Do Germans Talk about World War 2? |

[@blackeyedlily]

I’m here from Feli’s video as well. I’m an American, whose mother‘s family was entirely German, and whose father had German and Irish heritage. I 60 years old and was born late in my mothers life, so I feel that I was closer to the generations that went through the war than most people my age. I remember asking my mother about her experience. My father actually served in the US Army in World War II, but never left the states. My mother said that they were extremely unaware of the true nature of what was happening during the war time. And it was only later that the understanding of the atrocities that were happening came to light. But recently, my daughter and I have come across letters that were sent between my grandparents and great grandparents and their cousins who were living in Germany. These particular cousins lived close to the city of Worms. The letters were from the time shortly after the war, and it seemed that family members in the United States were sending packages of basic food stuffs to help out. The German cousins talked about how difficult their situation was. That there was very little food available, and that housing was also difficult to find. We also found details in the letter that talked about members of this family who had been in the army, and had even been part of the Polish occupation. So at that point I had to say to my daughter, you realize this means that we had cousins who were Nazis. And I believe she was a little bit shocked over this realization. My direct ancestors had immigrated to the United States in the mid to late 1800s. So I always felt a certain amount of detachment from any direct connection to Nazi Germany. But I did know that we had family members who kept in contact with their relations in Germany. These letters did not go into anything that would shed light on what these people thought about the Nazi regime, or their personal political views. But it was still eye-opening. As my daughter and I discussed, if you were a German at that time, living in Germany, and especially if you were in the military services, then it had to have been with the Nazi regime. I definitely think that it is important that we keep the memories of this time and what happened alive. I also think that the United States is going through some very challenging times, and could learn a lot from looking at how Germany has grappled with this dark chapter in their history. It is never good to ignore the past. The fact that we are currently seeing book bans in certain states around the country, because these books might make people feel uncomfortable, is a very unhealthy sign in my opinion. Germany’s World War II experience is a vivid lesson in how easy it is for people to fall for propaganda and be led down a dark path in the right situation. Education and shining a light on difficult subjects is one of the best ways to combat this.

[@flamedealership]

I agree with you that it's never good to ignore the past. There goes the saying that "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" (I don't know the origin of that) but there's also a quote from Ghandi (if I remember correctly) who said "if we learned one thing from history than it's that we learned nothing from it". The key is and always will be a thorough education to make it more difficult for the propagandists of the world to fish for followers and rise to power. I as 57yo German follow the book bans in the US with a painful heart because it reminds me of the burning of books in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. And of all people a German poet, Heinrich Heine, wrote 100 years before that incident took place that "where you burn books, you'll eventually burn people", picture that. I fear for the US...

[@AmericasGotGermans]

Thank you for taking the time to share your story! ❤ It was really interesting to read. I would like to add one thought: Of course, everyone who served for the Army during this time served for a Nazi regime. One thing I remember from talking to my grandma about that time is that she always said they honestly didn't know the whole story. Of course, one can argue that this is hard to believe, but we must also consider that there the majority followed the regime to survive. I always say I wish I was one of the good guys during that time. But you never know how you would react when you are fighting for your own life and the life of your family. That is what I try to tell myself when I struggle to understand what happened and what people are capable of.

[@blackeyedlily]

@@AmericasGotGermans Thank you for responding to my comment. I think that you highlighted one of the reasons that propaganda is so important. If you can turn a group of people into the enemy, by making them seem truly evil, or less than human, it becomes much easier to allow atrocities to happen, and even to justify them. This is definitely one of the reasons I get so disturbed by the anti-immigration, racist, and anti-LGBT sentiments that the far right has been propagating in the United States for the past few years. In some regards, it is obviously far older than that. But it has taken on a much larger voice in these recent times. And I think it needs to be called out for what it is often and loudly.

[@blackeyedlily]

@@flamedealership Yes. It is a frightening time in the U.S. The people with these viewpoints are still a significant minority. But what bothers me is that I am afraid too many people just don’t take this seriously. There is a growing awareness. And certainly a growing pushback, especially among young people. But there has also been significant successes by the far right in enacting their extreme agendas. Time will tell how much we will repeat history, or show that we have learned enough from it to avoid the typical results of such movements.

[@beenaplumber8379]

@@blackeyedlily Fear, anger, scapegoating, hostility to dissension or disagreement, disregard for constitutional law, abuse of power, and a cult of personality populated by the pathetic who perceive themselves as powerless without their figurehead telling them these things are all excusable and that there is someone to blame for their perceived powerless situation. The US MAGA right is following a playbook that's been used by humanity's worst. The main difference I see is that in Weimar Germany, the German people actually were suffering and hungry and under oppression, only the oppression was from outside, not inside the country. In the US, the fearmongers pretend we are suffering and being oppressed. It's a feeble argument, and I think that's why they haven't got very far, but January 6 scared the hell outta me. They didn't have to substitute electoral votes or anything like that. All they had to do was stop the process, because the US constitution has no direct remedy if the electoral vote certification doesn't happen. Legally, Trump's term would have expired (does anyone believe he would have accepted that and left quietly?), and if the office of president is unoccupied, we have a line of succession, but I don't think a Pelosi presidency would have been met with anything but armed resistance. We have to learn from past lessons of the earlier stages of a fascist takeover, and what that looks like.

[@AmericasGotGermans]

I would love to hear your thoughts! So please drop me a comment below! Thank you in advance and thank you for being here today! ❤

[@LESRAM1981]

Interesting topic. Thank you for your experience and your knowledge. I know now more. Greetings from the Netherlands 🇳🇱.

[@AmericasGotGermans]

Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment!

[@davidmccalip5759]

One of the best documentaries on the entire WWII and Holocaust was the 26 part series done in the 1970's by the BBC called The World at War. That was one of the earliest memories I had on the war which then made me do a life long study of the war. A person used to be able to watch all 26 episodes on KZbin, but I don't know if that is still possible. Have a great day!

[@AmericasGotGermans]

Thank you for sharing this! I am not sure if I have watched this serie before but I will definitely check if I can find it on KZbin 👍 Have a great day!

[@Aviatorpeck1957]

I love your accent!!! Thank you I have always wondered what the German people thought about Hitler's crazy mindset

[@rockyracoon3233]

I love her accent too!

[@AmericasGotGermans]

Awww☺️Thank you for your kind words! ❤️

[@alexcitron5159]

Really good presentation. I've only known one German, never talked to him about Holocaust, etc. I'm Jewish, had family lost in Poland mostly. Live right down the road in the Berkshires. Thanks so much!

[@AmericasGotGermans]

Dear Alex, I am so sorry to hear that you lost your family in Poland. I'm at a loss for words and can only imagine the impact this must have had on your life. I wish we could rewrite history, but unfortunately all we can do is learn from our past and make sure history doesn't repeat itself. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your story!❤

[@nothingheretowatch7371]

Germans should be proud!

[@jeffmattes5446]

I am in my sixties, I grew up in the north east, in a predominantly Jewish area. In the main history classes, I don’t remember much about the Holocaust being taught. Many of us had relatives who survived the Holocaust, or who didn’t survive it, so we learned at home. We did have an elective on it, this was in 1978. It happened to be when the miniseries the Holocaust came out, one of the kids had a video recorder, and the class would go to his house, to watch it. Video recorders were a new thing, and the school didn’t have one. WWII was taught, but superficially. I think most left with impression the US did most of the heavy lifting, while that is mostly true in the Pacific, it was not true in Europe. The German army died in Russia, although the industrial, and shipping capacity helped a great deal. WWI however, was definitely not covered enough, considering how much impact it had on the twentieth century.

[@karlhering594]

Hi Anni, good topic. I was interested to hear you comment on how you would have reacted if you were alive back then. I have had the same thoughts at times- If my ancestors had stayed in Germany and not emigrated to the U.S. what would I have done? It seems to me the only political choices at the time were the NA*i's or the Communists, and neither one was very good. I suppose one could say neither, but how would it work out if you had a father or brother in the military at the time? Have you ever seen the mini-series " Unser Mutter , Unser Vater"? ( "Generation War" in English). And a little known fact, the Eugenics movement embraced by the Na*i's began right here in the good ole U.S.A. Anyway, I wish your family a Happy Easter! 🙂

[@AmericasGotGermans]

Hi Karl, thank you for sharing your thoughts! I always love to see familiar names 😊 It is hard to know how any of us would have reacted 😔 Of course, I truly hope I would have done the right thing! But that is me saying it, being raised to think critically and also to question things. Do you know the third wave? It is based on a true story about an experiment put on by a Californian teacher to explain to his students how the German populace could accept the actions of the Nazi regime. It is quiet interesting and also shocking to see the outcome of the experiment. I haven't watched it for probably 20 years, but I remember that it got me thinking a lot.

[@jongordon7914]

Ironically, the Nazi's 25-point program reads like the modern-day platform of the Democratic Party in the US and pretty much every other European nation today.

[@flamedealership]

@@AmericasGotGermans Yeah, well, I think nobody could say how they would've reacted at that time. You can't forget the preceedings to that time and the mindset in which the people were raised, the accessibility to information and the "common sense" of that era. You can't judge the people of that time without considering the whole picture from todays point of view. Of course that's not valid when it comes to actually killing people. But it might explain to a certain degree why almost a whole society fell for those criminals and their propaganda. Today we have a variety of means to educate ourselves and avoid to fall for the age old mechanics of propaganda and keep a leveled and balanced opinion. But you have to want to do so and look for reliable resources and form your own opinion. If you don't you'll probably find yourself in a very similar situation. And I'm sad to say that you only have to look at the US these days to find the same basic mechanics at work, with the book bans and the culture wars on green M&Ms or gas stoves. Create a problem, name a culprit and assert you're the only one who's able to recognize and solve the problem. As long as there's no good education in place there will always be enough gullable people to follow up on those mechanics.

[@maxvaistuk5493]

America's Got good Germans

[@Kelsea-2002]

Versuch Nummer 2 - YT sei gnädig! 😅 Ich bin ja erst vor knapp 2 Jahren aus der Schule raus gekommen und auch wir hatten das eine oder andere Mal geflucht über das Thema. In der 5.Klasse hatten wir eine leichte Einführung in das Thema,aus dem Grund weil die Ramstein Air Base bei uns um die Ecke ist und wir erklärt bekamen,warum die Amerikaner überall in Deutschland stationiert sind. In der 6.ging es aber dann richtig los und wir besuchten auch gleich das KZ in Dachau. In irgendeiner Form behandelten wir dann jedes Jahr so für 2 Wochen wieder das Thema in irgendeinem Fach. In der 10.besuchten wir dann das Warschauer Ghetto und das Museum für polnische Juden. In der 11.ging es nach Auschwitz und nach Bergen-Belsen. Du glaubst nicht wie froh wir waren,dass in der 12. die Vorbereitungen aufs Abi und die Prüfungen anstanden. Meiner Meinung nach wird in Deutschlands Schulen sehr genau und kritisch darüber informiert. Länder wie z.B. Frankreich,England,oder die USA gehen nicht so kritisch mit ihrer dunklen Vergangenheit um. Frohe Ostern und eine schöne Zeit mit deinen Lieben. Liebe Grüße,Kelsea 👋 cu soon

[@AmericasGotGermans]

Liebe Kelseas, lieben Dank fürs ausführliche Teilen deiner Erfahrungen! Und das gleich zwei mal❤️! Wir waren in der 10.Klasse in Dachau und ich kann mich noch wirklich sehr genau daran erinnern und auch wie ich mich gefühlt habe. Du warst dort in der 6.Klasse? Das finde ich wirklich früh. Wie ging es dir damit? Kann man das so jung schon begreifen und verarbeiten? LG

[@Kelsea-2002]

@@AmericasGotGermans Ich sag es einmal so - die Heimfahrt verlief extrem ruhig und in den kommenden Tagen haben wohl die wenigsten gut geschlafen.Begreifen in seinem ganzen Umfang kann man das wohl auch als Erwachsener nie,sofern man damals nicht dabei war. Die Konsequenz aus unserer Fahrt war aber,das ab diesem Zeitpunkt solche Fahrten auch erst ab der 10 genehmigt wurden. Darum kamen wir dann auch noch in der 10 und der 11 in den 'Genuss' solche Fahrten machen zu 'dürfen'. Wie es mir damit ging? Ich brauchte meine Zeit um den Hass auf die Menschen zu begraben. Was uns aber am meisten im Unterricht am Thema 2.Weltkrieg gepackt hatte,war das Tagebuch der Anne Frank... Das war wirklich bewegend. 👋 habt ein schönes Fest,auch wenn die Zeiten gerade wieder völlig verrückt sind. Liebe Grüße Kelsea

[@AmericasGotGermans]

Das habe ich vermutet😔 6. Klasse ist auch wirklich früh und man kann das in diesem Alter ganz bestimmt noch nicht greifen, verstehen und einordnen. Danke fürs Teilen deiner Erfahrungen ❤️

[@avi.chan23]

Not really related, but the statement ''no one is born evil.'' is not completely true. There are different brain conditions you can be born with that disable a person from being empathetic, feeling morality ect. which can lead to indeed becoming evil, not as a choice of course but because of you just cannot feel 'normal'. Still, Hitler was not born evil, I think a lot of things and circumstances lead him to become who he became. At some point he definitely became kind of insane as well.. like other men having too much power and therefore becoming paranoid, like Stalin for example. Your video was great! I agree with most of it, also with what was taught in school, thought I grew up in eastern Germany it was quite the same.

[@1s3ngr1m]

"no one is born evil" is as much a dumb statement as "no human is illegal". Without the context of societal relations these statements would be true. But as people are highly subjective individuals first and part of a society second these statements are factually simply wrong. Men in the median are more capable of aggressive behaviour than women (due to their far bigger nucleus praeopticus, testosterone levels and societal forming) so you could (from an objective stance) tell that men often commit evil actions, if any violent action is defined as evil. When medical conditions cut in, this can even result in habitual "evil" behaviour even in very young years. Hitler was not inherently evil, but given his personal history in the first world war, his treatment and possible medical conditions later on (long term drug dependency) together with the people he surrounded himself (or got surrounded by) his actions surely developed into purely evil behaviour.

[@Habakuk_]

In the GDR one was still taught that the Nazis were hyper-capitalists and the topic of Jews was either hushed up or not discussed much.

[@thebandit979]

I’m here from Feli From Germany KZbin channel. Here in America we learn allot about WW2 but we don’t focus as much on the holocaust like y’all do in Germany. We spend allot more time talking about the attack on Pearl Harbor and D day and the atomic bombs dropped on Japan.

[@AmericasGotGermans]

Thank you for stopping by and sharing your experience!❤️ My American friends told me the same thing. They have focused more on the parts that the US was involved in, which on one hand makes sense, but on the other hand I think everyone can learn so much from our dark history and why Germany got into this situation and more importantly, what we all can do to make sure it never happens again.

[@Habakuk_]

In Germany, little is reported about Japan and Pearl Harbor.

[@AmericasGotGermans]

@@Habakuk_ I agree!

[@flamedealership]

Of course, when dealing with WWII every country focuses mostly on the effects it had on their own population or their military. There's nothing wrong with that. So it seems reasonable to me that the US would mainly teach about the attack on Pearl Harbor, D-day or the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We Germans *HAVE* to focus on the Holocaust. Our ancestors instigated WWI and WWII and committed the crime of the century by mercilessly and industrially killing 6 million people for no reason other than their mislead and sick ideology. Therefore the modern Germany considers the teaching about the Holocaust to it's children to be an imperative, not out of fear that it could happen again here but to be some sort of a watchdog or an admonishing voice of reason. Even though Germany is no powerful country nowadays, we feel obligated to raise our voice to help to prevent such atrocities from happening again.

[@Habakuk_]

@@flamedealership So I would be cautious about World War I because both sides were to blame for the escalation. The reason for this was an assassination attempt in Serbia. Even today in the Ukraine war it can happen that the powder keg ignites in no time at all if just one side carelessly presses the red button.

[@invaliduser6431]

Hello. I can understand feeling like the topic was rehashed over and over, but I've seen firsthand how people tend to mythologize their own history without outside pressure for honesty and accountability. My grandparents on both sides were Ukrainians and lived in Ukraine through the War. My paternal grandmother spent time in Ravensbrück while both of my grandfathers fought for the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army). The stories coming down to me would include the horror of my grandmother's experience as well as my grandfathers' experiences fighting both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in an attempt to create an independent Ukrainian state. This is all well and good and fairly factual, but the problem was omissions. It was only as an adult, with my parents dead and buried, that I realized an awful lot of whitewashing had been done. Always, they omitted that the UPA actually allied with Nazi Germany when war broke out and it wasn't until they realized that Germany had no intention of supporting Ukrainian statehood that they turned on them. Worse yet, the UPA had been complicit in Nazi war crimes in Ukraine, and, even when they broke ranks with them, they still committed ethnic cleansing of their own against tens of thousands of Poles living in territory they considered Ukrainian. One could say my parents and grandparents never lied to me, but that just made it easier. Misdirecting by omission is effectively still a lie. The lack of common knowledge about the role the UPA had and their willingness to have their end justify any means necessary made this passive rewriting of history possible. Had I never researched further myself, I likely would have unknowingly propagated these self-serving half-truths. It's really hard for Germans to spout revisionist history about WWII and the holocaust when most other Germans they might meet already know enough to teach the topic fairly well themselves. Maybe the rehashing of the topic is a bit much, but it doesn’t leave room for misinformation to creep in. Anyway, thank you for discussing this topic openly and frankly.

[@Matthias_Br]

They might talk about it, literally like yourself they mostly don't know anything about it.

[@AmericasGotGermans]

🤔 I am sorry, but I am am not sure if I understand what you are trying to say 😬

[@Matthias_Br]

@@AmericasGotGermans What I was trying to say was, that there is a lot that’s being talked about in what you call Germany which as a matter of fact legally is the FRG, not Germany, but did you talk about historical facts or political facts?

[@szeddezs]

@@Matthias_Br Take your nazi dog whistles and shove them up your ass