Why has Germany been forgiven for the Holocaust when the WWII generation is still alive and well?

Question

I don't know what Germany has done to pay or if after Nuremberg the world just carried on. What about the citizens of Germany who were at fault as well?

Answer 1

As Jack mentioned above, you couldn't turn all Germans over a certain age into POWs. Life had to go on somehow. While I regard most Germans of that generation as not innocent, the personal guilt of most ordinary people was not so much that they could actually be personally convicted for a crime so they could have been sentenced to death for that or something.

And you know they were punished in many ways. Their cities were carpet bombed, hundreds of thousands of people died in these air-raids, their country was occupied, many were expelled from their homes, in the East millions of German women were raped by soldiers of the Red Army, and most had a tough life after the war as there was shortage of food and housing. And also all who had believed in their superiority and had hoped for world domination had to bear the humiliation of total defeat and that German nationalism was discredited. They could no more say they were proud to be Germans, Germany was seperated into two states and was no more united as a nation, this was tough especially for nationalists. In the East they got a new dictatorship in exchange for the old one. Then there was the Berlin Wall and a large fence seperating the two German states. The relatives of the fallen soldiers and the veterans have to bear that the German soldiers are not honored like soldiers are usually honored in other countries, in contrast they have to face that they fought for an evil cause and that they died and fought totally in vain. I know that many veterans are bitter on this and some really freaked out when recently war crimes committed by ordinary soldiers came to the spotlight and deserters were officially honored for refusing to fight for Hitler. Those German soldiers who got to Soviet war captivity suffered a lot in the gulag and many died. Many later had to face unpleasent questions from their own children.

So that was the punishment they received. I think some of it was deserved and some wasn't. I mean for example I don't think that women deserved to be raped or that people deserved to die in air-raids. But all Germans who supported the Nazis definitely deserved the humiliation of defeat and all what's related to that.

Answer 2

I'm not sure everyone has forgiven Germany for the Holocaust, just as I'm not sure if everyone has forgiven Japan for Pearl Harbor. I think Germany certainly has paid a price for blindly following Hitler and his policies, their country had been split up for 40 some years, they've had American military bases established since then as well. Japan has had to pay as well, Hiroshima and Nagasaki notwithstanding. As to those who said that the German people weren't to blame, well I can't agree with that. They may not have pulled the triggers or pointed out their Jewish neighbors to the authorities, but very few German citizens did not in some way benefit from the appropriation of Jewish property or the use of slave or forced labor during the war years. Many families gained material or had 'indentured' servants during the war, such as my wife's grandmother who was 'assigned' to work for a German family as their maid. She had been a teenager when Ukraine was overrun. She has stated she wasn't terribly mistreated, but I consider being relocated and separated from your family mistreatment in its own right.

Answer 3

Most Germans were simply cowards. They clicked their heel, Germany never actually had a democracy until now. And the fact that most racial incidents occur in Eastern part of Germany even today is due to the fact that there they had no democrcy until recently. In other words, Eastern germans, all those adults alive were always clciking their heels. They are a subversient group of people . The reason there is stilla small contingent of US soldiers there even over 60 years after the defeat of Germany shows that the US in spite of its declarations, still watches the F Germans. Germans simply are not very inclined to disobey. I was born jewish in Germany. I was left behin d there to be reared by a childress aunt and uncle who later were muedered in the HOlocaust,. I escaped alone in l938 to rejoign my parents who had left soona fter Kitler coming to power to Belgium. During the war i lived in hiding in Belgium under the name if Lejeune, Now I moderate the Yahoo! group Remember_The_Holocaust at the request of the founder, a Christian American. Germany as a nation can never be forgiven, but individuals born after the war are not responsible.And therefore , there is nothing to forgive since they never did anything wrong. Their forefathers did and too often hid their crimes to be known. That is why history is important , and that crimes of genocides be resisted such as Darfur, Rwandam, Cambodia, etc. My best friends are actually Germans even though I am Jewish.

Answer 4

Please, why don't you forget the WWII? It finished ages ago. Besides the revenge is disgusting and very dangerous. Perhaps you don't know it but the WWII was the result of ugly treat that Germany received from victorious countries. And by the way I'm not German. Besides one of the bigger victim of this cruel war was Germany or do you think every German person wanted and adored Hitler? He was a dictator. He was an enemy for a lot of German people. These people couldn't say or doing anything.

Answer 5

germany's "wrong doing" was the fault of hitler, he was very clever and charismatic and got to be the chancellor of germany and the nazi party using sly tactics, when he got in charge he revealed his warplans.

the troops and officer were mainly conscripted which means they were forced to fight most of the soldiers did not want to do the things they did but would be shot if they didnt, although some people volounteered to do it they had been convinced by hitler and nazi propaganda that what they were doing was right.

the poeple who should apologize are the nazi's that willingly committed these war crimes and obvioulsy hitler.

generalising the country is quite a bad thing to, do as the people that live there hate hitler just as much and even more then everyone else does because of what he did to the jews, germany and all other countrys involved. hitler was a dictator so the citizens and other political parties had o say in what happened, he also assasinated key member os rival poltical parties to keep himself in power.

hitler forced his personal opinions and hatred towards the jewish people on the whole of the nation

Answer 6

I don't think they have been forgiven. Despite the billions of dollars they spent, and continue to spend to build up Israel. Every time you turn on the tv its in your face somewhere. They could not just crush Germany out of existance (we all know what happened after the first world war).

And I do not think the common people are to blame. My family were simple Sudeten farmers with 5 kids. After the war, when Sudetenland was given to the Czechs, they were stripped from there home and belongings and sent to Bavaria in boxcars with nothing... They are no more to blame for the Holocaust then you are to blame for the war in Iraq.

Why dont you rally against the war, at least you wouldn't get killed by a facist government for trying. Arrogance, shear arrogance on your part.

And as you know, most Nazi actors are gone and past so why continue the hatred? There were Germans before the war and there are Germans after the war. Not all Germans were Nazis and not all Nazis were German. Nuff Said.

Answer 7

Well, at some point, people have to acknowledge wrongs done, make reparations as best they can, and then move on. What good would it do to turn all Germans of a certain age into POWs or something? The common citizens were at fault, but they have certainly been chastened by the war and the world's continuing condemnation.

Answer 8

For many Holocaust Survivors,
Germany has been no more forgiven than many Afro Americans have forgiven those that took their forebears into Slavery.

Answer 9

Tragedies of this enormity have one of two effects. They have the potential to cripple a nation or they can lead to a renaissance. The same factors that allowed a nation to be manipulated are always present when we don't stand up for freedom. One could argue that the marginalisation and victimisation of Muslims is our contemporary 'Holocaust'...

Answer 10

How long should one carry a grudge? Hatred and rubbing salt into a wound leads one nowhere. it only leads to festering animosity. Ultimately the individual, perpetrators have to face their maker and their actions they dished out..... the universe is a just one.