Should certain re-enactment groups be banned?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.telegraph....olocaust-victims.html

It is obvious that asking a Jewish couple to act out the roll as Holocaust victims would be totally wrong, but should certain uniforms be banned in case they cause offence?

Why these re-enactment groups choose to dress up and take part in these re-enactments is yet another question, but I suppose they do attract audiences.

But ban one,and where does it end, ban the Sealed Knot lot, in case it offends certain Royalists or Puritans?

Ban re-enactments of the Battle of Waterloo in case it offends the French?



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[Canary42]

That's the problem with "freedom" - who draws the line ?

[hc4361]

Did the asker know the couple are Jewish?

[tonyav]

Interesting question aog, I think it would be wrong to ban all re-enactment groups though. A lot of people get much enjoyment with the likes of the Sealed Knot etc.

[emmie]

Wearing of the Nazi uniform should be banned, I can't be the only one who finds it offensive, this was insensitive in the extreme. As to the couple i hope they gave the person a rollocking. I know i would have done.

[jno]

I think this relates to re-enacting events that are still fresh in human memory. That's different from Waterloo or Naseby.

[emmie]

hc why should it matter.

[Mosaic]

I could only agree if it were also enforced that Orange Order insignia were similarly banned.

[andy-hughes]

Welcome back AOG - we were getting worried about you!

I think this is an issue of time and place.

Re-enacting the English Civil War, as sone by the Sealed Knot can be seen as historic, given the gap of several hundred years between the events and today.

Not so re-enacting WW11 situations - I would suggest it is in bad taste to parade around in a Nazi uniform outside the privacy of the wearer's own home. There are far too many people alive today with personal experience of the war, and enough of their children and grandchildren to be upset by such crass behaviour.

I would deeply suspect the motives of anyone who wanted to strut around dressed as a Nazi anywhere in public - the station authorities should not have allowed this event - regardless of their mealy-mouthed concessions by banning the most strident of the Nazi images and regalia.

[emmie]

if you lost your family in the gas ovens, would you be so happy to see anyone wearing it, i expect not. It is not a uniform i feel should ever be worn again, and certainly not for a party.

[chaptazbru]

Agree.

[humbersloop]

Has anyone told prince harry that em?

[ChuckFickens]

Goering seems to have been at the pies!

[jno]

they have indeed, humbersloop. You won't be seeing him in one again. He was quite young at the time, his parents were off in their love nest, there was nobody around to tell him he might be making a mistake. He's not done anything very silly since then, iirc, and a great deal that takes courage.

[tonyav]

Or that MP not long ago sloopy.

[Davethedog]

Theres a distinction here, at least as far as I can see, if they wanted to re-ennact the battle of the bulge or the D-Day landings I wouldn't be bothered, however the fact that they wish to portray the SS, who to my fragmentary knowledge, were only involved in any fighting towards the end of the war but are indelibly linked to the murder of over 6 million people. would make me quetion their motives.

As for Goering did he ever leave Berlin?

[humbersloop]

I'm with andy and dave.

And how on earth does this commemorate Brenda's shindig anyway?

[hc4361]

em10 - it matters because the couple are offended because they were asked to play Jews, when in fact they are Jewish.

[emmie]

no idea, but feel there is more to this story, if you read further down, it seems not the first time they have these cretins parading around in Nazi uniforms.

[emmie]

hc, they should not have been asked, is what i meant. It is more than just insensitive.

[sp1814]

I think it's a matter of time...there are too many people still alive for whom this would be in very poor taste.

Like running around a village in Vietnam pretending to be suffering from burns from Agent Orange, or covering yourself with flour and stumbling around Ground Zero in New York on September 11th this year.

Good taste should determine what is and isn't acceptable, and debates like this one frame what we think of as 'acceptable boundaries'.

I personally don't think any re-enactment society should be banned - those that people deem to be in poor taste will simply wither on the vine.