[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.

[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.

[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.

[happygrl]

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

Bless him.

[DuncanWaring]

"My fellow Germans, we know a Hitler when we see one, and Saddam Hussein is one."

Instead, what they say is "My fellow Germans, we know a Hitler when we see one, and George Bush is one."

[MississippiMan]

As infuriating as it is to see a manifestation of it like this, this refusal to judge is the natural result of the way the world is going. By shoving God out of the way, as Creator and as the Giver of morals, we've put the responsibility for it all in the hands of man. And if man is solely responsible, then there are no absolutes, no rights and wrongs, beyond what each person declares it to be for them. No one wants to judge, because they're afraid to be judged for their own wrongs. Gosh knows we have plenty of this kind of thinking in our own country.

MM

[windcliff]

ping

[doug from upland]

I heard Dennis talking about this on the air today. Over the years, I've probably made 40-50 calls to him.

[andysandmikesmom]

This is only my one little anecdotal tale, dealing with ordinary German citizens, but, its all I have to go on, and I would just assume it is not representative of all Germans, but certainly representative of some...

When my boys were in grade school, my older boys class was studying WW11, and specifically the Holocaust...each student was assigned a specific subject, and had to do extensive research on that subject, and then they had to present it to the class...

My sons specific topic of research was Adolph Eichman, and I do remember that he had a lot of books, taken out of the library, ,dealing with the Holocaust, and I also had a few paperback books, in my own personal library, dealing with the Holocaust..and fortunately for my son, I had one old paperback book, falling apart practically that dealt only with Eichman...in the middle of the book, there were pages and pages full of pictures of concentration camps, and gruesome pics of the crematoriums, of people who were hung, of firing squads, and lots of pics of naked dead bodies, piled up by the hundreds....it was all very hard to look at, yet it was the truth of the matter, and my son was very intent on studyint these pics, and just full of questions, of "Why"..."Why and How could such a thing be allowed to happen"

My son had all these books on spread out on the kitchen table, and he and I were discussing these matters, when my younger son(4yrs younger than the older boy) and his little friend came into the house, and wanted to know what we were doing, and they looked with interest also, at these gruesome pics...and the were full of questions as well, and I explained to them what these pics were and what they meant, as best as I could, considering their age range, which was probaby around 9yrs old...the older boy being 13...

And I thought nothing of this...but the next day, the mother of my younger sons friend, came storming over to my house, demanding to know why I dared to show her son such pics, and how dare I mention, that this happened in Nazi Germany(she was a woman born in Germany, married an American GI, and then came to the USA)....

I explained to her, the interest all the boys had in these books and pictures, and had just assumed, quite unwisely, that her son knew something about the history of his mothers home country...

Apparently I was mistaken...this woman just floored me...she was convinced that the whole story of the Holocaust was overblown, that very few Jews were slaughtered, that Hitler and his henchmen were not really as bad as Americans made them out to be...and that I should not be telling such tales...

I politely told her to get the hell out of my house, and not to come back...she was just outraged....she really did think she could bully me, into her warped way of thinking...it was clear that she did not wish for her son to be informed of such things...wonder how she thought she could prevent him from learing about WW11, and the Holocaust...sooner or later, he would learn about it in school, or from his own personal reading...

To this day, I have never been able to understand why she thought this way....I wondered about what she had learned about her country in school, or from her family, and was she just in denial and deluded...