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. . . but my generation will never feel responsible for what happened before our birth . . .

Well, we're not going back hundreds of years, are we, Michael? IMHO, your generation shares a not insignificant amount of guilt with the actual murderers who committed those many, many war crimes and those other uncountable barbaric crimes against humanity.

How can I say that? Because to this very day the bastards are still living in your midst, perhaps by the millions -- certainly by the thousands -- living the good life, revered, upstanding citizens of every city and hamlet in Germany. They've been there since the day you were born. Civilized people have an obligation to put their collective foot down and say, "NO! . . . You will not get away with those heinous crimes." But your generation has not done that. You've turned a blind eye to it.

How many of them have your generation prosecuted? Almost zilch. None. Nada. Zero. So I'm sorry, as I see it you've done next to nothing to quash the mentality that led to the war in the first place and led to the war crimes and pogroms.

WTF, why don't you just get it over with and give them medals and other high national honors and put an end to the pretense?

Best wishes,

You are wrong - as usual. At least I live in a country that respects justice and the basic principles of a fair trial. All criminals we could prosecute were trialed and sentenced. It is right that we did not execute all men from the age of 18 - 60 because they could have committed a crime. But indeed, we sentenced all those who have broken the law if we could find proofs for it.

I have no guilt, but I know that it serves your interests to make my generation and many more generations of Germans to come feeling guilty. It´s so easy.

But this doesn´t work. I am as guilty as you are for WW2 and the Nazi era. I am as guilty as you are for the mass-slaughtering of Indians, the slavery, the hundreds of thousand dead civilians in Vietnam or the millions of victims on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain. We are not guilty, we are not responsible for that.

And because I have no guilt, I feel free to make jokes about the war, just like you. What I would never do is to make jokes about the victims of the Nazi era, which were not only jews, gays, sinti and roma or foreigners - many many thousands of Germans were killed by the Nazis because of their political belief, too. The states which were attacked by the German army had a fair chance to defend themselves, just like Iraq had recently. You have said nothing to persuade me that this is not right. Period.

My country is built up with pride on the graves of those who stood up and fought for humanity in our darkest hours. There were more than 35 assassinations on Hitler, the most popular took place on July 20 1944. We are thankful for the achievements of these heroes who gave their life for justice, peace, humanity and the rights of others.
I will not forget that.