The war is finally over for Yorkshire’s chuffin’ Nazis
BRITAIN: It is more than 70 years late, but in a remote corner of North Yorkshire, World War II is finally over.
Every autumn for a number of years, a station on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway has been transformed into a Germanoccupied town in wartime France. Re-enactment enthusiasts have strutted around in Nazi uniforms, guns on their shoulders and SS flashes on their helmets, as if D-Day never happened and Adolf Hitler’s dream of a greater German reich was still alive today.
Now organisers of the Railway In Wartime event have decided that all those Nazis are not such a good idea after all.
The transformation of the village of Levisham into ‘‘Le Visham’’ has been going on for 12 years as part of a larger World War II reenactment weekend that attracts thousands of people to the railway, which runs between Pickering and Whitby. Passengers on steam and diesel trains enjoy different scenarios at stops along the line, including the recreation of a wartime street at Pickering, and Home Guard demonstrations in Goathland. Grosmont, meanwhile, has had an RAF theme, with a replica Spitfire and plotting room.
In Levisham last year there was a Cafe du Bois and re-enactment displays, and rather more people in coal-scuttle helmets than would normally be considered healthy. Now the railway, which is a charity, has withdrawn its invitation to the re-enactors after a spate of negative publicity.
The Yorkshire Post has called the annual event ‘‘a weekend of pure nostalgia’’. However, it has also begun to attract unwelcome headlines.
One year, a family complained after seeing men in SS uniforms acting out the beating up of a civilian. Last year an article in The Northern Echo questioned the need to relive the war. ‘‘We dwell too much, in a celebratory way, on the Second World War,’’ it said. An article on Mail Online highlighted the controversy of Nazi uniforms in wartime re-enactments.
The railway cited its need to protect its family image, saying: ‘‘Expectations currently reflected in the recent Equalities Act mean that the charity must avoid causing offence to any section of the public.’’ It added: ‘‘With this in mind, as we plan for this year’s Railway In Wartime event, we had to consider last year’s national media articles.’’
Lee Hayward, 44, a history enthusiast and past visitor to the event, said: ‘‘This is a disgrace. I have some photos of the ‘Germanoccupied’ Levisham a few years back. My kids were fascinated and educated. It was tastefully done with dedicated, forward-thinking people taking part.
‘‘To be asked for my papers, in German, when I got off the train was a real palpable shock. The German soldier shouted it at us. It immediately transported myself and my whole family into what it must have been like living in occupied France, and made us grateful of the sacrifice made for the freedoms we currently have.’’
Janet Sanderson, a North Yorkshire county councillor whose ward includes Levisham, said: ‘‘It began as a bit of fun, and now we have people attending who travel from war re-enactment to war re-enactment. To some people it could be offensive, though it wasn’t to begin with.’’ – The Times