then cleaned it off hoping that we wouldn’t remember that they still had it
They said nah, let’s just forget about it.
Except Germany has a rather unique culture of remembrance about it. I’ll never forget the school trip to the Bergen-Belsen memorial site, that historical video where they used shovel loaders to push hundreds of corpses in mass graves which we just stood in front of is permanently engraved in my head.
This culture is one of the reasons US Jews who once fled from Germany, or their descendants, are now increasingly getting out of the US and regain german citizenship through Article 116 of our constitution with a simple letter to the Embassy (usually followed by an apology letter including an invitation from said Embassy). It’s quite the irony.
i’ve always been conflicted because germany clearly seemed to be really all in on the culture of remembrance thing but then stuff like what happened to philipp auerbach in “reformed” germany and a ton of nazis joining nato and the tolerance of afd makes me reconsider
Hmmm good point that shows a couple of the numerous flaws in my analogy, so allow me to use mental gymnastics to support my analogy.
Germany continues teaching how it was used and the dangers of anyone using it. They’re not pretending like they never used it, they’re just hoping that by hiding it under a tarp and only showing the damages it caused will prevent anyone from peeking under the tarp and going, “you sure? It looks pretty cool, still.”
I am half tempted to research my family tree and see if Germany would take me. But I am too poor to move, and…well, I kinda want my homeland to not suck. If my blood can help the tree of liberty…well, maybe I can overcome cowardice and fight.
Cannot know who I really am, until the call for enlistment has arrived.
Actually, today’s Germany is quite happy to take anyone with some sort of qualification, no matter your family tree. If you are Jewish or not, that won’t really make a difference to immigration requirements, as far as I know.
However, there is quite a bit of antisemitism going on in the Muslim communities, I’m afraid. As a German I’m really proud that our country is so open and welcoming to refugees and immigrants, but unfortunately people don’t just drop all of their own prejudices when crossing the border.
Also, the rise of the extremist AfD party is a very worrying development. These Nazi thugs basically want to copy Trump’s policies and they also want Germany to leave the EU. If they somehow get voted into power, you would definitely regret having moved here.
Except Germany has a rather unique culture of remembrance about it. I’ll never forget the school trip to the Bergen-Belsen memorial site, that historical video where they used shovel loaders to push hundreds of corpses in mass graves which we just stood in front of is permanently engraved in my head. This culture is one of the reasons US Jews who once fled from Germany, or their descendants, are now increasingly getting out of the US and regain german citizenship through Article 116 of our constitution with a simple letter to the Embassy (usually followed by an apology letter including an invitation from said Embassy). It’s quite the irony.
i’ve always been conflicted because germany clearly seemed to be really all in on the culture of remembrance thing but then stuff like what happened to philipp auerbach in “reformed” germany and a ton of nazis joining nato and the tolerance of afd makes me reconsider
Hmmm good point that shows a couple of the numerous flaws in my analogy, so allow me to use mental gymnastics to support my analogy.
Germany continues teaching how it was used and the dangers of anyone using it. They’re not pretending like they never used it, they’re just hoping that by hiding it under a tarp and only showing the damages it caused will prevent anyone from peeking under the tarp and going, “you sure? It looks pretty cool, still.”
I am half tempted to research my family tree and see if Germany would take me. But I am too poor to move, and…well, I kinda want my homeland to not suck. If my blood can help the tree of liberty…well, maybe I can overcome cowardice and fight.
Cannot know who I really am, until the call for enlistment has arrived.
Actually, today’s Germany is quite happy to take anyone with some sort of qualification, no matter your family tree. If you are Jewish or not, that won’t really make a difference to immigration requirements, as far as I know.
However, there is quite a bit of antisemitism going on in the Muslim communities, I’m afraid. As a German I’m really proud that our country is so open and welcoming to refugees and immigrants, but unfortunately people don’t just drop all of their own prejudices when crossing the border.
Also, the rise of the extremist AfD party is a very worrying development. These Nazi thugs basically want to copy Trump’s policies and they also want Germany to leave the EU. If they somehow get voted into power, you would definitely regret having moved here.