Comments on: Germany after WWII, a personal perspective

By: An interesting blog post on the concept of historical guilt « Ami in Franken

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:07:12 +0000

[...] they share, however, a LOT of people tend to think the Germans should feel guilt forever. I don´t. http://www.amiexpat.com/2009/01/09/germany-after-wwii-a-personal-perspective/ Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. Filed under [...]

By: BSankaran

BSankaran — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:11:17 +0000

Hi All,
Wonderful Blog. I am neither German nor American. Basically from India. Recently I started read the book named “The Rise and Fall of Third Reich” by Williams Shirer. Not sure why I started having atmost interest in all the stuff relating to WWII and some how feel that we humans at some point in time loose the real reason why we are called the Social Beings. It is very unfortunate that people change the basic behaviour of their very existence, but as it is said it is always Change that is constant. I think the main thing in this blog that needs to be noted is the truth that History Is Written And Re-Written By People Who Win. And may be that is the real reason why Germans do feel bad about their role in WWII and Americans are proud about it. It all boils down to the propoganda.

By: ahern

ahern — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:03:02 +0000

it is unfair to tell someone who was born 10, 20, 30, 40, etc years after the attrocities committed in WWII that they are somehow responsible, or that they should feel guilt for crimes their parents committed. The generation of Germans who participated in WWII should feel guilty, but not their children. It is the same in America- even if your great great grandfather was a slave owner, that does not mean you have any responsibility for his actions, or should feel guilty about it, no matter how much you dislike the facts. Attrocities that happened in the past should be remembered so that they cannot be repeated, but guilt should not be imposed on those who did not commit any crime.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:34:08 +0000

Random thought:
I’m not an expert on WWII, but it would seem to me that it was the first war where we have extensive video footage serving as an eyewitness to the genocide that took place.
I think we Americans tend to feel less “historical guilt” because we are not bombarded with concrete evidence of the things our country has done to other peoples. There are no reels depicting displacement of Native Americans or the despicable treatment of African slaves, crushed bodies of Irish coal miners, starving indentured servants during the Industrial Revolution, etc… What is out of sight tends to be out of mind. Meanwhile, I can flip through the channels every day and find endless documentaries on Hitler, the Holocaust, images of starving bodies.
I think it is a real tragedy, though, that Americans have a black/white perspective on WWII. I’d say 99% have no idea about the massive rapes, killings of innocent people by the “glorious allies”. Black and white thinking makes us dangerously close to believing we are incapable of wrong-doing.

By: Ale

Ale — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:59:27 +0000

Honestly I never paid any attention to WWII until I marry my American husband that is quite interested in that part of history. Before that I had few interaction with Germans, but it always amazed me that my exboyfriend, who was educated in a German school thought Germans were better… we entered endless discussions… and when I was in Grad School there was a good number of Germans in my program, and one African chic made the comment once, that she thought Germans were too proud and feel better than everybody else, and we were so surprised when one of the Germans answered back “we know we are better, we just don’t say it aloud”. So I’m surprised to hear that the German pride has been supressed, those events I’m describing happened in the 90′s.

By: Maddie

Maddie — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 04:11:58 +0000

This is the topic of a story i am currently composing and the blog and all comment contributions have assisted incredibly with my understanding of the worlds perception of Germany post WWII.

I am the grandaughter of a german who fled the war with no Nazi connections or affiliation whatsoever.
Nazi crimes against the jewish population were horrifying.
All war is an attrocity.
There is nothing we can do now to escape that.
Guilt included.
Though it is important we recognise the past there is no War so publicised in text as WWII, from the Jewish perspective in particular.
Hitler was a dictator. And we need to view the history of the second world war in context.
More importantly, stop judging Germany for the crimes of a very sick man and his followers- it is a country of individuals, the war giving birth to a multitude of individual stories and situations. Germany has the right to lose its immediate assosciation with evil as a country that has recognised the past- and biased text and people do little to help this.

By: Dashiel Badhorse

Dashiel Badhorse — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:28:39 +0000

Americans are shameless demons when it comes to Native Americans. Blacks had it bad too and the Jews but Indians had it the worst, how many Indians do u see in America? not many becos they were massacred but u didnt read about it in (american) history class.

Americans are proud of their history but dont show any sypathy for the enslaved african or the defeated Indian. they act like nothing happened. africans and indians done many things to help white people (slavery, native american resources, land, etc) the blacks and indians never done wrong to them and got nothing in return and the rest is history..

germans should be proud to be german, they got their homeland and nation and pride – i am apache/cheyenne

By: Rich

Rich — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:44:16 +0000

Christina,

I do believe there is some truth to what you are saying. However, I think you miss a very critical point about America. America is comprised of people from all corners of the globe especially over the past 100 years. So although horrible things did occur in America with slavery, etc. most people that live in America today moved to America subsequent to those events. I know this doesn’t make it okay, but it is like telling someone from Mexico to feel guilty for what happened in Germany. Once again, I think Americans do feel guilt for those wrong doings, but you can’t just look at a country with over 300,000,000 people with most of them migrating from around the globe during the 1900′s and expect them to fully fill the guilt that they don’t have direct ties to.

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:35:31 +0000

Christina, and also Stormchaser,
Thanks for letting me post my feelings on your blog, also for responding. I actually have lots of answers to your question, but I’m afraid the explanation would be too long, and probably not in the spirit of your blog either.
If you want to read more, maybe you would prefer to take the discussion off the blog, and you can post and respond to anything you find interesting (if there is)? My email is ascolmes@gmail.com.
But at least let me say here that I don’t diminish anyone’s suffering in my mind, and I don’t hope for anyone to suffer–that’s not part of the answer at all.

By: Christina Geyer

Christina Geyer — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:49:07 +0000

@scott: I’m just wondering where your conclusion has come from that none of us knows what the Holocaust or other German War Crimes are. Because I, for one, learned all about them in history class, not to mention through reading books, watching documentaries and visiting museums. Plus, given that John Demjanjuk is on trial for Nazi war crimes, there are still people alive who were responsible for war crimes and Germany is still holding them accountable.

@stormchaser: I read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee a few years ago and it hurt my soul. Thanks for the other book suggestions, I’ve added them to my list of books to read. You’re right, there is no reason to rank genocides, they are all tragedies and many could have been prevented. I think some people assuage their guilt (for lack of a better word – maybe their need to be educated about what happened is more what I mean) by saying that “What we did wasn’t as bad as what the Nazis did,” but that is no excuse for not condemning past genocides or standing up against currently occurring ones. “It’s only a few hundred thousand people, look at how many the Nazis killed,” I’ve heard that about Darfur. There is debate about even calling it a genocide. It’s sad and things don’t seem to change.