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Post by Wing on Nov 5, 2006 9:55:57 GMT -5
^*snickers*
I think it's definitely pronounced Er-VIN. He spreched deutsch.
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Post by Qualerei on Nov 5, 2006 10:55:28 GMT -5
well, yeah, but I'll be happy to hear about him even if pronounced "Air-win", in the French way... I was speaking with a friend of mine on the phone about Rommel (well, actually, I was speaking and she was listening) and she told me that before I wrote my story, she had never even heard of him. Made me kinda glad - thanks to me people get to know him, hehehe. Well, at least, anyone close to me is sure to know at least who he is...
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Post by Wing on Nov 5, 2006 11:09:22 GMT -5
Every single one of my friends now know about him indisputably. They all put up with my WWII obsession on different levels, and I've even converted two of my friends to a semi-Rommel interest.
It was just kind of awkward because we had a Holocaust survivor come in to talk to our school last year at a point where I was really obsessed with learning about the Luftwaffe (Messeschmitts o.O) and when he mentioned that he had worked in a slave-worked plant for making parts for the Luftwaffe, everyone turned around and looked at me, and he noticed. It was SO embarrassing.
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Post by Wing on Nov 5, 2006 11:11:44 GMT -5
An exerpt from a Gmail chat with my friend Stephanie on the day of Rommel's death...note that my away message was "Mourning Rommel". See? I've converted her! Stephanie: yo 7:18 PM me: hola *hums Billy Elliot song* Today is so sad... Stephanie: ? never heard of him how so? oh... me: Look at my away message Stephanie: i see i noticed 7:19 PM just didn't know what to say me: Lol Awkwardness Stephanie: but true me: Say, OH NO! Stephanie: OH NO! lol me: I, TOO, AM SOBBING! Stephanie: I have to agree with you...after reading about him i can not help but mourn 7:20 PM me: yay I've converted you Stephanie: unfortunatly me: YAY! This was actually a really interesting conversation...it was like three hours long. Here, this is from later: me: Took me long enough there's totenkopf ss for ye: www.holocaust-history.org/short-essays/himmler-480.jpg7:54 PM Stephanie: scary... runs away me: yuppers and he looked pretty docile compared to actual soldiers Stephanie: ?!? 7:56 PM me: himmler, I mean Stephanie: i know that he's docile me: he LOOKED *pretty docile But he wasn't obviously 7:58 PM Stephanie: yeah.. i don't think that he looks docile, just purely strange me: well, that too Stephanie: but, waaayyy more strange than docile me: well, duh, the man had no chin 8:00 PM You know, he was a chicken farmer at one point... 8:01 PM Stephanie: wow...that's such a change... 8:02 PM chicken farmer to leading the organization of the holocaust 8:03 PM me: I don't know... There's a certain menace to chicken farmers. 8:05 PM Stephanie: hmm..my mom's family were chicken farmers in taiwan me: HAHA! I find that hilarious Stephanie: okay... me: Okay, so every chicken farmer but your mom's family 8:06 PM Stephanie: no..killing chickens can be menacing i suppose...
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Post by Qualerei on Nov 5, 2006 11:26:53 GMT -5
My god ! lol. Did this survivor ask you about it ? I guess how embarrassing it must have been... When we studied that period (that's when we did that I became Rommel-obsessed, even though the teacher barely mentioned his name twice in the six months we studied Nazi Germany), we didn't have that (well, survivors are getting pretty old, and I don't think a lot of them would like to go to a school and be stared at by a bunch of students... I know I wouldn't). The teacher just showed us a scary video. Good thing the Holocaust isn't taught to small kids, because I was like, eighteen at the time, but it was still pretty impressive. We also watched a recorded testimony of a homosexual talking about how he was tortured. We're pretty far from the chivalrous way Rommel treated his prisonners (he had to stop some of his offensives to have enough water to keep said prisoners alive).
I'll have to be wary of chicken farmers, from now on (thinking of it, I just knew there was more to the Asian flu than we first thought...). But exterminating lines of chicken does seem to be a good training, judging from Himmler's ability... (and that wasn't meant to be a criticism, I like chicken. To eat, at any rate).
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Post by Qualerei on Nov 5, 2006 11:33:39 GMT -5
And by the way, you're right... the man had no chin... just like Gerard Jugnot (dunno if you've seen his movies, he's a french actor, he did a movie called "monsieur Batignole", and also "les choristes", which was very successful). It's surprising, because the man looks a little like Himmler (especially the chin), but he still managed to direct and play in these movies, and to do it pretty well. He must be as clever as Rowan Atkinson (mister Bean), who had more or less the same problem... Oh my... from Rommel to Mr. Bean... quite a change.
It'll be good if we manage tp make everyone a "Rommel addict"... Who gets to be the Rommel High Priest(ess) ?
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Post by Desert Stallion on Nov 5, 2006 14:17:46 GMT -5
High Priestess? Boy, that's going a bit too far for me. I'm just his biggest fan...Most people don't know who he is, and I give most of them a standard answer.
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Post by Qualerei on Nov 5, 2006 14:40:06 GMT -5
If you're his biggest fan, then who am I ? *scratches her head* We'll play semantics then, I'm his biggest admirer. There.
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Post by Desert Stallion on Nov 5, 2006 14:58:02 GMT -5
Well, here is that story about Rommel and Manfred. Manfred actually told the story to Irving, so it should be sound. Copied from The Trail Of the Fox.
“’Courage is easy,’” Rommel tried to teach Manfred. ‘You just have to overcome fear for the first time.’ Manfred still winces when he recalls how his father tried that idea on him when he was eight. ‘I found myself marching gamely at his side to the Potsdam swimming pool,’ Manfred said, ‘clutching his hand, with a big rubber swimming ring under my other arm. He made me go up to the top diving board and told me to jump. That’s when I discovered there’s a big difference between theory and practice. My father had collected all his cadets to watch. I said, ‘I’m not going to jump.’ He asked why not and I shouted back down to him. ‘Because I value my life. I can’t swim.’ My father reminded me that I was wearing the ring. ‘What if the ring bursts?’ said I, and my father reddened and shouted back that then he would jump in and save me. ‘You’re wearing riding boots,’ I pointed out, and he replied that he would take them off if the need arose. ‘Take them off now,’ I challenged him. My father looked around at all the cadets and refused. So I climbed back down the ladder.”
Now there might be a good drawing.
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Post by Qualerei on Nov 5, 2006 15:09:15 GMT -5
My, my, poor Manfred... That's not easy, to be the son of someone who apparently never learnt the meaning of the word "fear", or replaced it with the word "recklessness"...
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Post by Qualerei on Nov 5, 2006 17:20:12 GMT -5
That topic made me think of something... Well, that and a mail from my mother. I thought, Rommel seemed to be a wonderful husband and father (in spite of his, uh, courage requirements with his son). And then, DS used this phrase again, "in the doghouse"... And then I thought, what if he had a dispute with his wife ? Now, there's a fanfic idea... might have to wright this one...
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Post by Desert Stallion on Nov 6, 2006 16:32:15 GMT -5
Rommel fight with his Dearest Lu? I bet it happened more than once, since history describes them both as having been hardheaded at times. But then, it's been written that Erwin was a little henpecked, but that he happily allowed himself to be. I wonder what they fought about. Normal everyday things like most couples do? Who knows?
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Post by Qualerei on Nov 6, 2006 17:58:52 GMT -5
And here I learn another word. Henpecked. Didn't know that one. I've been trying to figure out what they could fight over, as I consider actually writing that stuff, and I had a pretty hard time doing so. I think I've got an idea, but I'm not totally satisfied with it. But then, ideas come when one's writing. As we say in French ; l'appétit vient en mangeant...
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Post by Desert Stallion on Nov 6, 2006 18:10:10 GMT -5
Henpecked means the wife kind of bosses the husband around. Like I said, I only think he might have been a tiny bit henpecked, not a great amount. What was your idea? I'm curious.
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Post by Qualerei on Nov 6, 2006 18:16:53 GMT -5
Lol... now that would be telling, wouldn't it ? Ah, okay. I thought I'd use the anecdote with Manfred and the horse, and then Lucie might complain that Erwin's never home, and that she'd like to go out with him a bit more. So he says, "okay, let's go out tomorrow", only the day after there is an emergency and he has to cancel, and he's so busy he don't think of telling Lucie. She gets real angry and throw him out of the house.
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