being German I will reply as usual. No comment. Anything else will generate cries of either being:
1. Anti-Semitic
2. A Hypocrite
Oh, how typical of you Germans. Silence equals assent.
JUST kidding!
I would be probably at the boiling point were I German. How many times do you have to be told "Don't be anti-Semitic" when neither you nor your parents had anything to do with the Holocaust? Heck, I'm sick of being told I shouldn't be racist because I'm white, and I've only had to deal with that BS since college. I can't imagine how old it's gotten to the Germans who simply had no connection with that regime or its politics and have been lectured since birth.
1. Anti-Semitic
2. A Hypocrite
You left out 3. A neo-nazi.:)
Oh come on, don't be so shy. I'm a white Southern American and blacks like Jesse Jackson think all non-black Americanss should pay reparations to descendants of black slaves. This demand gets complicated of course, for numerous reasons.
For instance, slavery was abolished in the U.S. way back around 1863 (which was earlier than Russia abolished it's serfdom, by the way). And there were free blacks in the South who owned slaves, so who pays who there? And then there are the millions of Americans (including a great many German immigrants) who came in after slavery was abolished and all their descendants really don't think they need to pay for old history. The more recent waves of Asian and Hispanic immigrants think the whole reparation thing's just crazy.:)
In other words, it's time for forgiveness for old history that can't be changed now, and to keep beating the younger generations over their heads for something they didn't do quite often becomes counter-productive.
I don't recall anyone asking you, but thanks anyway.
That automatically makes you an anti-semite, I'd say. The thing is you cannot just stand on the sideline regarding anti-semitism. You have to prove your not an anti-semite. Germany can easily do this through military aid (subs for free), massive monetary aid or especially low tariffs. But what can you do? Work in a Kibutz?
It's tiring and depressing to be covered with sackcloth and ashes all the time, I agree. But complaining that it happened long ago, move on, etc., isn't helping Germany to heal. It's still a festering wound, now complicated by Islamofascism.
A PhD thesis published by a Harvard graduate student a few years ago upset a great many Germans. His thesis postulated that townsfolk around Dachau, Auschwitz, and Belsen (not sure of exactly which camps and towns), were invited into the camps by the Nazis to party and celebrate the slaughter. They were well aware of the Holocaust...not to mention trains that roared through with Jews packed in like cattle cars. For years the alibi has been that average Germans didn't know what was going on, but in many cases that's simply not true. Agreed also that the average German was terrified of the SS, Nazis, Hitler, the entire govt.. An independent press would have helped fuel opposition, but that didn't happen, and so the nation still suffers the consequences.
There are no easy answers, but if Germany faces that it has an ongoing problem and opens a national dialogue on what to do about it, that's a start. Maybe you think, oh, not again...haven't we done enough? What you teach in school is important. I've heard that younger Germans resent being reminded and taught about their past, but surely the thoughtful ones...even adolescents...would have a different attitude. You'd make a difference with that generation.
You can make a comparison with the US/slavery/the Civil War/segregation, and I won't argue. But we did free the slaves and did away with segregation. Civil rights became ingrained in our social consciousness. Maybe that's what Germany needs. Maybe you already have those laws...I realize this is a little off topic, but was responding to your cryptic reply.