Sunday, October 30, 2011

Getting History Wrong

Apparently, for the sake of cheap outrage over a Halloween costume offered in the United Kingdom.

"All that's missing is a yellow star," say one outragee. O-M-G, you might think, is it a raggedy set of vertically-striped pyjamas? The horror--!

No. Nothing of the sort. In fact, it's quite plain -- a beret, a shoulder bag, a tag and a coatdress of 1940s cut. "WW II Evacuee Costume," it says, and assuming you keep falling asleep when The H!tler Channels on cable or satellite retell the story of WW II, you might -- might! -- wonder, "Evacuated from where, by whom, and for what?"

Of course, you'd also have to have grown up in a country that doesn't commemorate Evacuee Day to plead perfect ignorance; I suppose that would excuse a lot of us here in the States, especially if one is incurious. Canadians ought to know better, and as for Britons--

Lookie here: In the Autumn of 1939, London was fixing to be bombed. A year later, the Blitz began. From the time Britain declared war on Germany, the Brits started moving the vulnerable out of target areas, the bigger cites in particular. Some kids were sent as far as Canada, or even farther. Most were sent out into the countryside -- evacuated there.

This is not deportation to death camps. It's getting children out of danger. There ain't any yellow stars involved.

Shaddup, siddown, and eat your history book. It's damned obvious you're not going to read it.

7 comments:

  1. Stupid should hurt more. Sheesh.

    As an aside, do you recall the statement by Queen Elizabeth, when asked if the royal families children would be evacuated? By my recollection is was along the lines of:

    The children will not be evacuated unless I leave England. I'm not leaving England unless the King leaves England and the King will leave under no circumstances.

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  2. You would also, one thinks, have to have never cracked open The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Or seen the movie.

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  3. Oh my! Yes. Of course.

    ...Frikking culturally illiterate novi-nomenklatura....

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  4. Wait! Does that mean I'm bad for never having read CS Lewis or seen any movies from books by him?!

    j/k

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  5. Not if you learned about Britain's child (and mother) evacuees by other means.

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  6. Perhaps it is the beret that confused them into thinking "poor continental waif to KZ" rather than "plucky Brit off to farm."

    Nah.

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  7. I will admit when the pics of that costume first crossed my screen a week or so ago my first thought was that it was the sort of costume you would end up explaining all night.

    My second thought was to wonder if Disney was planning a reissue of Bed Knobs and Broomsticks.

    That was it. I really wonder if some folks stay up into the wee hours just looking for a reason to be offended. And y'know, I hope they do. Because if they turned their attention elsewhere they might screw up something important.

    BGM

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