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Germans collecting church bells to smelt down for the war effort. Libeň Bridge, Prague, July 1942 (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 7 months ago by sjmarf@sh.itjust.works to c/historyporn@lemmy.world

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[-] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 25 points 7 months ago

Stealing church bells to make weapons of war, just how Jesus would have wanted. Poetic in a sad sense, really.

[-] Goldholz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 6 months ago

The nazis never gave a fuck about any religion

[-] Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca -2 points 7 months ago

the churches should have paid taxes then if they wanted to not have the government take their own stuff back.

[-] Akasazh@feddit.nl 5 points 7 months ago

I'm not a supporter of tax free churches, but to say that merits the state plundering these ancient bells for their war machine sounds a bit like Trump saying countries that don't pay their NATO fees should be invaded by Putin.

[-] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 22 points 7 months ago

My great grandmother's garden railings were taken for the same reason in the UK. So it wasn't really just a german thing

[-] Rumbelows@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Yep, and the metal was not weapons-quality so almost none of it was used as ‘advertised’ was mostly a propaganda thing to make people feel like they were helping.

[-] pelletbucket@lemm.ee 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

they then replaced many of these railings with regular mar materiel after the war. I've seen British fences made out of stretchers, rifle barrels, and cannon barrels

[-] plactagonic@sopuli.xyz 20 points 7 months ago

For anyone interested: https://9801.cz

Crowd funding campaign to make a large bell in this place for all 9801 bells confiscated in war times.

[-] plactagonic@sopuli.xyz 10 points 7 months ago

I looked in to it more and the bell is already made but crowd funding is still active to replace some of these bells (or for something else).

[-] Glowstick@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago

Was this voluntary?

[-] Another3quenc@lemmy.world 30 points 7 months ago

No, they confiscated them for the copper and tin despite the Hague convention of 1907 where it was decided to not do this during war. Needless to say they didn't care.

[-] ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 11 points 7 months ago

Macht macht Recht.

[-] Kalkaline@leminal.space 2 points 7 months ago

It would be neat to collect scrap metal from battlefields to make a symbol of peace and complete the circle.

[-] Waxingtonknee@mastodon.org.uk 1 points 7 months ago

@Kalkaline @Another3quenc

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coventry_Cross_of_Nails

[-] pelletbucket@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

English kings would strip the lead from church rooves to make their trebuchets. nothing has changed (a great many of these bells in many countries were probably donated; patriotism and religion go hand in hand. not sure how it went with the Nazis though)