<p>BigGreen wrote:</p>
<p>“The Germans did, to their full credit, take full responsiblity for their actions under the Nazis, do a good job of teaching about the War, paid reparations, etc.”</p>
<p>Uh, sorta.<br>
Last year, on a trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau, my family was standing next to Crematorium II, which is hallowed ground IMO (the gravesite of hundreds of thousands of innocent victims), but is now a collapsed mass of concrete falling into a stagnant pool of water. Our Polish tour guide was apologetically explaining that they are trying to raise money for restoration, but it’s been difficult. I asked: “But who pays for the upkeep and restoration of Holocaust sites?”
Polish guide looked at me as if I were beyond stupid and said “why…the Polish government. The Polish people, of course.”
The Germans don’t contribute one thin cent to restore and keep up many Holocaust sites around Europe. The Polish people, also victims, not recipients of the largesse of the Marshall Plan, and still a poor post-Soviet country are expected to do this.</p>
<p>Also, BigGreen, I know many German teenagers. And they are in many cases historically illiterate. By some magical process of disassociation, they can’t imagine that any Germans (that they know, in their families) could ever have been involved. I’m sure that many young Americans could disassociate the sins of our gov’t or American gov’ts of the past…</p>
<p>evitajr1, in one of my many Holocaust history books, it stated that the post-war period was devastating and heartbreaking for concentration-camp survivors. Many people died then of heartbreak or suicide. Some made it home to their pre-war villages and neighborhoods, to find hostility (“what are YOU doing here? You were supposed to have died”), indifference (“You think you have problems? We had to stay here during the war”), no signs of friends and relatives, and complete disinheritance. The fact that anyone survived the camps, survived the post-war period, thrived, had children and lives now to tell the story, is I think miraculous. Every time I meet a survivor, I feel like I’m in the presence of a superior being.</p>
<p>AM
ps – just read in the Intl. Herald Tribune yesterday that the number of Jews immigrating to Germany is higher than the number of Jews immigrating to Israel. It is expected that if Jewish immigration continues at this rate, the Jewish population will far exceed pre-war levels. In other Holocaust victim populations: Gypsy communities, the Catholic clergy, homosexuals and the disabled are well-established here. We are still waiting for the intelligentsia. (that’s a joke)</p>