Heyy guys, i'm a first year student at university studying french, german and spanish. For my german dissertation I have to write an essay on the Holocaust, and Germany's guilt.
I would really value everyones opinions (esp on the subject of germanys guilt) to help me build a good dissertation.
Do you think holocaust guilt still exsists today?!
Why? Why not?!
All opinions are welcome!
:)
2007-12-17 07:21:41 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
I'm sure many people still feel guilty for what their family members did because if I was from Germany, I would be ashamed. I'm not saying that just because I'm not from there, but if my ancestor's did something has horrible as that, I would feel guilty.
Now as for some people, they still don't believe it happened.
2007-12-17 07:37:25 · answer #1 · answered by Cel 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That is a good question. Really too much for this forum.
There are a few things that you must know before you can form a value judgment here.
1. At the end of the 2nd war, many citizens of Germany were forced to walk through the prisoner of war camps, the extermination camps, the refugee camps and the other various prison camps run by the Nazis. These people were forced to be witnesses to the abomination that was done to the "enemies" of the Reich.
2. German military cadets are still taken through the various museum camps like Dachau to experience what their for fathers did to human beings.
3. The rest of the world has not forgotten. Many people have come to realize that "there but for the grace of God, go I"
when it comes to the German people, and they have come to the realization that the modern Germany is a much different place than the one that suffered so much in the 1920's and early 30's, that spawned the Nazi period.
Yes. Holocaust guilt still exists.
There can be no excuse ever made for the inhumanity that was exhibitied by the Nazis during WWII. The same can be said for the Italians towards the Africans in 1940, and the Russians as they crushed Germany in 1945, the Japanese military in the Philipines in 1942, and the Americans regarding their famous Cuban prison today. There is no end to examples of man's inhumanity toward man. It is in our genes. We all suffer for it and pay for it and should be humiliated for it.
2007-12-17 15:37:38 · answer #2 · answered by David in Madison 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes in for some it does, especially the older generation who were a part of it.
I do know first hand that the former DDR or East Germans had it forced down their throats a lot, at least they did to my friends in Weimar which is near Buchenwald. They were never allowed to forget and it passed down onto generations.
I think one day that the guilt will no longer be so upfront as it has been as the generations that lived it slowy disappear to age. Then it will be pure History with no living people to discuss it. At least it was well documented.
I think the Germans should be allowed to move onward with life and not left with a feeling of guilt that something their generation was not even alive during. It would be like saying you are guilty for slave trading because our ancestors used them in the USA up to 1865.
SO it does still exist today but I think it will not for much longer!!
2007-12-17 15:35:00 · answer #3 · answered by Legend Gates Shotokan Karate 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Germany itself still has guilt, and that's largely because people don't let it be.
There always has to be someone talking about the Holocaust. There is a constant stream of someone making something about it and making a big deal of it.
Yes, it was a terrible thing, but there have been many other terrible things done in the history of mankind, some of them much more gruesome. For some reason people just don't seem to be able to get over this one.
2007-12-17 15:29:57 · answer #4 · answered by Yun 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
I don't believe the descendants of a people are responsible for their ancestors' actions. There may indeed be guilt in Germany but it belongs to individuals, not a whole people.
2007-12-17 15:28:06 · answer #5 · answered by forhirepen 4 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Guilt? Still exist? are there still people alive who allowed it to happen? Yes. I believe the people still feel it, but at the same time, the sentiments still exist.
Isn´t it true that if you´re born in Germany, but your parents, even grandparents were born elsewhere, you can´t be a legal citizen? There´s also a new, mostly underground, subculture reviving the Nazi world order thing. I think it´s an interesting topic to research.
2007-12-17 15:28:06 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋
The NAZI's have as much guilt as you do when you step on a crack in the sidewalk. In fact they are warming up for another hit.
2007-12-17 15:26:10 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 4⤋