Swarovski Optik 70th Anniversary Video (1 Viewer)

[dalat]

I think this thread has gone off-course. The latest comments need to go elsewhere.

What's wrong with talking about the history of optical companies in a thread about the history of an optical company?

Does it make you feel uncomfortable to read stuff about the Nazi times? Well, you may soon have the chance to vote against someone who likes to talk like a Nazi. Ok, that was off topic now. I'll stop.

 

[dalat]

That would be a bizarre reading of my remark. I

Ok, sorry then. Glad to read this was not what you meant.

 

[tenex]

Ok, sorry then. Glad to read this was not what you meant.

I should probably never have responded to your first post. I just had to wonder what you meant, why in a country that nicely avoided trouble back then you have quite such a concern now with degrees of Nazi sympathies, with "transparency" about fully documented facts rather than relevance... but I could have asked that in a PM.

 

[dalat]

(...) with "transparency" about fully documented facts rather than relevance... but I could have asked that in a PM.

I find it quite relevant, how honest a company is about its history, when it is celebrating this history as part of its efforts to sell products to us.
Others may find that irrelevant.
Happy to continue exchanging by PM, if there is interest.

 

[Gijs van Ginkel]

+
Dalat, post 24,
I had quite a bit of contact with employees from Swarovski when I prepared my history of Swarovski lecture for the Binocular History Society. I have not noticed any secrecy about their past and I received all information I asked for. My father was in the Dutch military when the Germans invaded The Netherlands in 1940, he survived the and went on with his life. During WW-2 my parents were hiding people who had to be kept out of reach of the German military. They survived.
My grandmother was a German girl and fell in love with my grandfather in 1913. During ww-2 they were forced to take German soldiers in their Dutch farmhouse. My grandmother refused to speak German in that time to the soldiers in their house, her sisters still lived in Germany with their children some of which had to join the German military and as a consequence my father could have had to fight with German family members in 1940 , something that has not occurred.
I do not know if you or have any knowledge of the situation in those years, I would not judge so firmly, since things are not so simple as you seem to judge it. After ww-2 family relations had to be restored and that succeeded well with pain of course.
Gijs van Ginkel

 

[dalat]

Gijs, thanks for sharing some of your family history.

All I know about Swaro or other companies is public knowledge, I have no personal insights. Still, I believe that this allows some conclusions on how the companies behaved then and how transparent they are today about this time.

I know that things have not been simple in any way and that restoring relations between people and countries took a lot of pain, work and time. I agree that overall this has been remarkably successful, e.g. if we look at how relations in Europe work today. This is somethings we can be proud of. I believe that acknowledging what has happened and remembering is an important part of this process.

 

[tenex]

Happy to continue exchanging by PM, if there is interest.

No, it's too simple. You have an opinion, and have stated it. I'll just wait for the thread to move on now.