myers@uwmacc.UUCP (Jeff Myers) (05/07/85)
I have no idea why the following message was sent to me, as I have stayed out
of this debate (seeing both sides of the issue), so I assume it was meant
to be posted:
From uwvax!harvard!panda!genrad!decvax!dartvax!psc70!tos
It would be a good idea to read something about pre-WWII Germany
and Hitler's coming to power before drawing analogies from that to US
foreign policy, Nicaragua and US elections. The German people knew
exactly what they were getting, and the vast majority stood by in
numerous incidents where not only were the Jews hauled away from among
their midst, but they knew that they would stand to benefit materially
from that fact. There is also quite a literature of German writers
and other Germans (for example the famous Pastor Niemoeller) who wrote
about German responsibility. Note, however, that I say
responsibility, and please don't interpret my words as advocating
collective guilt, either within that generation, or as being passed on
to another generation, etc. No one ever advocated continuing to treat
Germans as criminals... we treated them as equals in the Marshall
Plan, so much that the Brits and French resented it, and brought them
into NATO, etc... But there is a long way from that to having to honor
the graves of SS-men with the enormous symbolism of a presidential
state visit.
Tom Schlesinger
Plymouth State College, NH