Dear Germany: Have you learned anything?

Townhall.com ^ | April 8, 2003 | Dennis Prager

[Avoiding_Sulla]

Dear Germany: Have you learned anything?
Dennis Prager

April 8, 2003

I grew up, as many Americans and nearly all Jews did, with a deep anger at your country. But as a young man, I began to rethink my views of Germans. Against the wishes of almost everyone I knew -- most of whom would not even buy a German product -- I decided to go to Germany. My visit in 1968, at the age of 20, was the first of at least a dozen trips to your country.

In fact, I became a defender of yours.

I argued that it was wrong to hold any German who had been younger than 13 years old during the war morally responsible for your country's horrific crimes. I chose the age of 13 because in Judaism, that is the age of moral culpability. I argued in 1968 that every German then under the age of 40 must be regarded as blameless, and we should not assume the worst of every German over 40.

I argued that because Volkswagen and Mercedes defied the Arab boycott and did business with Israel, Jews should not boycott German products.

I argued that you were our staunch ally in the Cold War in confronting Soviet Communism.

I argued, most important of all, that Germans were ashamed of their Nazi past and had learned great moral lessons from it.

The last argument, I now realize, was more hope than fact. There is no question that the vast majority of Germans are ashamed of Nazism and the Holocaust. But I am now as certain as I am sad that you learned nothing about good and evil from it, and that you are as confused morally today as you were when you supported Hitler. Not because you are evil, but because you cannot recognize evil.

This is stunning. Unlike the Japanese, who have ignored their atrocities against the Chinese and Koreans, you confronted your evil. You taught the next generations of Germans about Nazism and about the Holocaust.

It is therefore incredible that all that education about evil has produced a generation that shies away from judging, let alone confronting, evil. It boggles the mind that a nation that was liberated from Nazism solely by armies waging war should embrace pacifism, that a nation that saw what appeasement of evil leads to now embraces it.

I was sure that some German leaders would stand up and say, "My fellow Germans, we know a Hitler when we see one, and Saddam Hussein is one." But no German stood up to say this. Instead one of your leaders compared the American president to Hitler.

I was sure that some German leaders would stand up and say, "My fellow Germans, we know genocidal anti-Semitism when we see it, and we see it in the Arab world." But no German leader stood up to say this either.

Few of us expected anything from the French. From the Jacobins and the guillotine, to the Dreyfus trial, to the Vichy regime, to de Gaulle's withdrawal from anti-Communist NATO, France, with rare exceptions, has done little that is moral and nothing that is courageous. So the disdain that many Americans have long felt for France has merely been reinforced.

But I think that I speak in the name of many Americans in saying that we expected more of you. Because of what we did for you after World War II and during the Cold War. Because you, of all people, know that Americans are a decent people. And especially because of your experience with evil. How could you have produced a Hitler and not recognize another one just one generation later? How could you know firsthand about torture chambers and children's screams and not ache to end them in another country? How could you side with amoral France against your friend America?

There is, it would seem, only one answer. Nazism taught you nothing. Instead of learning that evil must be fought, you learned that fighting is evil.

But thanks for Bach.

[Avoiding_Sulla]

• ...you are as confused morally today as you were when you supported Hitler. Not because you are evil, but because you cannot recognize evil.

• Nazism taught you nothing. Instead of learning that evil must be fought, you learned that fighting is evil.

I once noted to Prager on-air that too many of his callers seem more afraid of being called judgmental than of condemning evil of any sort when they see it. He awarded me a cigar and wrote an article for the WSJ on fear of beling labeled judgmental 8-9 months later. Looks like he's making some headway. Afterall, look at all the blessedly judgmental people here at FR!

[Arkinsaw]

Prager can be a real goob. But this one seems to reveal the proper truth in good style.

[goldstategop]

The instrument of war is morally neutral. (It can be used for good or for evil). There are times when we must fight evil with force to avoid greater harm to the innocent and to prevent the triumph of evil men. The objection to a war on behalf of good is as nonsensical as backing a war to take over the world by force. Pity the Germans for failing to learn the difference, namely that sometimes a war can be just.

[Mo1]

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[mercy]

Am I supposed to get some meaning from that pic?

[Mo1]

I guess not

[DBtoo]

This is a topic I have been giving much thought to lately.

Many people blame all Germans for Hitler's terrifying reign. But I have to wonder, what about the simple families who found themselves under the rule of a horrific dictator? I'm sure there were Germans who weren't a bit interested in politics, they just wanted their families and friends to prosper and lead healthy lives. Then, Hitler came to power. A lot of German people were terrified to find themselves living under a dictator who killed people who went against him, and who killed people because of their ethnicity.

I remember reading a story about 2 young college students who passed out anti-Hitler leaflets at their university. They were caught by Hitler's henchmen, and taken to the town square where they were beheaded to show others what would happen to them if they dared to speak out against Hitler. People were scared for their lives and the lives of their children. It takes a very special, brave person to fight something like that.

I have tried to put myself in that position. Say I was a 35 year old mother when Hitler came to power. Say I was more interested in my family and gardening and such than in politics, which many people are. Are such people to be blamed? I don't think so. Such people were caught in the wrong country in the worst possible time period. Needless to say, it was the worst possible time for Jews, but they weren't alone in being persecuted. Many Germans, Jewish and Gentile, lived in absolute fear. The lucky people escaped from Germany in time.

Let's say Hillary becomes our president in 2004. Many of us would not have voted for her, but she would win. Suddenly, we could find ourselves in the same situation as the Germans in the 1930s. I wouldn't put it past that woman to put certain people away the same way Hitler did. It could easily become a reign of terror. Would we all be at fault for that? In 50 years or so, would the world call all Americans Hillaryites or whatever the new term for nazis would be? Would America suffer from a reputation as being an evil country full of evil people because of the evil actions of President Hillary? Would that be fair? I don't think so. It's like accusing all Iraqis of being evil because of Saddam. There were many Germans such as those college students who risked their lives opposing Hitler, many of them indeed being sent to the camps and/or executed.

We're so used to seeing shows on TV depicting scenes of huge rallies where German citizens came out to worship their hero Hitler. However, we rarely hear of those brave souls (and terrified housewifes!) who were extremely unhappy over what had happened to their country. Those good people need to be remembered too.

I think there is a lot of unnecessary hatred and feelings of wanting revenge towards Germans because of the way that history is presented to us, as if every single German Gentile was a big fan of Hitler. We need to remember that evil became unleashed on the earth during that time period, and many people lived under terrible stress and fear, and of course millions died. We need to remember the good souls who fought against this evil, many paying with their lives. Things are not so black and white the way they are presented on TV and in movies. Not all Germans liked Hitler, not by a long shot, just like not all of us are fans of Hillary.

[Joe Boucher]

People here in America who have any brains at all should by now realise that hillery is evil. If you were to vote for her you would be supportting evil itself.
By the way she has reported to treat aids and service people. By the way she flaunts laws and feels a sence of entitlement. By the way she has treated other peoples monies and property of the govt. (which she stole) as her own.The Germans and french deserve everyones scorn. They have supported bad causes and should pay a price. But if we were to support evil then we too should bear a burden.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

I argued that you were our staunch ally in the Cold War in confronting Soviet Communism.

Profile: Gerhard Schroeder

In 1978, he was also elected chairman of Germany's young socialists.

The young Schroeder was a Marxist and environmentalist. In the early 1970s he idolised SPD chancellor Willy Brandt, whose Ostpolitik promised better relations with communist Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

[DBtoo]

I find Hillary very frightening and would never vote for her. However, there are many in our country who would. She seems to have a way of getting what she wants. When she "thought about" running for the NY senate, I knew she would run, and I knew she would win. I do worry that she will run for president, and by hook or crook, she may very well win, and we could find ourselves in very dire circumstances.

By the way, my grandmother and Jewish step-grandfather did escape Austria in time. They felt some very bad things were about to happen. His parents were not so lucky however. They thought it would be safe to stay in Austria, but because they were Jewish, they were taken away to the camps where they died. Many people thought it could not happen to them.

[An.American.Expatriate]

It is of course, ludicrous to brand all germans "nazis", then and now!

Hitler's rise to power was a popular movement - he "spoke" to the common man and they fell for his lies. After he assumed power, he did many things publically which the common man wnated - secretly he built his "evil" reich. During the war, many still supported him for trying to "unite" the german people - it wasn't until the "evil" parts of the reich became readily apparent, that the common man began to "resist". This could happen "anywhere".

After the war - and especially amoung the young - the "collective guilt" syndrom became something which several generations have tried to throw off - rightly. It is morally wrong to continueally condemn an entire people for actions which occurred before the majority of said people were even born.

The author of the article though, has missed a crucial point - the german people, as a whole, are not pacifists; instead they have forgotten the REAL lesson of the 1930's - always question the motives of those in charge! Only when you are convinced that your leaders are following a moral path, should you support them.

Bruce Springsteen, in an anti-war song, made the statement "Blind faith in your leaders can get you killed!". This is still true today - in Germany, the USA, and just about everywhere else.

The Germans, based solely on on the words of thier leaders and in defiance of all objective evidence to the contrary, reject THIS war. In Kosovo, the situation was the same - but in this case they easily accepted the war - even the notoriously "pacifist" Greens party!

[Asher]

"Needless to say, it was the worst possible time for Jews, but they weren't alone in being persecuted. Many Germans, Jewish and Gentile, lived in absolute fear."

Yes, but only Jews in Germany and elsewhere were marked out for total annihilation in a pre-planned industrial slaughter. And it was this annihilation that lay at the very heart of Nazi philosophy. To suggest that there was some sort of equivalence between German Jews and German gentiles is a distortion that ranks alongside Holocaust denial in its perversity. But what can anyone really say about a person who compares Adolph Hitler with Hillary Clinton in trying to whitewash the wickedness of Germany except that he is both very cowardly and extremely bad?

And can anyone be so incredibly naive to believe that Hitler all by himself carried out the Holocaust? To suggest that a monster like Hitler could arise in America is one thing, but to suppose that there could be millions of people who would carry out his evil schemes is a vile insult to all citizens of that great nation.

"There were many Germans such as those college students who risked their lives opposing Hitler, many of them indeed being sent to the camps and/or executed."

This is an almost complete fabrication. What marked out the German resistance as so singular is that it hardly existed. Apart from the brief period of the tiny White Rose movement there was hardly any popular opposition; your story of the two college students is also very highly colored - the Scholls of the White Rose were not executed in any town square but secretly in a Gestapo prison cell.

And as personal observers of the time like William Shirer pointed out whatever complaints the German people had against the regime, and there were many, the one thing they were almost all agreed about was the treatment of the Jews. What little resistance came about had absolutely nothing to do with the fate of the Jewish people but a belief that the war would lead to the destruction of Germany.

Germany (and, of course, Austria) could not have murdered the great majority of the Jews in Europe without the almost complete co-operation of the occupied countries like Holland, France Ukraine, Poland and Belgium. But only in Germany was the Holocaust planned, and in such minute detail. Only Germany devoted enormous resources to carrying it out. It was only in Germany that millions of "ordinary" German civilians and troops, aside from a huge contigent of SS, Gestapo, and Nazi functionaries worked day and night to to exterminate all the Jews of Europe.

Anyone who knows Germany well today is fully cognisant of the fact that there is little genuine remorse for the terrible crimes of that time. No, what really angers them is that Germany was defeated.

In trying to diminish the genocide of the Jews by the Germans while at the same time attempting to expunge the guilt of that nation, it makes you, in essence, no different to the individuals who carried out those foul deeds in the first place.

[Joe Boucher]

That was the refrain at the time,
"it couldn't happen here".

[Asher]

"They thought it would be safe to stay in Austria, but because they were Jewish, they were taken away to the camps where they died. Many people thought it could not happen to them."

Again you lie. Those Jews who could get out of Germany did. Most German Jews who stayed did so because there was nowhere in the world that would accept them. Austria only became part of the Nazi/German empire in 1938 by which time the gates of the entire world were almost closed to Jews trying to flee the disaster that awaited them. That's why so many Austrian Jews were murdered - ditto Poland, France, Holland, Belgium etc. etc. etc.

Trust you to attempt to blame the Jews for their own deaths. Instead you should turn your attentions to the anti-Semitic immigration policies of Canada, Britain and the U.S. that had been instituted at that time. Luck had nothing to do with it. Jew hatred did.

[Joe Boucher]

Though most of what you stated was correct, Hitlers Nazi also targeted Gypsies, homosexuals as well as handicapped,
not just Jews(not to make light of the Jews).

[happygrl]

I love Dennis Prager. He is my political and philosophical mentor.

Bless him.

[happygrl]

We need to remember the good souls who fought against this evil, many paying with their lives.

Yes, we do. Those "good" people who remained silent were complicit because of their silence. When the circumstances in life require that you speak out against evil, silence=assent. If you're goning to die, better to die for something than for nothing.

[Asher]

"Though most of what you stated was correct, Hitlers Nazi also targeted Gypsies, homosexuals as well as handicapped,
not just Jews(not to make light of the Jews)."

Jewish extermination was lay at the heart of the philosophy and the military campaign. Hatred of the Jews is what for the most part drove Hitler and the German people. Others were targeted but it was the Jews by far that bore the brunt. And it was only Jews (even those with just a Jewish grandparent) who were marked for total annihilation. The great majority in Europe of the handicapped and homosexuals together with very many Gypsies survived. Most Jews did not. In Poland of those Jews who were living there in 1939 only 1% survived - over 3 million were murdered by war's end.