What an absolutely w*** phrase.

That says plenty about the type of sites you look at and try to use as reliable sources.

I couldn't give a s*** how used it is, and like most "words of the year" - they're bollocks.

I don't feel the need to term things, I can't stand the other crappy words or phrases that either side have used to describe themselves or their opposition. If you'd care to look, I don't use any of them in my vocabulary and will not use any of them.

What you've italicised is the truth. You have a very, very poor history at supplying anything like a reliable, or credible, source. You said yourself you saw something (you wanted to believe) on several sites (who wish to peddle the falseness of it) and blindly accepted it. I could tell it wasn't that from a single glance at it.

What an absolutely w*** phrase.

That says plenty about the type of sites you look at and try to use as reliable sources.

Thats my problem - I don't think they would have me

Well you rather disagreed with me and then agreed.
Remember we are talking about this with hindsight and yes, I'm sure people's thoughts about what they knew or heard rumour of was filtered through nationalism or their own sense of what they believed could be true.
We will never know for sure of course, but I reckon a lot of people in Britain and Germany were either shocked to learn of the nature and scale of the holocaust or had their deepest suspicions or fears confirmed. My wider point was that the holocaust seems to have a special place in history and politics. The exposure it has had, which has been in no small part due to Jewish immigrants in the American media. I don't think this is by any means a bad thing, as every generation needs to see it for themselves, but there are many other dark areas of human history that deserve a visit as well.
As for Castro. Being ruler of Cuba could not have been an easy gig, much the same as Iraq was for Saddam Hussein. I have no time for either of them but their deaths also brought me no pleasure at all,especially Saddam. I doubt the same can be said for the victims of their regimes.

You might want to read Evans' masterly trilogy about the Third Reich, Kershaw's biography of Hitler, or his The End: they make it clear that the Germans were well aware of the atrocities. Even if they did not know the details they knew the gist, as it became a crucial part of Nazi propaganda from 1943 on. E.g. Fight hard, because the Bolsheviks will do to us what we've been doing to them. Given what the Germans clearly knew was coming, that tells us they knew quite a bit more than they like to remember. You might also try Browning's book on German policemen (I cannot remember the title), or Goldhagen's book on Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust.

Edited by NickinOX (09 Dec 2016 11.05pm)