Re-touching history?

[Jim von Krieg]

A museum in London did a touch up of a famous picture of Winston Churchill with his signature cigar that was apparently over their entrance way.

Am I the only one that has an issue with "re-touching" history for current social values?

Regards.

[Gasbag]

Sounds kind of silly to me.:rolleyes: It's like during the war (WW II) when photographers wouldn't photograph FDR sitting in a wheelchair because it was felt that the public couldn't handle having a physically disabled president...

[Herr Straße Laufer]

I actually find all that kinda stuff offensive. :chin: History is no longer "pure".

I'm still miffed that model kits of German WWII aircraft do not show the Swastika. Yet, they will show the Hammer and Sickle on Soviet models. Both, are equally nasty Socialist symbols and yet (I believe) they should both be shown, or both be removed.

There is also a hospital near me that spend thousands of dollars removing cigarettes and cigars from the portraits of their founders and presidents.
My childhood doctor had an ashtray full of "coals" and smoked in between patients. He would tell my father that smoking was not healthy.

FDR's wheelchair was not photographed because he forbade it to be. Nor, were John Kennedy's girlies, even when they swam in the Whitehouse pool. :smoke:

Political correctness gone wild. Someone should make a video? ;)



HSL

[alaric99x]

I'm still miffed that model kits of German WWII aircraft do not show the Swastika. Yet, they will show the Hammer and Sickle on Soviet models. Both, are equally nasty Socialist symbols and yet (I believe) they should both be shown, or both be removed.



HSL

Well that's kind of stupid, a Swastika on a model is not a reflection of a political opinion, it's there because model makers try to craft models as accurately as possible.

This reminds me of a guy I knew in Germany who was a kid in the former DDR, the Socialist Paradise. His grandfather was a pilot who flew He 111s during the war. Grandad built a model of one of the planes he flew and made it as accurate as possible, but he wasn't allowed to put a Swastika on the tail because the DDR didn't allow that. Maybe our political correctness is reaching the levels achieved by the old Deutsche Demokratische Republik(?)

[Herr Straße Laufer]

alaric99x, you misunderstood my comment.
The Swastika was not including in the artwork on the box or in the decals of the kit itself.
It is only in the last twenty years that I noticed this. When I was a kid I built hundreds of models. The decals and artwork contained the symbol.

I was once told that it was because the symbol of the Nazis represented evil and the killing of millions of innocent people. That is all well and good to know that but, not to deny the symbol existed in a historical context?
Excluding it is "cleansing" history?

I do know that there are laws which prohibit the showing the the Swastika in Germany. It might be a cost thing? The companies leave out the "illegal" symbol so as to not have to make two model kits?
So, German law may have created the "cleansing" and you might be quite right.

The irony is that more innocent people were killed under the Hammer and Sickle symbol than that of the Swastika. :chin:



HSL

[alaric99x]

I think I understood you clearly enough and, in case there's any doubt, I agree with you completely.

I just got back to the US after spending 11 years in Germany. I can verify that display of the swastika is against the law there, and in Austria. Any Nazi symbology, like the SS runes is also forbidden. It's a crime there to buy, sell or own a copy of "Mein Kampf" and certain web sites are blocked, such as those selling German WWII memorabilia. In 2007 the German government proposed that these bans should be extended throughout the EU, but that suggestion didn't fly.

I'm aware that the Soviets (most especially Stalin) killed millions more innocent people than the Nazis. As it happens, I'm now reading "Stalin, The Court of the Red Tsar" by Simon S. Montefiore. I learned from that that in 1937, during the purges, the politburo even dispensed with lists of names. They simply sent allocations to the various regions for numbers of alleged wreckers and spies to be shot and deported.

[Crossroads]

I think I understood you clearly enough and, in case there's any doubt, I agree with you completely.

I just got back to the US after spending 11 years in Germany. I can verify that display of the swastika is against the law there, and in Austria. Any Nazi symbology, like the SS runes is also forbidden. It's a crime there to buy, sell or own a copy of "Mein Kampf" and certain web sites are blocked, such as those selling German WWII memorabilia. In 2007 the German government proposed that these bans should be extended throughout the EU, but that suggestion didn't fly.

I'm aware that the Soviets (most especially Stalin) killed millions more innocent people than the Nazis. As it happens, I'm now reading "Stalin, The Court of the Red Tsar" by Simon S. Montefiore. I learned from that that in 1937, during the purges, the politburo even dispensed with lists of names. They simply sent allocations to the various regions for numbers of alleged wreckers and spies to be shot and deported.

I believe someone tried to ban the Hammer and Sickle in EU as well. What utter rubbish :( How can you ban history!

To read Mein Kampf is to travel to an era when racism was a standard for any nationalist country: my country is better than yours because I was born here. I have not read it, and am not planning to, but at least it is available should I want to study the thinking of a mad man.

Back to original poster:

Here's a pic of a Italeri Me-109 model kit :chin:
http://www.italeri.com/ProdImgs%5CPROD00072.jpg

Spot what's missing?

EDIT: Oh, for heavens sake! I used to build a lot of Airfix models as a kid. I thought it was just a few brands that have joined this farce, but Airfix is there as well.

I guess the German and Austrian markets are too big to ignore? Who cares about the historical facts when there's money at the stake?

Here's the Airfix Me-109:
http://www.airfix.com/airfix-products/ne...&sortorder=

So what about other swastikas out there? The Finnish Air Force model I remember I once built is replaced with a model with a post war insignia
http://www.airfix.com/airfix-products/ai...9g-a02029/

The Finnish Air Force used a light blue swastika since 1918 as the swastika was a common good luck omen. But with these modern historists: any swastika is a Nazi symbol, right?

Maybe the next step is to ban books such as these?
http://www.google.fi/imgres?imgurl=http:...CDEQ9QEwAw

.

[Dog Soldier]

Seems the museum is not happy about the incident either. Since museums like this one are large organizations, staffed by a core of paid professionals, but a lot of the leg work done by an army of volunteers, someone did a "loose cannon" act here. I have not found a follow up article, but it appears the museum wants to restore the image to its original form with the cigar. (article link in blue below)

Churchill Museum Picture Missing Cigar


Uniform, victory salute and cigar: Winston Churchill in the 1940s and now without his trademark smoke.


The Britain At War Experience in South-East London with the airbrushed picture of Churchill above the entrance

Dog Soldier

[Gasbag]

A few years ago Chapters/Indigo (Canadian online bookseller) stopped carrying "Mein Kampf" as a result of a decision made by it's CEO, Heather Reisman. She said that she found the book offensive and therefore they (Indigo) would no longer sell the book. While I can understand her reasons; I've read a bit of it & it's a particularly boring piece of trash, it does bother me that someone else can take it upon themselves to decide what I should & shouldn't read.

[Herr Straße Laufer]

"Independent do-good-ers" should be fined or imprisoned for altering history in favor of political correctness. Horrible.
It is more so when you see it in front of you! :chin:

Altering history is making truth a lie.
Sadly, many countries are trying to make Mein Kampf a number one best seller for a long time ... again.

If you fail to know history you are doomed to repeat all it's mistakes. What happens when it is altered and repeated? Yikes!



HSL