The North Yorkshire Moors Railway has stopped part of a longstanding Railway in Wartime Second World War re-enactment event, featuring a mock Nazi occupation of the North Yorkshire village of Levisham. While organisers stressed that no offence had been intended, there had been complaints about certain participants striding around in SS uniforms. It seems to bear repeating that these were not regular German army uniforms, but the Nazi variety – even if it doesn’t, I’m going to repeat it anyway.
This appears to be a re-enactment of a recurring argument. Some people believe such events bring history to life. Others say: “Erm, why are they dressed in Nazi uniforms, which is obviously offensive to a whole bunch of people?”
While I don’t have many mottos in life, one could be: “Never trust a man who enjoys dressing as a Nazi. For any reason. At all.” (Meghan, hear me?). Call me old-fashioned, but when people say: “Never forget”, this doesn’t seem to constitute permission to turn a terrible part of history into fancy dress – perchance with the Nazi-clad coming second to a bloke from the next village garbed as peak-genocide Pol Pot?
This isn’t just about Levisham. The re-enactment was merely a microcosm for a British obsession with that war and those “baddies”. You only have to look at satellite channels to see how popular that era is. Visiting aliens would be at risk of thinking the last war was all that ever happened to Britain, with the exception of a 1966 football match.
It’s good for national taste levels that the North Yorkshire/Nazi mash-up has been scrapped, but let’s be clear that this was merely one example of a much wider and deeper British obsession.
• Barbara Ellen is an Observer columnist
