"Sprecken zie deutsch? Droppen zie dead!!"

For the culmination of our analysis of  A Wilderness of Sweets by Gilda Cordero-Fernando, we explored the differences between formal history and informal/alternative or counter-history. It's now your turn to apply the insights brought up in class to your own reading of some of your favorite historical/counter-historical stories.

Your writing task:

Write a review of your favorite or memorable work(or works) of counter history or alternative history. This can be a film, literary work, theatrical piece, screenplay, etc.

Give a synopsis. Identify the actual historical event that provides the setting, the backdrop or the central idea/theme of this story.

Critique the historical accuracy of this text and the artistry/technical level of the story(re)telling. 

Lastly: What is the value of this work as counter or alternative history? What does it contribute to our knowledge of history? or what is its significance (historical or otherwise)?

One of my favourite examples of historical/counter-historical stories would have to be a drama/comedy film that goes by the title of Stallag 17.

Now, Stallag is the germal word for prison, and thats exactly where this movie was set in. A prison camp for allied soldiers during world war II. The film stars golden era actor William Holden as the wise prisoner Sefton. The film depicts how the germans treated their prisoners, in the stories case the germans have a snitch amongst the prisoners, telling Prison Warden Von Sherbach about the prisoners plans of escape. The prisoners eventually know of this "snitch" because their otherwise secret plans manage to get leaked out everytime. During the course of the movie, the prisoners suspect Sefton as the snitch, because he always turns out to be the one's with the most appliances and the cleanest bunk(this is common in prisons where certain prisoners have it better than others) in this case it turns out this way because Sefton is wise and resourceful, his knowledge of the camp eventually leads him to find the true snitch amongst them, revealing the truth that no one can be trusted during times like this. The movie is primarily a comedy with two characters (Animal and Shapiro the prison clowns) though the show has some espionage elements, it still relatively remains lighthearted all throughout.

The historical aspects of this was it was set during world war II and it had several references towards bombings that the allies made, one of the characters in the story was a American Lt. that was arrested after bombing a train station. They also showed briefly how the "geneva convention" works during the war, prevention war crimes against prisoners and perhaps showing some sort of civilized acts against humanity. This of course as it was shown in the movie, was only superficial as when the so called "geneva man" left the camp all the prisoners were confiscated their amenities once again(heaters,coffee machine,blankets). Other instances also that have real life connections was when the local clowns decided to have a peep show on the nearby female bath room, it just so happens Russian females were being detained here, the russians themselves during world war II was dealt a severe blow by the german military, both soldiers and civilians alike were thrown in detention camps and such. Though the in-film story is fictional the time it was set in was a very real event. World war II itself was a entry, in the modern human history, that most people would want to forget. The horrors of World War II is long gone from today's world but for our grandparents this was an all too real fact of life, as the name suggests the world as a whole was in chaos, minus a few isolated countries. The movie gave a lighter feel to the events of that war, a "what if this happened" kind of thing.


The value of this work as a counter or alternative history is that the same of any other work of similar genre. It gives history a twist, it gives it details, it gives imagination to an underwise dull and uninteresting past. That in my opinion are the effect of such stories, we all knew how World War II started and ended, as a whole, history of course is written by the victor, but perhaps in this case we(people,director) can have a chance to add detail to that history or perhaps change it altogether. In this movie's case Seftan's story during his stay in Stalag 17 was a comedic/dramatic one, where many things happened not just the dull or even shall I say FACTUAL events that happened in real life. War in this case is not pretty, in the movie as well this was portrayed BUT it was given other detail such as the comedic duo and other fictional aspects. In my case, factual can be a bit boring, one example I can give (though this leaves the movie context) is the ever-present debate between Japanese/asian made videogames vs. Western based videogames. The trend I notice is that Japanese style videogames have more fantasy like elements, though still somehoe based around reality, they add a bit of mystery in it, common themes are genetic modification, androids, over-sized WMDs, diabolical plots. While in westernized videogames they tend to stick or at least have a closer grasp on reality with themes like, Terrorists, Gangs, Nuclear weapons. Although this may seem unclear to you, but long time gamers can detect the subtle differences in the developers' styles so much so to the point one can say "OH! this game is obviously japanese made." Going back, in my opinion once again the important aspect of these counter or alternative history stories i that they give extra detail on things that are normally, factual/real. Afterall that's why i/some people/most people watch/read/play these kinds of things, they do it to escape what is "real" or "factual". It's good to think differently or UNREALISTICALLY once in a while.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046359/ - IMDB link on the classic Stalag 17
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conventions - Geneva Convention
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/ww2time.htm - The real timeline of WorldWar II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role-playing_video_game  - check under Cultural Differences section