You can't put a modern German on the spot like that. Before making such a statement, you have to set the context and say "Not that I am racist, but ...".
To be fair, at the time, no one wanted Italy involved. In fact, the alliance between Germany and Vichy France was broken during the fighting in Casablanca because the French said Help us! Don't send Italians and Germany sent Italians.
[off topic and a dad joke]
The FBI rounds up spies on December 8, 1941.
They throw a German, a Japanese, and an Italian into a cell and handcuff them all.
They drag the German into the interrogation room first. They sweat him for three hours and he finally breaks and tells everything he knows.
Next they grab the Japanese spy. He tries to hold out, but after five hours he cracks and tells them everything he knows.
Last they take the Italian. The other two think he'll break quickly, but he doesn't come back for ten hours.
"Did you tell them anything?"
"No."
"How did you manage to hold out?"
"They never took off my handcuffs."
OK it took me a while but the joke is because Italians talk with their hands, and if he's handcuffed he can't talk.
🤌🤌
WWII - not the Germans' favorite topic
Humor - not the Germans’ favorite mode of communication
Communication - not favorite for Germans
Germans - German
De - Ja
Why many words when „Tja“, „Doch“, and „Genau“ will do?
“Don’t mention the war” doesn’t seem to have made it to Japan
I'm pretty sure they're still proud of the war, given their attitudes towards apologizing to Korea and China.
You can't put a modern German on the spot like that. Before making such a statement, you have to set the context and say "Not that I am racist, but ...".
To be fair, at the time, no one wanted Italy involved. In fact, the alliance between Germany and Vichy France was broken during the fighting in Casablanca because the French said Help us! Don't send Italians and Germany sent Italians.
Left out of the story: He said it in Japanese and the Germans had no idea what he was saying.
That's a joke, not a story.
The story of my life