fsks@unc.UUCP (Frank Silbermann) (04/28/85)
In article <enmasse.396> mroddy@enmasse.UUCP (Mark Roddy) writes: > >The problem with visiting Bitberg is that it HONORS the german veterens >of world war II. As these people were feeding my relatives into the >chimneys, I take personal offense at the suggestion that the german ^^^ >people should EVER be forgiven for what they did. Ignoring, for the moment, Reagan's faux paus, let me comment on your own reaction. A number of my relatives died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, so I understand what you feel. However, your attitude toward the German people is most un-Jewish. It was not THE German people, but merely SOME German people who committed these atrocities (with the help of some people of other nationalities, as well). Even if the entire German population was to blame (and I'm sure many were innocent), you still cannot blame Germans who were not grown up (or even born) during those years. Let us not condemn entire nations, but remember the victims and prosecute the guilty whenever we find them, so that such horrors will not occur again. This, too, goes for the Armenian genocide of 1914 (I think) and the Cambodian genocide at the hands of the communists in this very decade. Frank Silbemann