"Mel Brooks and World War Two" Topic

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"When were you first aware of Hitler?"

I am looking forwrd to catching these next week on PBS.
Plus, there seems to be some Shermans not accounted for in any of the Flames of War supplements.

Thanks for pointing that out – they both look interesting.

I will watch, and catch Defiance later!

Mel was at the bulge. He told that on german TV when he was promoting his dracula movie years ago…

"I was a Combat Engineer. Isn't that ridiculous? The two things I hate most in the world are combat and engineering."
-- Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1926 as Melvin Kaminsky to Jewish parents from Germany and Ukraine. Brooks lost his father when he was two years old, and in retrospect, reflects on that event as the genesis for his farcical comedy style: "I'm sure a lot of my comedy is based on anger and hostility. Growing up in Williamsburg, I learned to clothe it in comedy to spare myself problems – like a punch in the face."

Before he could complete his degree in psychology from Brooklyn College, Brooks was drafted into the Army to fight during World War II. He served as a corporal in the 1104 Engineer Combat Battalion, 78th Infantry Division as a combat engineer. One of his tasks during the war was to diffuse land mines, and he also fought in the Battle of the Bulge. It has been reported that when the Germans played propaganda recordings over loudspeakers, Brooks responded by setting up his own sound system and played music by Al Jolson, a Jewish musician. He would get in a further dig at Nazi leader Adolf Hitler a few decades later when he directed The Producers, a comedy focused on the worst Broadway musical of all time, "Springtime for Hitler."

When reminiscing on his years in the Army, Brooks trots out his trademark humor: "War isn't hell… War is loud. Much too noisy. All those shells and bombs going off all around you. Never mind death. A man could lose his hearing." Asked by his son if during the war he thought about "what it would take to rebuild postwar Europe," he replied, "You thought about how you were going to stay warm that night, how you were going to get from one hedgerow to another without some German sniper taking you out. You didn't worry about tomorrow."

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… "You thought about how you were going to stay warm that night, how you were going to get from one hedgerow to another without some German sniper taking you out. You didn't worry about tomorrow."

Much the same my late father, (born 1926 in Brooklyn and raised an "El" ride away from Mel's Williamsburg nabe) would describe his experiences in the Pacific… (Just substitute "Japanese" for "German".)

…"Don't be stupid! Be a smarty! Come and join the Nazi Party"…

Thanks Mel!