From: oli@math.rwth-aachen.de (Oliver Bonten)
Subject: Re: NS-Diskurs in der Bundesrepublik
Organization: Rechnerbetrieb Informatik  /  RWTH Aachen
Date: 31 Jul 92 09:44:31 GMT

oliver@cs.toronto.edu (Oliver Schulte) writes:

>In a famous speech on the anniversary of May 8, the federal president
>Richard v. Weizsaecker remarked that every German could have been aware to
>some extent of the holocaust. That is hard to swallow for most of our 
>grandparents, most of whom (including my grandmother) insist that they just
>didn't know such terrible things were happening.

I wouldn't cover historical truths for the sake of some grandmothers. (Ever
read Brecht's "Galileo Galilei", where the little monk wanted to cover truths
for the sake of the plain country workers?) People who did not know what was
going on in Germany did not want to know, because they didn't care or were
not interested or were already afraid that knowledge of the truth would
not let them sleep anymore, or thought they had wife and children to pro-
tect from learning the truth. Those who did not want to know bear the
same guilt as those who knew and did nothing.

>I would say that German society in general has made great efforts to learn
>from these crimes, and to ensure that "this will not happen again".

Undoubtedly, but those efforts haven't been put to the test yet.

>1. "The holocaust was the worst crime in history." In particular, comparisons
>with the American war against the Indians and Stalin's terror are 
>inappropriate. For that would be pointing to others rather than accepting
>one's own guilt, and it would somehow be making the holocaust appear less
>terrible. 

Contrary, I believe that many people in Germany want to make the compa-
rison to the Indian wars, the extinction of the Tasmanians or to Stalin
in order to let the holocaust appear less hideous. It seems to me that
some people really cannot see the difference.

In my experience, you can almost tell someone's opinion on these mat-
ters if you know in what state he went to school. It seems to me that
politics does have an influence on the curriculum.

>2."Hitler and the Nazis were absolutely bad." In particular, one must not
>point to any of their achievements prior to the war. Breaking this rule
>is seen as trying to make excuses for those who followed them.

Have there been achievements before the war? The economic upswing was
indeed a result of the republican politics before, and some achievements
have been made by putting people to labour camps.

>3. "There was nothing about the Jews in German society before the war that 
>could be criticized." For making such criticisms is seen as anti-semitic, and 
>as making excuses for the anti-semitism of the Nazis and the Germans in that
>time.

In fact, all critics known to me don't hold a closer scrutiny.

>4. "It is much better to ascribe the rise of the Nazis to such alleged parts
>of the alleged German mentality as obedience, belief in duty, authoritarinism
>etc., than attempt to understand this as a historical phenomenon arising
>from such historical circumstances as WW I, Versailles, the depression etc."
>For an example of someone breaking this rule, see the speech of then
>president of parliament Jenninger. Without having the time to defend this
>interpretation in depth, what I saw of the speech struck me as a fairly 
>reasonable attempt at a historical analysis of the sort I just outlined. It
>was however seen as Jenninger trying to make the Nazis and their followers
>look less bad, and he had to step down.

No, the official viewpoint is that a combination of both caused the rise
of the Nazis. Jenninger simply said the wrong thing at the wrong time.
"Without having time to defend his interpretation ..." - yes, that was
his mistake. He should not have said this if not all possible misunder-
standings could have been avoided.

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Xref: sparky soc.culture.german:5320 soc.culture.netherlands:2258