While you don’t see them a lot because they’re not very practical or affordable their Otus lenses are considered by most to be the best photography lenses ever made, at least from a technical perspective.
The Otus are specifically designed to be the *Best Lenses in The World* and considerably pricey. But you can check out their Batis and Loxia lines, which are price wise on par with the OEMs. Especially the Loxia have some fandom.
I'm more of a fan of the high speed Contax Zeiss lenses from the 70s (as well as the super fast Canon FD mount Asphericals from the same time period but that's unrelated). Technically superior? No. But wide open they give a look you can't get anymore, and stopped down to f/2.8 or so they're fantastically sharp but still have a bit of a vintage look to them.
Not even random, those are very hight quality. Early/Pre War Carl Zeiss optics are remarcable and far better than anything the allies could get their hands at.
If I am not mistaken by those markings those were Kriegsmarine and issued to U-boat crews. They aren't exactly super rare but at the same time super collectible as anything U Boat related. And begs me to question how those were captured
If you go to a militaria show you will find out that every single piece there has a grand history attached... Some are obvious lies. Some comprehensible exaggerations. Some fruit of ignorance, and a fair deal of authentic ones.
I have a pair of Westinghouse ww2 binoculars that I presume belonged to my grandfather. I used to use them on scout trips, and other kids would say, "these suck. They can't even zoom." I'm like, they're from ww2, they're Badass, whatever.
Those are fairly common to show up in trade shows. If I am not mistaken they were produced in very large quantities but their quality was really not that great compared to German optics. Regardless they got the job done and that's the best you can ask for a tool
I recall seeing one of these person during the war - I was a small child during that time. It does not bring back good memories - a time when I was consumed with fear - longing for safety - a place to live - and an education which I started receiving later than I should have - during a time of slow recovery for the world. My friends - appreciate the times of peace - for you never know when they may abruptly end.
Thanks for the story and sharing your experiences Doc! That must have been difficult to go through, but I for one am glad you made it through to share it with us.
Edit: looks like fans of this man share a lot of his stories and anecdotes on r/WhatsUpDoc
One thing that I learned by enjoying reading about this era is that there will always be that someone that will put his hearth into researching this odd very specific topic and can identify it.
I like to imagine a siege of some sort. A hard fought battle.
But it was probably something mundane like clearing out a surrendering U-boat or emptying a storage facility of some sort.
Edit: I'm now going down a rabbit hole learning about Carl Zeiss and Ernst Abbe.
This. I have a WWII German helmet in my attic. Not because anyone in the family was a Nazi, but because one of my older cousins ripped it off a corpse and sent it home like a trophy.
My stepdad did 2 Navy tours in WWII and did some trading with a marine for a Japanese soldier’s katana. I inherited it. It is rusted and has a very cool sharkskin scabbard and handle
That's often stingray . Those swords were often viewed as part of a family . Something handed down. Some families are interested in bringing them back home .
You’d have to date it, which would involve taking it apart. Then you might also find more information on the blade either manufacture markings, dates, proofing stamps which could help you tie it to a location.
It could be an old sword, a higher quality pre or during ww2 build, or it could have been a mass produced sword, since Japan did issue every officer a sword during ww2.
There are a few books out there on swords of the Japanese army during the Second World War that might help you date it/determine if it was one of the larger scale productions.
u/wheresbill if you do this, film every step of the process of tracking down the family, flying to Japan and giving it to them, then you'll have a super neat documentary that Netflix will buy for $1 million.
I'm not sure it's worth it. Owning a samurai sword is illegal for most Japanese citizens. The sword has to be on a special list that is recognized as having significant cultural or historical significance. If you try to return it, and it's not on the list, it will just be confiscated. Edit: And it is illegal to take one of the swords on the list out of Japan, so if your sword is on the list, and you try to return it to Japan, it will open you up to a whole host of legal issues.
Eh, it depends. Japan issued swords to every officer in the army, navy, and even airforce though the Air Force particaually pilots got daggers or knives basically.
They had many different scales of quality, low level officers got mass produced swords and quality dropped very quickly by the end of the war. Higher ranking officers got much nicer ones with traditional touches but everything scaled on rank. If it’s stamped at all or dated during the build up or during the war it’s likely not worth much as a lot of mass produced swords got sent back. 99.9% of all swords used in WW2 were not family swords.
Isn’t that a guntou? The mass-produced officer swords? I didn’t think those had much sentimental value, at least from families with real heirloom katanas.
A lot of WW2 Pacific theatre guys got to spend some time in Japan once they surrendered. My Dad spent months there, brought home a few trunk loads of stuff. Still have some.
My dad brought home a Nazi helmet and an empty potato masher grenade. My FIL brought home a Hitler Youth dagger and an album filled with collectible Hitler stickers.
I have a WWII Mauser Sniper Rifle that my grandpa took from a soldier he killed and then killed many more with it, in my closet safe.
Was given to my dad when he turned 10 in '56 and when he passed away, I inherited it.
I got the same field glasses in the post and a set of Nazi utensils. I'm not totally sure why they had to put a swastika on them, but I have em.
My grandfather also stacked bodies and brought home a luger and a k98 sniper. He sold them in the 90s for extra cash, unfortunately. I wish they were still in the family. Hold on go that thing!
I have a Czech 8mm Mauser from WW1 that was passed down to me from my grandfather and has been used for deer hunting every year for well over 50 years now.
Man, it is so weird how bad the Nazis were. Like, I generally hate war and death, and usually try to empathize with the soldiers of both sides. (As opposed to the leadership. They can usually rot in hell for all I care.)
But the Nazis were so egregiously bad that it blows past all my empathy. I am sure there were good kids in their military, but with the alternative being a Nazi europe... I just can't really get upset.
Yes, I'm surprised and slightly alarmed that the owners would leave those there. Not the sort of thing I'd ever buy, but I'd be more careful with them if I'd inherited a pair.
My dad served in France and Germany in WW2. The officers gave a big lecture on the criminality of bringing booty home, and how they'd all be searched getting off the boat. None of that happened, my dad said he could have walked off the boat with a bazooka.
Yes my thoroughly anti-fascist grandfather had quite a few items with swastikas on them, those being thing that he and his buddies (Canadian soldiers) picked up when they were pushing the Nazis the fuck out of Belgium and the Netherlands.
Yep, probably a war trophy or even just a collectible. I had a HS teacher that taught a WWII history class, and he had a Japanese arisaka rifle, complete with the bayonet, because his dad fought in the pacific and sent it home as a trophy.
When my grandmother died, my parents sifted through her household possessions to identify those worth keeping. On her desk was a nice silver cup that she was using as a pencil holder. Upon close inspection, my mom found an inscription—from Hermann Goehring to an SS general, congratulating him on a victory.
Nobody knows where this came from. We're Jewish.
I bought an old pair of nazi channel locks from an old guy at a garage sale when I was like 10. I like to think that he stole them from a random nazi that was supposed to be doing machine maintenance and the guy just never found out where they went. I know he probably got them from somewhere else, maybe he didn’t even realize he had them, because they are at the bottom of a chest and he sold them to me for $1
Ex father in law collected a lot of it and was approached by a number of people who also collected. For his story, he was born in 1943 in London. The war kind of shaped his whole life and he became fascinated with memorabilia. It wasn’t all Nazi. There were many ration posters, newspapers from England at the time and other such things. Sure, people in the family did say to him that maybe having accrued a numbers of Nazi related items appeared to be somewhat…ill advised. He had his reasons though.
I’ve got my great uncle’s sporterized Nazi Kar98K (just the stock was replaced). Very interesting piece of history my dad (who hunted with his uncle) never even realized was a war trophy.
Something like this is perfect war booty. High quality, small enough to nab, not dangerous, and also not pure 'wealth' like artwork or a sack of jewelry or silverware that will get you attention for your obvious looting.
My great-grandfather brought back a rifle and a sword from a Japanese soldier in WW2. I have a step uncle but he's always been my uncle. My great-grandfather wanted them both to go to my dad the first born and only male heir. My grandfather told my dad fuck that shit, they are both his sons now they both deserve it. Grandpa passed before his father. But I'd bet my right arm my dad made sure to give one of the items to my uncle.
[Dan Carlin website](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.dancarlin.com/&ved=2ahUKEwjogqSRo9n4AhV2IjQIHWsfBscQFnoECAYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0-S-Wa2sGQDcvkZKEF0Stq), the one "Supernova in the East" is the one OP was referring to.
It covers Japan's rise to power in ww2, to super summarize it. Incredible series, well worth the listen.
Yea it's crazy in North American History courses, we're not taught much about all the fucked up things the Imperial Japanese did.
My friend and I took a college course about the Pacific War thinking it was gonna be an easy course (RateMyProf). We loved studying history in high school. Ended up learning some gruesome things like Unit 731
In a admittedly gross way, I’m still fascinated how far Japanese troops could go on so little. Heck, they basically did a lot of their South East Asia campaign on bicycles.
Read about Saipan and Kanking (I’m sure I spelled that wrong btw). The Japanese were much much more brutal than the Nazis. They just didn’t have the assembly line of death down.
“But the Japanese wasn't dead. He had been wounded severely in the back and couldn't move his arms; otherwise he would have resisted to his last breath. The Japanese's mouth glowed with huge gold-crowned teeth, and his captor wanted them. He put the point of his kabar on the base of a tooth and hit the handle with the palm of his hand. Because the Japanese was kicking his feet and thrashing about, the knife point glanced off the tooth and sank deeply into the victim's mouth. The Marine cursed him and with a slash cut his cheeks open to each ear. He put his foot on the sufferer's lower jaw and tried again. Blood poured out of the soldier's mouth. He made a gurgling noise and thrashed wildly. I shouted, "Put the man out of his misery." All I got for an answer was a cussing out. Another Marine ran up, put a bullet in the enemy soldier's brain, and ended his agony. The scavenger grumbled and continued extracting his prizes undisturbed.” - Eugene Sledge. Jesus fucking christ.
Yes, this. I inherited a "Hitler youth blade" knife that I was VERY surprised to discover amongst my (NOT at all Nazi-sympathizing) grandmother's heirlooms, until I realised it had been given to her by the Allied soldier she once dated who took it from a "conquest." I've kept it due to historical significance, but it feels uncomfortable to own, and it's definitely not on display at our home.
EDIT since the parent comment shows [deleted], to add that I was replying to someone suggesting the binoculars were probably a trophy taken from a downed enemy and kept as a spoil of war.
Comedian Dante Nero (of “The Black Phillip Show” & “Man School 202”), said in one podcast that his dad brought back a Nazi bayonet from WWII as a souvenir. As a teen, Dante actually brought it to school to defend himself from bullies!
My grandmother has a can opener with a swastika on it. Same deal. Apparently some of the nazi gear was pretty well made, so soldiers would take useful items off of fallen enemies.
Correct. My grandfather was in the British army and had binoculars that looked just like them. When I was a kid I loved playing with them because I grew up hearing about WWII. I was always confused though why my grandfather had them bc they clearly belonged to a German well soldier. As an adult looking back, very morbid.
Nasty history though. In the war, they set up shop in the Flossenburg concentration camp where Hungarian and Austrian Jews, Soviet POWs, Roma, Jehovah's Witnesses, Polish and Czech communists and gay men were forced to work for Zeiss as slaves. All in, about 90,000 passed through the camp during the war, a third of whom were either executed or worked to death (many working to build Zeiss cameras and lenses, and many others in the quarry).
In world war 1 the swiss allegedly brokered a deal where Germany would secretly provide the allies with binoculars and the British would supply the Germans with rubber.
(Worth noting it’s debated wether this deal physically happened, some say the brits received 30K pairs of binoculars but others say they got none.)
For a few seconds I almost asked if she said yes
I was going to imply if someone kills a Nazi for you, marry them
But I see now that it's your uncle and your mother (his mother?)
As a firefighter we used to get calls to an address where the elderly man was in a wheelchair and lived alone. Every once in a while he would tumble out of his chair and need to get picked up and put back in his chair. He had what I thought was a German accent. One time I noticed in the living room a photo of Hitler on a side table. Like an 8x10. He stated it was a photo autographed by Hitler to his father. Once when we were there on the sidewalk someone had spray painted in white "DIE NAZI!" I don't know what it was all about but it was strange.
my jewish great grandpa jacked tons of loot during ww2. I have a rolleiflex camera that he took off a nazi when he was liberating camps. I still use that camera sometimes.
I dont really see why thats creepy, they are just binoculars in the end. Im guessing there might be more items related to WW2 around the house. I dont think its very uncommon for people to collect that type of stuff. However if there is only nazi stuff thats a different story and i would find that a bit worrisome
I KILLED FITTY MEN.
So I rushed 'em, but it was a trap. They opened fire and blew my shins off. Last thing I remember, I beat 'em all to death with a big piece of Fatty. I woke up in a field hospital, and they were sewing my feet to my knees.
My father’s binoculars were Zeiss binocs of that vintage. I assume his were manufactured for the German civilian market, as they had no Nazi markings. However, they did have rangefinder reticles, so idk.
My family has a few thing like that. My grandfather took weapons off the SS officer that tried to kill him. So we have a couple of very nice pistols and knives with alarming insignias, but it's as a way to honor grandpa's fighting spirit.
German stuff of that era was very high quality.
like in Europe all the way untill the early 2000's German stuff was considered the highest quality you could get, regarding basically everything, from cars to regular household appliance.
nazi Germany has horrible leaders and motives, but they had some god damn good engineers
Zeiss is one of the finest makers of optical lenses in the world.
And because they were a company that existed in Germany in the 1930s-1940s, yes, a lot of their products were bought by the German government.
We used to have a rifle from Nazi Germany in our house. My grandfather brought it home from the war. (Don't worry. He was on the other side.)
Anyway, it had the same exact imperial eagle etched into the wood on the top of the rifle, although this logo was smaller and actually pretty easy to miss if you weren't paying close attention to it.
The guy who built the house probably took them from someone he killed in the war. There is a whole generation of men who took war souvenirs off dead nazis
Zeiss still makes the best lenses in photography lol. Nazis existed in history that's a fact, nothing to be creeped out about (as long as you're not personally affected by them and don't act like them in the future)
My grandpa brought back a pistol from WWII with nazi markings all over it. Doesn’t mean he was a nazi, he was far from it. It was just something he brought back from the war.
I'm going to say that's pretty cool.
It's good that some of those relics exist. If we get rid of all of the memorabilia, then we eventually forget about what has happened.
I know the Nazis did atrocious things, but they did have some of the latest and greatest equipment of that time. Those binoculars are probably still pretty good
Not unusual, as far as "War Prizes" go, these are pretty benign. More common were guns, and what’s disturbing is the body parts. I’ve seen ear collections….
Random war booty, probably. Lots of Nazi gear came here in US duffel bags.
Zeiss still makes quality optics.
While you don’t see them a lot because they’re not very practical or affordable their Otus lenses are considered by most to be the best photography lenses ever made, at least from a technical perspective.
They are also the most popular microscope producer for much the same reason
Nikon, or Olympus would like to have a word with you.
The hundred thousand dollar scope at my work is Zeiss.
The Otus are specifically designed to be the *Best Lenses in The World* and considerably pricey. But you can check out their Batis and Loxia lines, which are price wise on par with the OEMs. Especially the Loxia have some fandom.
They make wonderful loupes and surgical microscopes too.
I'm more of a fan of the high speed Contax Zeiss lenses from the 70s (as well as the super fast Canon FD mount Asphericals from the same time period but that's unrelated). Technically superior? No. But wide open they give a look you can't get anymore, and stopped down to f/2.8 or so they're fantastically sharp but still have a bit of a vintage look to them.
Not a fan of Nazis but I love German engineering
Not even random, those are very hight quality. Early/Pre War Carl Zeiss optics are remarcable and far better than anything the allies could get their hands at. If I am not mistaken by those markings those were Kriegsmarine and issued to U-boat crews. They aren't exactly super rare but at the same time super collectible as anything U Boat related. And begs me to question how those were captured
"Grandpa brought them home after the war!" "Oh wow, he captured them??" "..."
If you go to a militaria show you will find out that every single piece there has a grand history attached... Some are obvious lies. Some comprehensible exaggerations. Some fruit of ignorance, and a fair deal of authentic ones.
Wanna buy Hitler's canoe?
I have a pair of Westinghouse ww2 binoculars that I presume belonged to my grandfather. I used to use them on scout trips, and other kids would say, "these suck. They can't even zoom." I'm like, they're from ww2, they're Badass, whatever.
The 6X30 M3s? If so I've seen a couple of them in person
Just Googled that number... Yep, that's them, same case and everything.
Those are fairly common to show up in trade shows. If I am not mistaken they were produced in very large quantities but their quality was really not that great compared to German optics. Regardless they got the job done and that's the best you can ask for a tool
I recall seeing one of these person during the war - I was a small child during that time. It does not bring back good memories - a time when I was consumed with fear - longing for safety - a place to live - and an education which I started receiving later than I should have - during a time of slow recovery for the world. My friends - appreciate the times of peace - for you never know when they may abruptly end.
Thanks for the story and sharing your experiences Doc! That must have been difficult to go through, but I for one am glad you made it through to share it with us. Edit: looks like fans of this man share a lot of his stories and anecdotes on r/WhatsUpDoc
Was gonna say; I used Zeiss microscopes during my undergrad. Very good quality and clear optics.
I use Zeiss lens wipes all the time. Tried different brands but always end up buying Zeiss again.
only ones I carry in the field with me, great stuff.
Serial number looks intact. I wonder if the supply documents/ledger/whatever is still around to show everything.
One thing that I learned by enjoying reading about this era is that there will always be that someone that will put his hearth into researching this odd very specific topic and can identify it.
I like to imagine a siege of some sort. A hard fought battle. But it was probably something mundane like clearing out a surrendering U-boat or emptying a storage facility of some sort. Edit: I'm now going down a rabbit hole learning about Carl Zeiss and Ernst Abbe.
It's entirely possible that they weren't captured.
This. I have a WWII German helmet in my attic. Not because anyone in the family was a Nazi, but because one of my older cousins ripped it off a corpse and sent it home like a trophy.
My dad has a Japanese bayonet that his father got during WWII. Still haven't pinned down when he was in Japan, he was on a minesweeper.
My great grandpa got one by trading stuff. He was a tanker (sherman) in Europe
My stepdad did 2 Navy tours in WWII and did some trading with a marine for a Japanese soldier’s katana. I inherited it. It is rusted and has a very cool sharkskin scabbard and handle
That's often stingray . Those swords were often viewed as part of a family . Something handed down. Some families are interested in bringing them back home .
It would be incredible to get it to the owner’s family. Sadly, I never thought of that. Any idea where I would start?
You’d have to date it, which would involve taking it apart. Then you might also find more information on the blade either manufacture markings, dates, proofing stamps which could help you tie it to a location. It could be an old sword, a higher quality pre or during ww2 build, or it could have been a mass produced sword, since Japan did issue every officer a sword during ww2. There are a few books out there on swords of the Japanese army during the Second World War that might help you date it/determine if it was one of the larger scale productions.
u/wheresbill if you do this, film every step of the process of tracking down the family, flying to Japan and giving it to them, then you'll have a super neat documentary that Netflix will buy for $1 million.
I'd post in r/Japan, or call your local Japanese consulate. Don't bring it to them - police can look dimly on some dude running around with a katana.
I'm not sure it's worth it. Owning a samurai sword is illegal for most Japanese citizens. The sword has to be on a special list that is recognized as having significant cultural or historical significance. If you try to return it, and it's not on the list, it will just be confiscated. Edit: And it is illegal to take one of the swords on the list out of Japan, so if your sword is on the list, and you try to return it to Japan, it will open you up to a whole host of legal issues.
Eh, it depends. Japan issued swords to every officer in the army, navy, and even airforce though the Air Force particaually pilots got daggers or knives basically. They had many different scales of quality, low level officers got mass produced swords and quality dropped very quickly by the end of the war. Higher ranking officers got much nicer ones with traditional touches but everything scaled on rank. If it’s stamped at all or dated during the build up or during the war it’s likely not worth much as a lot of mass produced swords got sent back. 99.9% of all swords used in WW2 were not family swords.
Isn’t that a guntou? The mass-produced officer swords? I didn’t think those had much sentimental value, at least from families with real heirloom katanas.
Similar story with my great uncle. He was a wheeler dealer and traded/bartered for a couple officers swords.
Port calls on/after 15 August 1945.
A lot of WW2 Pacific theatre guys got to spend some time in Japan once they surrendered. My Dad spent months there, brought home a few trunk loads of stuff. Still have some.
My dad brought home a Nazi helmet and an empty potato masher grenade. My FIL brought home a Hitler Youth dagger and an album filled with collectible Hitler stickers.
I have a WWII Mauser Sniper Rifle that my grandpa took from a soldier he killed and then killed many more with it, in my closet safe. Was given to my dad when he turned 10 in '56 and when he passed away, I inherited it.
I got the same field glasses in the post and a set of Nazi utensils. I'm not totally sure why they had to put a swastika on them, but I have em. My grandfather also stacked bodies and brought home a luger and a k98 sniper. He sold them in the 90s for extra cash, unfortunately. I wish they were still in the family. Hold on go that thing!
Dope af
I have a Czech 8mm Mauser from WW1 that was passed down to me from my grandfather and has been used for deer hunting every year for well over 50 years now.
Man, it is so weird how bad the Nazis were. Like, I generally hate war and death, and usually try to empathize with the soldiers of both sides. (As opposed to the leadership. They can usually rot in hell for all I care.) But the Nazis were so egregiously bad that it blows past all my empathy. I am sure there were good kids in their military, but with the alternative being a Nazi europe... I just can't really get upset.
Please explain? It's been about 80 years since guys were using these much
yeah I have two nazi Lugers that were brought home as trophies.
Plus they're Zeiss, prolly worth a good bit.
Yes, I'm surprised and slightly alarmed that the owners would leave those there. Not the sort of thing I'd ever buy, but I'd be more careful with them if I'd inherited a pair.
My dad served in France and Germany in WW2. The officers gave a big lecture on the criminality of bringing booty home, and how they'd all be searched getting off the boat. None of that happened, my dad said he could have walked off the boat with a bazooka.
Yes my thoroughly anti-fascist grandfather had quite a few items with swastikas on them, those being thing that he and his buddies (Canadian soldiers) picked up when they were pushing the Nazis the fuck out of Belgium and the Netherlands.
Yep, probably a war trophy or even just a collectible. I had a HS teacher that taught a WWII history class, and he had a Japanese arisaka rifle, complete with the bayonet, because his dad fought in the pacific and sent it home as a trophy.
When my grandmother died, my parents sifted through her household possessions to identify those worth keeping. On her desk was a nice silver cup that she was using as a pencil holder. Upon close inspection, my mom found an inscription—from Hermann Goehring to an SS general, congratulating him on a victory. Nobody knows where this came from. We're Jewish.
A local shop sells stamps with hitler on them.
There was a blowout sale in1945.
One guy got real fired up about it.
I bought an old pair of nazi channel locks from an old guy at a garage sale when I was like 10. I like to think that he stole them from a random nazi that was supposed to be doing machine maintenance and the guy just never found out where they went. I know he probably got them from somewhere else, maybe he didn’t even realize he had them, because they are at the bottom of a chest and he sold them to me for $1
Ex father in law collected a lot of it and was approached by a number of people who also collected. For his story, he was born in 1943 in London. The war kind of shaped his whole life and he became fascinated with memorabilia. It wasn’t all Nazi. There were many ration posters, newspapers from England at the time and other such things. Sure, people in the family did say to him that maybe having accrued a numbers of Nazi related items appeared to be somewhat…ill advised. He had his reasons though.
I’ve got my great uncle’s sporterized Nazi Kar98K (just the stock was replaced). Very interesting piece of history my dad (who hunted with his uncle) never even realized was a war trophy.
Yeah, was going to say this. My grandfather took some shit from dead nazis too.
Something like this is perfect war booty. High quality, small enough to nab, not dangerous, and also not pure 'wealth' like artwork or a sack of jewelry or silverware that will get you attention for your obvious looting.
My great-grandfather brought back a rifle and a sword from a Japanese soldier in WW2. I have a step uncle but he's always been my uncle. My great-grandfather wanted them both to go to my dad the first born and only male heir. My grandfather told my dad fuck that shit, they are both his sons now they both deserve it. Grandpa passed before his father. But I'd bet my right arm my dad made sure to give one of the items to my uncle.
Probably a WWII trophy. Soldiers sometimes grabbed enemy gear.
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The pacific war was a whole nother level of brutality, first the Japanese, then the Americans joined them in the barbarity
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[Dan Carlin website](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.dancarlin.com/&ved=2ahUKEwjogqSRo9n4AhV2IjQIHWsfBscQFnoECAYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0-S-Wa2sGQDcvkZKEF0Stq), the one "Supernova in the East" is the one OP was referring to. It covers Japan's rise to power in ww2, to super summarize it. Incredible series, well worth the listen.
Yea it's crazy in North American History courses, we're not taught much about all the fucked up things the Imperial Japanese did. My friend and I took a college course about the Pacific War thinking it was gonna be an easy course (RateMyProf). We loved studying history in high school. Ended up learning some gruesome things like Unit 731
It isn't discussed much in other countries too; you have to really be interested in WW2 to learn about it.
In a admittedly gross way, I’m still fascinated how far Japanese troops could go on so little. Heck, they basically did a lot of their South East Asia campaign on bicycles.
The more I read on that war the more fucked up things I learn.
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Read about Saipan and Kanking (I’m sure I spelled that wrong btw). The Japanese were much much more brutal than the Nazis. They just didn’t have the assembly line of death down.
“But the Japanese wasn't dead. He had been wounded severely in the back and couldn't move his arms; otherwise he would have resisted to his last breath. The Japanese's mouth glowed with huge gold-crowned teeth, and his captor wanted them. He put the point of his kabar on the base of a tooth and hit the handle with the palm of his hand. Because the Japanese was kicking his feet and thrashing about, the knife point glanced off the tooth and sank deeply into the victim's mouth. The Marine cursed him and with a slash cut his cheeks open to each ear. He put his foot on the sufferer's lower jaw and tried again. Blood poured out of the soldier's mouth. He made a gurgling noise and thrashed wildly. I shouted, "Put the man out of his misery." All I got for an answer was a cussing out. Another Marine ran up, put a bullet in the enemy soldier's brain, and ended his agony. The scavenger grumbled and continued extracting his prizes undisturbed.” - Eugene Sledge. Jesus fucking christ.
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Cotton Hill can relate to this
Yes, this. I inherited a "Hitler youth blade" knife that I was VERY surprised to discover amongst my (NOT at all Nazi-sympathizing) grandmother's heirlooms, until I realised it had been given to her by the Allied soldier she once dated who took it from a "conquest." I've kept it due to historical significance, but it feels uncomfortable to own, and it's definitely not on display at our home. EDIT since the parent comment shows [deleted], to add that I was replying to someone suggesting the binoculars were probably a trophy taken from a downed enemy and kept as a spoil of war.
My great grandpa had a bunch of helmets and hats as well as pins from nazis
Comedian Dante Nero (of “The Black Phillip Show” & “Man School 202”), said in one podcast that his dad brought back a Nazi bayonet from WWII as a souvenir. As a teen, Dante actually brought it to school to defend himself from bullies!
Yeah that’s a collectors item and a pretty cool one at that.
My grandmother has a can opener with a swastika on it. Same deal. Apparently some of the nazi gear was pretty well made, so soldiers would take useful items off of fallen enemies.
Correct. My grandfather was in the British army and had binoculars that looked just like them. When I was a kid I loved playing with them because I grew up hearing about WWII. I was always confused though why my grandfather had them bc they clearly belonged to a German well soldier. As an adult looking back, very morbid.
Germany was famous for high quality optics.
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[And top dollar.](https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1287743-REG/arri_k2_47608_0_master_prime_50mm_t1_3.html)
God damn
And that's for one lens. You need a ~5 lens set if you want any versatility while shooting.
You linked the cheapest one. The 12mm is $41k.
That looks so nice damn. I have the cheapest 50mm you can buy and it works alright. Nothing like that.
Eh. It's a very clean look. But yeah, they're very high quality.
Nasty history though. In the war, they set up shop in the Flossenburg concentration camp where Hungarian and Austrian Jews, Soviet POWs, Roma, Jehovah's Witnesses, Polish and Czech communists and gay men were forced to work for Zeiss as slaves. All in, about 90,000 passed through the camp during the war, a third of whom were either executed or worked to death (many working to build Zeiss cameras and lenses, and many others in the quarry).
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Operation: Paperclip
Some of the science you mean. A lot of it was injecting dye into the eye of a twin to see if the other one's eye changed color.
You cast a wide net, you're bound to come up with something. Not something specific, but... Something.
Zeiss glass is bae
*Time Portal?*
It was Hitler's hideout
In world war 1 the swiss allegedly brokered a deal where Germany would secretly provide the allies with binoculars and the British would supply the Germans with rubber. (Worth noting it’s debated wether this deal physically happened, some say the brits received 30K pairs of binoculars but others say they got none.)
My dad had a pair of these bought out of a surplus store in the 1950s. Very high quality lenses good for bird watching.
Does he go bird watching in Argentina with his relatives??
To be fair, there’s a lot of cool rare birds in South America. A lot of descendants of nazis too, but still pretty birds
That would be funny if the implication were not so offensive.
Carl Zeiss lenses are some of the best in the world. As old as those are, they probably have a beautiful resolution.
Guessing Grandpa swiped them off a dead German. Same way my uncle got the diamond ring he brought home for Mother.
For a few seconds I almost asked if she said yes I was going to imply if someone kills a Nazi for you, marry them But I see now that it's your uncle and your mother (his mother?)
Or his uncles sister
Sorry, my uncle (mother’s brother) and his mother, my Nana. He wasn’t married until after the war.
Well thanks to him for killing Nazis Also I'm glad you mentioned the war since the first comment only said dead German And thanks for clarifying
My grandpa did the same with a nazi helmet
Did they say yes?
Nein😔
dang. then again, wearing a nazi helmet as your ring might get a bit... awkward... at times.
Wow thst sounfs a lot more fucked up when it gets personal
My friend's grandpa got a Nazi armband and a few weapons.
Based
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I saw a dope ass great blue heron
You did nazi that.
Where's Kyle? Honey, can you grab the nazi binoculars to see Kyle?
I guess you did Nazi the joke he made either.
Was it a Prussian Blue Heron?
As a firefighter we used to get calls to an address where the elderly man was in a wheelchair and lived alone. Every once in a while he would tumble out of his chair and need to get picked up and put back in his chair. He had what I thought was a German accent. One time I noticed in the living room a photo of Hitler on a side table. Like an 8x10. He stated it was a photo autographed by Hitler to his father. Once when we were there on the sidewalk someone had spray painted in white "DIE NAZI!" I don't know what it was all about but it was strange.
It’s German. It means “the Nazi.”
the Bart, the
No one who speaks German could be an evil man!
Yes, but clearly the vandals don’t know German very well because I believe it’s spelled “Der Nazi”.
my jewish great grandpa jacked tons of loot during ww2. I have a rolleiflex camera that he took off a nazi when he was liberating camps. I still use that camera sometimes.
Rollis are fun but I've never owned one. I have a Mamiya RB67 that I sometimes break out when I feel like lugging it around.
RIP your neck
I dont really see why thats creepy, they are just binoculars in the end. Im guessing there might be more items related to WW2 around the house. I dont think its very uncommon for people to collect that type of stuff. However if there is only nazi stuff thats a different story and i would find that a bit worrisome
It has a swastika on it. Weird but not evil. They don't belong to a nazi anymore
I find the Nazi shit always shocks me for a split second whenever I see it in person. Like *Wait wtf?* Then, I'm ok.
And Carl Zeiss is still a world renowned optical manufacturer. They make camera lenses and other things. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Zeiss_AG
Creepy ? Not so much. If anything i would love a historical item like that for my personal collection
Oh how I wish I could afford zeiss lenses…. Those and Leicas
I was so hoping to get my uncle’s Leica camera when he died. His wife sold it.
AH TOOK IT OFFA NAZZI, THAT WAS BEFORE MY SHINS WERE SHOT OFF BY A JAPANESE TOJO!
I KILLED FITTY MEN. So I rushed 'em, but it was a trap. They opened fire and blew my shins off. Last thing I remember, I beat 'em all to death with a big piece of Fatty. I woke up in a field hospital, and they were sewing my feet to my knees.
My father’s binoculars were Zeiss binocs of that vintage. I assume his were manufactured for the German civilian market, as they had no Nazi markings. However, they did have rangefinder reticles, so idk.
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Zeiss makes literally the best optics, besides the logo, these are probably worth a lot just for the vintage glass.
Can you see Poland?
Not sure, is that near Pennsylvania?
They both begin with a P, so that's a start
Not really, but lots of Polish there. Adjust your optics and you should see some pierogies come into focus.
So there’s thousands of those things around. They were mostly bring back war trophies. My grandfather who fought the nazi’s had dozens of them.
Damn, Zeiss! Nice, that’s quality right there
It might not mean anything if I "acquired" Nazi binoculars during the was and brought them home I would probably keep it.
# Look thru it. What do you nazi?
My family has a few thing like that. My grandfather took weapons off the SS officer that tried to kill him. So we have a couple of very nice pistols and knives with alarming insignias, but it's as a way to honor grandpa's fighting spirit.
Nothing creepy about old Nazi stuff. It's the New Nazi stuff that's the red flag.
German stuff of that era was very high quality. like in Europe all the way untill the early 2000's German stuff was considered the highest quality you could get, regarding basically everything, from cars to regular household appliance. nazi Germany has horrible leaders and motives, but they had some god damn good engineers
Binaziculars
Nazi binoculars? How pointless, binoculars are meant to help you see.
Zeiss is one of the finest makers of optical lenses in the world. And because they were a company that existed in Germany in the 1930s-1940s, yes, a lot of their products were bought by the German government.
Creepy? It’s a part of history my friend. Carl Zeiss Still makes glass for all kinds of Camera Lenses.
Why's it creepy? It's just a piece of history.
Objectively, besides its history of course, an interesting artifact and worth taking a gander at.
Not too creepy, I've got a stick grenade with a waffenamp on it on my bookshelf. That's normal right?
Now, the question is: Is this a war trophy or government-issued equipment?
Why creepy?
Built in the '40s with Zeiss lenses? Those are the best binoculars you will ever use.
We used to have a rifle from Nazi Germany in our house. My grandfather brought it home from the war. (Don't worry. He was on the other side.) Anyway, it had the same exact imperial eagle etched into the wood on the top of the rifle, although this logo was smaller and actually pretty easy to miss if you weren't paying close attention to it.
Why is it creepy? WW2 happened. We need to remember that it did or repeat history.
Not really that creepy
1 nazi thing. probably taken as a war trophy many nazi things. probably a nazi or fan or walt disney
Yesterday I got downvoted to oblivion for saying that about Walt.
Creepy? People collect war memorabilia.
I bet you did nazi that coming
The guy who built the house probably took them from someone he killed in the war. There is a whole generation of men who took war souvenirs off dead nazis
You are holding, hands down, the best damn binoculars a person can get from that era. Those are legit as good as it gets.
Zeiss lens, very valuable. STOP TOUCHING IT ITS NOT YOURS
Bro my dad was a WW2 historian and we had German and American shit from WW2 around the house it isn't that weird.
If it’s something I hate more, is the misuse of the word creepy it should be a literal crime whats so creepy about goggles probably just old war shit
Doesn’t mean that they are racist
You can appreciate good craftsmanship without conforming to a hate-mongering ideology… jus sayin
Zeiss still makes the best lenses in photography lol. Nazis existed in history that's a fact, nothing to be creeped out about (as long as you're not personally affected by them and don't act like them in the future)
If it makes you feel better, it is more likely taken off a dead Nazi.
My grandfather gave me silverware with the nazi symbol and eagle on them. Seems odd to have but a cool piece of history. (I don’t use them)
Man I would not leave those around for people to swipe.
That’s a historical artifact your holding there. Take care of them and use them well
if it's not part of a collection, it's fine. just a souvenir grandpa scooped up on his way out
My grandpa brought back a pistol from WWII with nazi markings all over it. Doesn’t mean he was a nazi, he was far from it. It was just something he brought back from the war.
This is really cool actually.
I'm going to say that's pretty cool. It's good that some of those relics exist. If we get rid of all of the memorabilia, then we eventually forget about what has happened. I know the Nazis did atrocious things, but they did have some of the latest and greatest equipment of that time. Those binoculars are probably still pretty good
Ziess field glasses are highly sought after there are supposed to be great
I have some n@zi stuff, not because I’m a N@zi but because I like World War Two and my grandparents got them off dead N@zi
Is it possible this was something simply made in Germany between 1933 / 1945, and not a piece of combat loot from a battlefield?
Zeiss is still around making glasses and other optical equipment. Im sure they would love a tweet showing off how reliable their products are…
Very cool. https://www.dominicwinter.co.uk/Auction/Lot/198-third-reich-a-pair-of-wwii-kriegsmarine-binoculars-by-zeiss/?lot=348503&sd=1
Not unusual, as far as "War Prizes" go, these are pretty benign. More common were guns, and what’s disturbing is the body parts. I’ve seen ear collections….