Posted on 10/29/2004 7:16:19 AM PDT by Pikamax
Germany asks will Queen say sorry? Fri 29 October, 2004 05:44
By Alexandra Hudson
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germans are waiting to see how the Queen refers to Britain's 1945 bombing of Dresden when she visits next week, now that they are speaking more of their own war-time suffering and breaking a long-standing taboo.
Just days ahead of the Queen's first visit since 2000, a row has erupted in the British and German press over whether the air raids were justified and whether the monarch should apologise.
Dresden was devastated in a firestorm which killed some 35,000 people just three months before the war's end. The fate of the eastern city has come to epitomise civilian suffering.
"Will the queen say sorry?" asked the country's largest selling newspaper Bild on Thursday.
The queen will host a concert in Berlin to raise money for Dresden's cathedral which lay in rubble for 50 years and is now a focus of German and British reconciliation.
"Such delicate gestures of reconciliation are probably too complicated for newspapers like Daily Mail and Daily Express to understand," wrote the Berliner Zeitung daily.
ANGER IN BRITISH PRESS
Talk of an apology has angered populist newspapers.
"Krautrage" said a headline in the Daily Star tabloid.
"Sorry, the Germans must never be allowed to forget their evil past," wrote columnist Simon Heffer in the Daily Mail.
A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman was quoted in Germany's Der Spiegel newsmagazine saying the Queen had not been asked for an apology. But she added: "The Queen is very conscious of the suffering of all people during the war."
The queen's three-day visit aims to focus on the future relationship of Britain and Germany.
On a visit to Britain two weeks ago German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said he was amazed at the lingering portrayal of Germany in the British media as a nation of Nazis.
It was long considered unwise and even dangerously nationalistic for Germans to question whether Allied bombings were necessary or legitimate but German historian Joerg Friedrich did just that in 2003 in a best-selling book.
Talk about shameless. They inflicted HOW much suffering in WWII? And they're questioning the use of force employed to stop the atrocities they were behind? Boo, freaking, hoo.
Have the germans ever apologized for bombing England? Have they ever apologized for murdering millions of Jews?
This is sickening.
Not a bloody chance. If you start a war, you endure the consequences. Just be grateful that we didn't implement the Morgenthau plan on your sorry butts.
This is a joke, right?
And then Fred Goldman should apologize to OJ Simpson for letting his son hang out with OJ's ex-wife.
That is a pretty funny one. When I worked with a German, he became angry over some technical problem and was frustrated; so I joked to him and the rest of the group about "Thomas is a sour Kraut." He didn't get it but everyone else laughed.
Hey Germany...You think Dresden was bad? Talk to Japan...
Sorry for what?
The Germans should be asked if they are sorry for all the misery they inflicted on the rest of the world by backing a dictator.
Liberals are the same all over the world. They tend to revise history to suit their own sensitivities, but leave out all those nasty things (like facts) that don't fit in their playbook.
I don't think so.
Have they ever apologized for murdering millions of Jews?
Yes. They actually pay annual reparations. In gold.
This is sickening.
Sure is.
Berlusconi is still waiting for the apology from the Germans to Rome over the Teutoburg Forest.
Yeah. Sorry it took so long for us to rescue the JEWS.
Would it make a difference? The civilians in London are just as dead, sorry or not. Asking for an apology is shameful. Recognizing civilian deaths is one thing, but asking for an apology, shameful.
I know about the reparations but have they ever said they were sorry or did they just agree to pay and never apologize?
Always heed John Cleese as Basil Fawlty....Don't mention the War!!!
My gran used to tell me about when she was a teenager in wartime London, and living with the nightly bombings, and then the doodlebug bombs came in: how there was a sound of the engine cutting out and then a loud bang when it hit. Years after the event, she shuddered remembering what life was like back then.
I'm not at all sorry as to what we did to Dresden. It was just retribution.
Regards, Ivan
"There has been much talk about the events of 1945. I know you remember them well. I want to say to you now -- you bloody well deserved it!"
Of all the places I've been on this earth, it's the most disturbing.
Germany is one of those 'traditional allies' that Bush has alienated, according to Kerry and the MSM.
The other 'traditional' ally, of course, is France. It is to laugh.
With allies like these, who needs enemies?
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