Quest for Nazi father shatters German myths

Scotsman ^ | 11-28-04 | ALLAN HALL

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[SirLurkedalot]

Remind me to think about this man if I EVER start bitching about my parents.

[davidjquackenbush]

This lady doesn't sound like such a sweetheart herself.

[NetValue]

You are not the carrier of guilt for your parents' inhumanity unless you chose to be. You are what you make yourself to be. The INDIVIDUAL is the core concept of America. God will only love you or punish you for what YOU do.

[SirLurkedalot]

Did you notice something I did'nt? She seems pretty honest to me. If that had been my father you can know damn well I would'nt exactly advertise it.

[CaraM]

This lady doesn't sound like such a sweetheart herself.

I agree, but wouldn't you be sickened if you had found the gruesome truth that she is dealing with?

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

[H]er father negotiated to buy the spacious family house in Dahlem from a Jewess named Gertrud Leon for the knock-down price of 14,617 Reichsmarks. Sattler was able to strong-arm the property from her by offering her protection from the transports that shunted Jews eastward to their deaths every day.

I see no point in piling on the Nazis at this point. If you're not convinced that Nazism is pure evil, obviously we do not share the same principles. People on this forum argue that because a Jewish family "sold" artwork or jewelery to some Nazi son of bitch, the heirs have no right to try to reclaim it. I would maintain that any sale or contract by a Jew in Nazi Europe is, prima facie coerced and not a voluntary contract.

[SirLurkedalot]

Agreed. I just would'nt go out of my way to share that with others. I'd have a hard enough time dealing with that horror myself.

[Happy2BMe]

A good read - ping.

___________________

"My sympathies are solely for his victims (who were murdered under the hand of the Nazi SS)," Niemann said. "I came away from this project only wishing I had not been born a German and that I did not have parents such as these. It is my experience that Germans of this generation are all liars."

[Xcoastie]

At 62 it seems like she waited a long time before trying to understand more about her parents. Or at least speak out about what she had discovered. I'm probably reading too much into the story, but I wouldn't be surprised if she had long held suspicions and her search was more to confirm her fears at a point in her life when she had little left to fear.

[knuthom]

This lady doesn't sound like such a sweetheart herself.

Why do you say that?

[trek]

" I see no point in piling on the Nazis at this point."

Boy is this remark right on. We continue to wallow in Nazi butchery of 40 years ago all the while averting our eyes to the present day butchery of the islamo-fascists. What is that?

If you want to see human savagery you don't need to go to the archives. Just look at the throat cutters in Iraq, the rapists in Sudan, the bus bombers in Israel ... And more to the point there is something we can, and thanks to Bush, we are doing about Islamo-fascism.

God Bless the Marines.

[SJackson]

People on this forum argue that because a Jewish family "sold" artwork or jewelery to some Nazi son of bitch, the heirs have no right to try to reclaim it. I would maintain that any sale or contract by a Jew in Nazi Europe is, prima facie coerced and not a voluntary contract.

In the US the legal system would agree with you as to post 1993 sales.

[goldstategop]

I do not believe in collective guilt. An innocent child is not responsible for the crimes committed by her father. The Bible says we are to honor our parents. But there are times when they don't deserve our love - as when they harm innocent people. Beate Niemann's story is worth hearing. Its hard growing up in the shadow of a parent like Bruno Sattler and discovering the man was a monster instead of a saint. What it all points to is each man and each woman is responsible for their own sin. We can hope the daughter learned that while she can't change the past, she can see to it that it never happens again. Worth thinking about.

[Gritty]

The Nazis got their comeuppance.

When will the KGB, AVO, Stasi and all the other state sanctioned killers gainfully employed by the Communists get theirs?

[SJackson]

Boy is this remark right on. We continue to wallow in Nazi butchery of 40 years ago all the while averting our eyes to the present day butchery of the islamo-fascists. What is that?

She made a film about her father. That hardly impedes the war on terror, nor is there any indication of her feelings towards jihadists.

[goldstategop]

Keeping stolen property, especially of innocent people is immoral. If you know the property is stolen you must try to return to the original owners or somehow make restitution. They had an episode about it on Without A Trace on Thanksgiving night. A German gentile betrayed a Jewish family to an SS officer and lived with the guilt of what he did for a lifetime and finally saw him seen off to justice in Israel. We can make bad choices but if we have a conscience, we are driven to ultimately make it right with The Judge Of All The World.

[Right Brother]

You know, some day I would like to read an article, see a news story, read a best-seller, or see a movie chronicling the atrocities of Communist regimes. When it comes to the Museum of Evil, seems that the only exhibit is the Nazi exhibit.

[randog]

At a time when Germans have begun to embrace victimhood about the Second World War, projecting themselves as having suffered equally...

This is good--it teaches future generations what a good ass-kickin' is like.