The 1940s Trope

maybe

 

 

 

yes

no

I’m afraid for me it is becoming somewhat much too stylised. We have those covers where the fashions are indeed 1940s but where the wearers look too glamorous and too well fed.  

We read stories that are tinged with romance, red lipstick and dancing the jitterbug. I even saw a cover for a true story of Holocaust survivors where the narrator was walking away from Auschwitz in a fur coat and heels. She and her young daughter both look too well-nourished for people who had been in a concentration camp.  

Well, so yes we live in troubling times at the moment and yet we try to enjoy ourselves. Live one day at a time. ‘Sufficient on to the moment is the evil thereof.’ There is plenty of evil around now. Being mindful is a way of getting though troubled times.  As long as we’re not also putting our head in the sand and pretending the problems don’t exist.   

We keep comparing much of what is happening now to what took place in the 1940s. Well yes, there are parallels.

Many draw comparisons between Trump and Hitler. I also query why our UK parliament was prorogued. Isn’t that something similar to what happened in Germany in 1933 and led to the 1940s being the way they were?

If we are supposed to learn from what happened then surely we must stop romanticising the 1940s?   

There are two horrible wars taking place at the moment and several other volatile situations in the world. It seems we have learned nothing.  We must look again at the horror of the 1940s.   

 

One Child’s War by Audrey Curtain

 

This is an account of what it was like for one young girl and her brother being evacuated three times during World War II. Over seventy years on Audrey Curtain reminisces about those times.  In between the three separate evacuations she and her brother retuned to London and experienced living in an area which had been badly damaged by the Blitz.

For Curtain writing this book helped her to come to terms with her memories of that time.  However the reader thereby doesn’t quite get the experience of the child living through these events; there is too much adult rationalisation going on.

Nevertheless some of the details are extremely interesting.  There is a Labrador that knows when the Doodle Bugs are coming. The two children were treated well enough in their various foster homes but without any real affection. Maye the latter was more noticeable because their parents were particularly affectionate. The household included a couple of uncles living with them. We are reminded that his was quite commonplace then.  

This book is, of course, one of many but does add to the insights that we might gain about this period.     

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