Petain, the leader of war time France who capitulated to the Nazis, and others.
It is a worthwhile experiment in living history. The films show the evacuation of Dunkirk in northern France by the British forces entailing all the tragedy.
The fall of Paris to the Nazis on May 10, 1940, is well documented as is the German cakewalk over the Maginot Line, considered impregnable by France
Then there’s Hitler’s Operation Sea Lion which aims at occupying the UK by pulverising her defences from the air, an operation that went awry and Hitler who is depicted throughout the movie as gloating over the alacrity of his armies, is shown as really sullen and disappointed.
It is inspiring to see the plucky resolve of the British nation bolstered by Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill’s frequent addresses to the nation and galvanising into a potent anti-Nazi force.
It shows the merciless aerial bombing of the British cities of London and Coventry which fails to break the resolve of the British people.
In the savage day-night bombing by the Luftwaffe (German Air Force), the British lost 500 aircraft while the Germans lost twice that number which compelled Hitler to give up his plans to occupy Britain.
However, what is most profound about the two movies is the theme that wars are dreadful and must be avoided at all costs. The magnitude of destruction depicted in the movies bears ample testimony to that.
Such screenings are a must as they acquaint the future generations with history as it really happened, and the blood-curdling horrors of war