General 1- Do not mistake tolerance for weakness.
General 2-For the fact that you are able to read the newspaper etc, thank your peers and the education
system, but…for the fact that you are able to read in English, thank those who served in the
Military,
Religion . -Anyone who can change water into wine has got me interested.
Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead.
Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Just walk beside me and be my friend.
Camus
And sometimes depending upon who you are.
If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much room.
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I’m so glad those words have helped you. They helped me just to cope with my constant anxiety.
For you facing much worse than me I wish you all the strength you will need to deal with your illness and hope you truly do emerge a warrior.
Good and valid point, fred, but it wasn’t just “the military” that secured victory in WWW. Hundreds of thousands of civilians sacrificed and slaved to keep the munitions flowing, the armaments replaced, the wounded tended, the incendiary fires contained, the railways repaired, the population fed, supported and succoured, the wheels of commerce, industry and essential government services turning.
Give credit it where it is due. Few in Britain were unscathed, many lived and worked in peril, many died on their feet tools in hand.
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Sorry, Simon. I didn’t realise the exchange was about cancer. I’ve deleted my post. Sorry, again for misrepresenting you.
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“Don’t follow leaders and watch your parking meters.” - Robert Zimmerman
Peter, Excellent observations and totally correct. With my spade working overtime I shall attempt to extract myself by saying they were working under some sort of military authority as well. They all did their bit as it were and a lot of them voluntarily.
Perhaps you should have looked before you leaped.
Yes, yes Jane. Message received and understood! 
[Jane: "And I jolly-well hope so too!'
]*
- Made-up quote, not actually from @Jane_Williamson
??? I don’t see how that follows (esp as we are in France)
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It’s more “we won the war” crap - presumably, the contention being, that had the UK not beaten the Third Reich the whole of Europe would be speaking German (ignoring the little fact that we would not have won the war without US help, nor - in fact - the Battle of Britain without Polish aircrews).
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I welcome the necessary reminder that we are (many of us) indeed in a host nation that paid a bitter price for resisting the German occupation of sovereign nations beyond its borders and fought alongside the British, Americans, Poles, ANZAC forces and others to combat fascism.
Now European solidarity, friendship and cooperation is under new and sinister threat from some elements of Brexit, and should IMO be as strongly be resisted as it was in 1939-1945. The German people are not our enemies. And there is nothing at all wrong with speaking German. It is a thrillingly evocative and stirring tongue.
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I saw this recently that shows deaths by country - staggering numbers:
Where do those figures come from? These are from die Zeit: (specifically, for Germany, 6.3 million rather than 8.8)
KRIEGSOPFER: Der Krieg in Europa und Asien kostete geschätzt mindestens 55 Millionen Menschen das Leben, die meisten davon Zivilisten. Mit mehr als 26 Millionen Toten hatte die Sowjetunion die größten Verluste. Deutschland zählte etwa 6,3 Millionen Tote, darunter fast 5,2 Millionen Soldaten. Die USA verloren 292 000 Mann. Über 10 Millionen Chinesen sollen umgekommen sein. Amerikanische Atombomben töteten etwa 150 000 Japaner auf der Stelle. Zu den Opfern gehören auch etwa 6 Millionen von den Nazis ermordete Juden.
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As these statistics seem to combine the deaths of combattants and civilians both, it strikes me as rather sinister, and inexplicable, that the deaths of 6 million Jews seem to be added as a bizarre codicil?
Having not studied 20th century history at school (we seemed to spend most of the time on Pitt the younger!) I always wondered how the Jews and others stood by and allowed themselves to be annihilated (as it seemed to me) until I went to Warsaw for a weekend. They had a special event on in one of the squares - around 3 sides they had display boards in chronological order of events that happened over the Pogram. It was a drip/drip/drip of restrictions over time getting more severe. One week Jews had to wear the yellow star, the next no Jews were allowed to buy anything from non Jewish shops, then anyone not Jewish was unable to employ Jews, then Jewish children were not allowed to go to school and on and on. By the end of the display myself and others had tears running down our faces in shame and despair at the inhumanity of it. I understand so much better now about this time in history.
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The German people have made heartfelt efforts to show their collective remorse for the holocaust. In many German cities one passes plaques in the pavement memorialising the existence of Jewish homesteads from which the ocuupants, whole families of harmless and gifted people, were sent to their death by the SS.
A visit to Dachau, to the Holocaust museum and memorial in Berlin, and my teenage friendship with a boy my same age, and a former (at the time, very recent) conscript to the Hitler-Jugend brigade in 1944, has reinforced in me the need to be ever vigilant against the rise of fascism everywhere.
I have not the slightest doubt that the same evil nationalist movement could rise up in England if allowed, or encouraged, by people in power.
The 6 million were not all German Jews, also this is an extract from a much longer article which goes into more detail.
That clears the matter up. I didn’t understand why the Jews were separated out, now it’s obvious. Thanks.