AlphaLackey
Registered User
I only bring this up because I recently did a Winnipeg Jets / They Might Be Giants themed Game Day Thread this year, and I'm like kicking myself for not noticing that in 2021, TMBG did one of their educational numbers in a song called "If Day In Winnipeg", which made absolutely no sense to me until I googled it up.
Did you all know that, in an effort to raise war bonds for Canada in the early 1940s during WW2, the government in Manitoba staged a one-day city-wide production of what a Nazi invasion of Canada would look like, with a mock German conquest of Winnipeg? It was called "If Day" and, after doing their due diligence to make sure these radio broadcasts and live performances didn't accidentally trigger a "War of the Worlds" type reaction that wasn't even five years old at the time, the faux Nazi invasion of Winnipeg was on.
From sending our provincial government officials to an internment camp at gunpoint, to teaching school students "Nazi truths" in classes that day, to actually flying the Swastika flag over Fort Garry, to "officially" renaming the city of Winnipeg to "Himmlerstadt" and renaming Main Street to "Hitlerstrasse", to having the occupying "Nazi soldiers" planning a strategic follow-up conquest of Brandon (lol, right?), they went all out, and they absolutely smashed their fundraising goals for war bonds.
Absolutely fascinating bit of history there. I love this city and I love our history, and I hadn't even heard of it until like a week ago.
en.wikipedia.org
EDIT: yes, I admit I'm laughing at late-WW2 Hitler cowering in his shellshocked bunker, finally getting one solitary military W, then telling his advisors with a trembling voice: "Today, it was Winnipeg.. tomorrow, we take.. BRANDON!"
Did you all know that, in an effort to raise war bonds for Canada in the early 1940s during WW2, the government in Manitoba staged a one-day city-wide production of what a Nazi invasion of Canada would look like, with a mock German conquest of Winnipeg? It was called "If Day" and, after doing their due diligence to make sure these radio broadcasts and live performances didn't accidentally trigger a "War of the Worlds" type reaction that wasn't even five years old at the time, the faux Nazi invasion of Winnipeg was on.
From sending our provincial government officials to an internment camp at gunpoint, to teaching school students "Nazi truths" in classes that day, to actually flying the Swastika flag over Fort Garry, to "officially" renaming the city of Winnipeg to "Himmlerstadt" and renaming Main Street to "Hitlerstrasse", to having the occupying "Nazi soldiers" planning a strategic follow-up conquest of Brandon (lol, right?), they went all out, and they absolutely smashed their fundraising goals for war bonds.
Absolutely fascinating bit of history there. I love this city and I love our history, and I hadn't even heard of it until like a week ago.
If Day - Wikipedia
EDIT: yes, I admit I'm laughing at late-WW2 Hitler cowering in his shellshocked bunker, finally getting one solitary military W, then telling his advisors with a trembling voice: "Today, it was Winnipeg.. tomorrow, we take.. BRANDON!"
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