'Daddy, did we Germans really do that?' Little voice from the back of the car

[bobbieinok]

It was a late summer evening in 1990. I was visiting friends in Germany. We were driving to the home of my friend's mother.

He and I were talking about WWII and the Nazis. We had been discussing the horrors of the Holocaust for a while when suddenly we heard the voice of his young son from the back seat--- 'Daddy, did we Germans really do that?'

My friend was devastated. We had forgotten that his son might hear some of what we said.

What are little white American children asking their parents these days?

[Laelth]

1. I hope white American children are hearing the truth.

“Yes. We did those things, and they were horrible. You need to know about it so that we will never again repeat those tragic mistakes, but keep in mind that we are MUCH better now. As long as you keep fighting against injustice when you see it, you can be proud of yourself. If your country continues to fight against injustice (and we are) you should be proud of your country.”

-Laelth

[wnylib]

9. Maybe add that bad things still

happen today and that's why people are protesting. To make it stop. Now. Today.

[Laelth]

11. It will never stop, I fear.

But, yes. There is still injustice, and you should fight against it when you see it.



-Laelth

[Wounded Bear]

2. From the mouths of children...

so many of the right answers and the right questions.

[MaryMagdaline]

3. My mother used to tell this story

The TV news was showing Bull Connor turning hoses on demonstrators. My older brother, who was 8 or 9 yelled to my mom, “Someone needs to call the police!” Her heart was in her throat and she didn’t know how to tell him ...

[zipplewrath]

4. There was an internal conflict in Germany

AS I remember, in the 60's there was a backlash from the people who grew up after the war, roughly their boomer generation. They felt that politically the German people were attempting to ignore the Nazi past. Former Nazi's were getting elected, appointed and hired into political positions despite their participation in past atrocities of the Nazi party. It cause no small amount of political and social upheaval in Germany.

One does wonder if the generation that is coming into the body politic today in the US will hold their parents accountable for their silence.

[CTyankee]

5. That movie "Judgment at Nuremburg" reminded us all about former Nazi collusion...

[wnylib]

14. I have the DVD. No matter how many

times I see it, there is still an impact on me about the social and geopolitical aftermath of the Holocaust in Germany and the world. The split between people who wanted to sweep it under the rug, the ones who self-justified it, and the ones who remained committed to accountability and justice. Also, the shift in world politics to anti communism by the allies so that they started paying less attention to prosecuting Nazi war criminals.

I was 11 during Eichmann's televised trial. My mother's parents immigrated to the US from Germany as very young children in 1890. My German-born great aunt Anna lived with us. I was not allowed to watch the Eichmann trial, but my mother and Aunt Anna were glued to it. Anna was only 6 when her family came to the US, but she cried for what her family's homeland had become and what they had done.

Later, I found a German-English book in our attic that Aunt Anna's family had used for learning English after they arrived here. I thought I'd learn German from it. But when she found me looking at it, she grabbed it away and said, "You don't need this. Be glad that you are American and not German." i never saw the book again.

[OnDoutside]

6. Are we the baddies ?

This is the right moment....

[George II]

7. Although I'm ashamed of it, I'm not ashamed of talking about the fact that my grandfather....

...(father's father) was a Nazi sympathizer in the 1930s. I forget now if he was first generation or second in this country, but he was a staunch supporter of Germany and Adolf Hitler. He was a member of the German-American Bund and actually sent money to the German Nazi Party.

Years before I was born he was estranged from the family and had no contact with any of them, including my father. I never met him.

I think his attitude and what ultimately happened during WWII shaped the rest of my father's life, much for the better.

I wonder what you do in your last thought, what are children asking parents these days? Honestly, I suspect very little, they already get their answers on cable news and the internet.

[LiberalArkie]

8. They don't know and I really don't think the young even care.

I was watching the SpaceX shot carrying the astronauts up and was at some 30 somethings house and Had to describe about the rocket and boosters and stuff - they had never heard of such stuff. Something came up one day and I mentioned about the refugees being held in cages at the border - they almost called me a liar as "We would never do anything like that". I mentioned and brought up about the Japanese in WW2 being kicked out of their homes and held in camps - again they could not believe it, I brought it upon on internet and still could not believe it.


Nope, no American history, world history, no civics, no science taught anymore I guess.

[BarbD]

10. Unfortunately, fear and ignorance is always with us.

[IronLionZion]

12. This is why liberals erase history by removing statues

Germany removed Hitler statues and now their young kids don't know their history.

[treestar]

13. Being responsible on behalf

Of your ancestors vs claiming the victim hood of your ancestors.

Maybe both sides of that should give it up. So as to make no us and them to people living in more advanced times.

Over the last 100 years or so there has been so much improvement. Over my lifetime there certainly was.
There always seems to be someone trying to keep up the divisions instead.