Getting over hitler

magickz

Active Member
When most people meet our family to find out we are both German this conversation almost always comes up. I would love to not be labeled as a horrible drill Sargent wanna-be who has ties back to something so horrible but its unavoidable. How are other Germans handling i?
 

Olsen

Member
I'm not German, but I can imagine how Germans must feel with the shadow of Hitler and the Nazis hovering in their historical background... Especially with so much fiction being based on the World War II. Take these comic book-based Hollywood movies that have come out lately, for example - I've seen at least two in the past months whose themes related to fighting the Germans and stopping Hitler (X-Men: First Class and Captain America: The First Avenger). I wonder how Germans are feeling going to the cinema and watching these movies only to see that the bad guys always have a German accent...
 

magickz

Active Member
I have yet to see either of those but they are on my list. The biggiest issue is not along the lines of "OMG you are German and evil" its more like random things. In my line of work I am responsible for all of the money so when I see someone not paying or someone not doing their job right I am then called a Nazi. I mean really, people need to grow up.
 

Rhonda Tharp

Active Member
My mother just got back from 4 weeks in Germany. She observed that no one talks about it. The schools skip WWII in their history books. She said she felt as if they were embarrassed and kept monuments and public displays about things other than from the WWII period. One of the students that went with her asked a young German girl where to find one of the concentration camps, and she looked at her and said, "what's a concentration camp?" My mother is 63, and while this surprised her, she understood what the country was trying to do. On a side note, anyone seen "The Reader"? This reminded me of the movie and it's premise of how hard the next generation of Germans had it after WWII ended. They were trying to find an identity and trying to make things right with the world. What a legacy of tragedy and guilt to leave on the next generation!
 
I have heard from some Germans in the US that they have heard similar things. I think it's horrible to stereotype all German people because of what happened. I suppose it's because there are still people alive who are so closely connected to the events that occurred.
 

LegendofJoe

Active Member
Germans have tried hard in terms of reparations since WWII. They need not feel guilty any more.
However, it disturbs me when I hear things like not teaching about the war in Germany.
You can't treat the past like it never happened.
As an American, I am embarresed about slavery.
But it happened in the past and I never owned a slave, so I do not feel guilt.
However, it would be shameful if our history of slavery was swept under the rug and not taught and remembered.
 

RLynn

Active Member
The whole thing about Hitler is disturbing because it could happen anywhere. Even today some of the political trends in France, England, and the US could have disastrous consequences if not checked by the opposition. The Hitler phenomenon should remind the human race that it is still in its evolutionary infancy. The fact that it happened in Germany, which was noted for its scientific achievements, makes it all the more scary. The fault lies not just with the Germans of that time, but also with the human race. It should not be forgotten that there was a lot of support for Hitler not only in Germany, but also in Italy, Spain, Austria, and other countries such as Ireland, Scandinavia, and (dare I suggest) the US.
 

Myrddin

Well-Known Member
We can only learn from our mistakes by remembering them, and if the mistakes of the past are not taught to us, how are we supposed to learn? We can only make the world a better place by looking at the past to create a brighter future. "Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up." (Thomas Wayne in Batman Begins.)
 

jerri

Member
I didn't learn about the Japanese internment camps that existed in the US during WWII in school. I also didn't learn of the devastation caused by the nuclear bombs we dropped until I was required to read Hiroshima in high school. I think every country does this to a point.
 

Nadai

Active Member
I'm not German, but I can imagine how Germans must feel with the shadow of Hitler and the Nazis hovering in their historical background... Especially with so much fiction being based on the World War II. Take these comic book-based Hollywood movies that have come out lately, for example - I've seen at least two in the past months whose themes related to fighting the Germans and stopping Hitler (X-Men: First Class and Captain America: The First Avenger). I wonder how Germans are feeling going to the cinema and watching these movies only to see that the bad guys always have a German accent...
Actually the connection between X-Men, Captain America, and Nazi Germany is nothing new.
The original X-Men's episode "Old Soldiers" aired in 1997 showing Captain America and Logan in Nazi Germany teaming up to stop the Red Skull. It isn't a new idea that Marvel would include the two in such a mission, both great heroes, both alive during the war, both experimented on to become super-soldiers; I always thought it was a great plot. It's included in the history of both heroes in each animation: The Avengers, X-Men Evolution and X-Men the original series, as well as the comics. I think Hollywood's done a pretty good job with that, aside from the fact that they made Logan fall in love with Jean Grey when in actuality Logan marries Storm and Scott marries Jean. And Logan didn't kill Jean and Jean didn't kill Professor X! I also thought that last movie, X-Men: First Class was a head shaker. I refused to take part in that movie; in no way was any of that movie even close to accurate!
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As far as how Germans feel when watching those types of movies, I'd suppose that if they didn't like how they were portrayed they wouldn't watch them. I'd imagine they would feel the same way white people feel when they watch a movie like Roots or how Japanese people feel when they sit through Pearl Harbor. It's a part of history that can't be erased. There's no reason to burry your head in the sand and feel offended every time someone asks a German questions about Nazis just like there would be no reason for a white person to be offended if someone asked them if their ancestors had slaves. History is history, there's no use being imbarrased about the mistakes that our ancestors made, hopefully people remember those mistakes so as not to make them again in the future.
 

magickz

Active Member
I did not skip watching the new Captain America movie because I am part German, I watched it because of the story line. Many times when a movie (or book) deals with something I have gone through (good or bad) from my past or just like this, my heredity I will watch for accuracy. I am not offended when people ask questions, I am offended when people assume all German types (full blood or not) assume everyone is Hitler........there is a big difference between asking questions and assuming.
 

Nadai

Active Member
Triumph of the Wills is a documentary that, during Hitler's rule, was viewed in every classroom, but today is banned in Germany.
 
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