Posted on 09/01/2006 2:25:31 PM PDT by Lukasz
BERLIN: Red-faced officials at the German culture ministry scrambled to apologise yesterday after two gaffes at former Nazi concentration camps.
The first occurred when Hermann Schaefer, deputy federal representative for culture and media at the ministry, gave a speech at a memorial concert for victims of the Buchenwald camp near Weimar in central Germany.
He spoke at length about the ordeal faced by Germans expelled from their homes by Red Army forces in the final days of World War II but failed to mention Nazi crimes or Holocaust victims at any point during the speech.
Some 250,000 people from 36 countries were imprisoned at Buchenwald between 1937 and 1945, 56,000 of whom were killed or died in the camp’s gruelling conditions.
The director of the Buchenwald memorial centre, Volkhardt Knigge, and the head of the International Committee of Buchenwald-Dora, Bertrand Herz, said they were stunned by the speech, which was delivered on Friday.
"I have never had such bewildered reactions from survivors," Knigge said, calling the remarks "a scandal" and suggested that the government no longer took its responsibility for Germany’s Nazi legacy seriously.
Herz, a Frenchman who was imprisoned at Buchenwald at the age of 14, called the speech "nationalistic" and an insult to victims of Nazi atrocities.
Parliamentary deputy speaker Katrin Goering-Eckardt of the Green party demanded an explanation from the government "to avoid further damage here and abroad".
Amid calls for his resignation yesterday, Schaefer apologised for any offence he caused.
"I did not know there were concentration camp victims sitting in the front rows," the official told public broadcaster 3sat, referring to the audience at the ceremony.
"I am sorry and apologise for that. I should have included them more in the speech and was probably obliged to."
He said he had not included specific references to the Nazis’ slaughter of 6mn Jews because he had been asked to speak on the government’s policy on historical remembrance in general.
"I had no intention of relativising victims," he said.
Schaefer’s boss, Culture Minister Bernd Neumann, expressed his regret in a statement issued yesterday for any offence caused by the speech, but said that it was "completely absurd" to assume from it that Germany no longer saw the Holocaust as an unparalleled crime.
"I extremely regret any political misunderstandings and adverse effects to the event caused by my department director’s speech," he said.
"The Nazi dictatorship and the Holocaust it caused are unique in their cynically barbarous dimensions and can be relativised by nothing."
But Neumann’s office was forced to apologise again yesterday when it was revealed that all former Nazi concentration camps received a fax calling on them to hoist the German flag on "Home Day" September 3, a memorial day for just the expelled Germans to whom Schaefer dedicated his speech.
A culture ministry spokeswoman said a "technical oversight" had included the camps, which are maintained in Germany as memorials, on the distribution list and that the ministry regretted the error. – AFP
It wasn´t in a KZ.
World War One was the fault of all European major powers.
http://library.thinkquest.org/12367/
Maybe you want to do the online lesson:
http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/lessons/wwi/objectives_wwi.html
Take your time, afterwards you´ll be able to explain the causes of WW1. It´s for 9 graders, but that shouldn´t be a problem for you. ;-)
The Treaty of Versailles is the start of the chain that led to World War Two. That´s common understanding of the world´s history - also taught in British schools (or Germans, for that matter).
http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/year9links/versailles.shtml
I was aiming at Germany's culpability in the war, which happened to coincide, thank God, with her surrender at its terminus, a point which the Michael person seemed to want to get around (the culpability, that is).
It doesn't help your ability to persuade when you attempt to insult the intelligence of those you're typing AT.
I have studied history for decades and continue doing so, particularly European history, especially the world wars. It's a passion of mine.
I have no interest in debating the issue with you.
I haven´t insulted anybody. It was a joke. This was certainly not an offense against anybody. If you have no arguments against the links I´ve provided, it´s ok. Germany is no more or less responsible for WW1 than any other European major power of 1914. And denial is not a river in Egypt.
I know, just wanted you to get my message, though.
"the Michael person"?? Not very kind on your side, don´t ya think?
Nothing you posted refutes the basic truth that Wilhelm II's militaristic regime framed the character of the war and its directions. One of the main reasons that the United States didn't support the German side back then was the proclivity of the German side for brutal excesses. Read up on the German record in Belgium, for example..
Making excuses for the brutality and primitivity of WW I Germany is only a short step to making excuses for the Nazis... We aren't, are we?
I didn't memorize your screen name and didn't want to bother to look it up. If being referred to by an actual portion of your screen name offends you ... you have more problems than I initially would have surmised.
Thank you for your post.
Yours: "It´s for 9 graders, but that shouldn´t be a problem for you. ;-) "
Also yours: "I haven´t insulted anybody. It was a joke."
Given the other sentences in your post/s, adding the smiley face doesn't convey "joke."
So you think the bad guys always lose? You've watched too many John Wayne movies.
And what about the folks imprisoned there from 1945 by the Reds. Some of them were the same folks who were imprisoned by the Nazis.
Look what is coming.
Any German official should take pains not to offend Holocaust survivors, who can be in any audience. And it was certainly unwise of this man not to throw in the standard Holocaust-sensitive comments when delivering his own (rarely heard, and, in that sense, more important) message. But it's hard for me to feel much angst for the offended parties. There has -- rightly -- been no shortage of sympathy and recognition for Holocaust survivors, for the last 60 years. What has been very short is official and well-publicized sympathy and recognition for other victims of the era -- the innocent, or largely innocent civilians who died on both sides in WW II, and of course the tens of millions of victims of communism. Where the hell is their memorial? I would be nice to see not just one, but several; and not just a few commemorative ceremonies, but many; and not just a few poorly publicized documentaries and movies, but many major ones.
Please point out where I said the bad guys always lose.
You said the countries which surrender are the aggressors:
"I would have to ask, which country / countries did the surrendering at the end of WW1. That would seem to indicate which country / countries was / were the conquered aggressor/s,"
I will admit that you could use some exposure to Strunk and White.
Note my use of the word "seem."
LOL, nothing you posted even states that Kaiser Wilhelm II´s government was more or less brutal in following its interests than say Britain or France. While I have provided sources explicitly stating that the responsibility of WW1 goes to France, Britain, Russia, Austria and Germany, you just have told us your OPINION. And I surely hope you are capable of distinguishing between "Making excuses for the brutality and primitivity of WW I Germany" and setting the causes for WW1´s start right. It simply doesn´t cover the historical truth when one states that Germany started WW1 on its own. And it´s also denial when one says that the Versailles Treaty was not the start of the chain that led to Hitler´s rise and WW2.
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