Well, any obsession by definition is unhealthy, so excuse the tautology.
I must admit I used to be obsessed with World War II, and more specifically the losing side, and even more specifically, the Germans. I suppose one could be obsessed with the Italians and the Japanese, but it is the Germans that really hold a historian’s attention. I’m no historian, but I like reading about it and reading about it again. I suppose every history buff is really searching for patterns, something that makes them closer to mathematicians than they’d ever admit.
The obsession has abated now, simply because I have no time to feed it. I suppose that after I’m finished with University, it might bloom back again. In all honesty, I didn’t feel it was that bad and at least I knew it was an obsession.
An excellent fictional book about the holocaust is called, surprisingly enough, ‘Holocaust’ by Gerald Green.
The book is very moving and quite faithful to real events. The protagonists’ lives touch on several real atrocities, with the plot following the real timeline quite faithfully.
Here is a little snippet:
"The children, Major", said. "Why did you murder the children?"
He replied that regrettable as it may have been, if the children had been allowed to live, they would have formed the nucleus for a new attack on Germany. The Führer had explained it all. (If you are familiar with some of the testimony at Nuremberg, you'll recall that Otto Ohlendorf, also a charming, intelligent, educated fellow, freely admitted that he ordered the annihilation of ninety thousand Jews in the Crimea and used the same reason.)
I informed Major Dorf that if I had my way I would gladly put a bullet in his head that moment, giving him as much chance as he gave the Jews. He turned white. But I quickly added that we were a democracy and did not do things in that manner.
A more factual and complete historical perspective can be gained by reading William L Shirer’s ‘The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich’, a must have for any serious WW2 buff.
Leave a comment if you’re a fellow WW2 buff or historian wannabe.