Is That Legal?

Eric, not just interesting.

"Verrry interesting!" --Arte Johnson

Germany stills hold official ceremonies at night with burning torches. I have only attended one 'unofficial' ceremony in the mid-90s, protesting the firebombing of several asylum seeker hostels. Though candles at night are not disturbing, the torches are, regardless of the reason. With thousands of people standing on the street, with their candles and torches (generally, wax coated wood, which burn brightly and sputter), standing in shame and witness that people were again being burned to death for 'otherness' in Germany, I found it disturbing. (The British tradition of throwing a 'Guy' mannequin on the bonfire on Nov. 5 is equally disturbing - though in this case, I don't even attend.)

But the quote -
'The Germans are responsible as a people for these mass murders and must be punished as a people for them if there is justice in the world'
to describe the people standing on a cold winter night, the children or the children of children who had NOTHING to do with events that ended 60 years ago is still disturbing. I guess, from this quote, Einstein would have been a supporter of firebombing Dresden, though I doubt those who ordered the bombing read what he said. In fairness to Einstein, his idea of justice is unlikely to have included babies, even if the Nazis certainly did kill babies as being 'worthless.' Somehow, the idea that the best way to eradicate Nazism was to be at least as foul as they were seems wrong.

The idea that 'groups' or 'people' have a blood guilt remains appalling. Individuals are reponsible for their actions, not the actions of their parents of grandparents.

Of course, having grown up in that unique paragon of moral virtue which was America during the 60s and 70s, the association of torches and burning crosses is just a touch too much, regardless of whether it is the children of mass murderers of Jews or those involved in the mass murders of Southeast Asians (I grew up in Fairfax, VA - and yes, many of my neighbors served as officers in Vietnam, as Marines, carrier pilots, and soldiers). Of course, the roughly 1.5-2 million dead Southeast Asians were innocent victims in a war to make them live in freedom, and it was just a mistake that the gooks were killed, unlike the very intentional elimination of Jews, a unique group of victims without parallel in world history.

I and my German wife have visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. I still have no idea why that museum is standing there, when there isn't any museum dedicated to the various groups living in North America before the Europeans showed up to claim their empty 'New World.' Somehow, I remain unconvinced that the Holocaust is that unique, but feel that it is instead part of an ugly tapestry of how human beings have treated each other for centuries.

A wider view would be too disturbing, I guess. Humans are a fairly vicious animal, it seems, so it may be comforting to keep following the well-worn us/them division without attempting to actually see that there isn't any them - there is just 'us.'

A fairly nasty post (I wonder if 'hajji' or 'raghead' or 'Ali Baba' will be seen in 30 years in the U.S. as racist as 'gook' is now), but after a while that 'mote in your eye' rubs against that 'eye for eye,' and just leads to disgust about everyone.

In fairness to Einstein (and to today's Germans), nothing in his quote (which was, after all, from 1944) directly says that future generations of Germans must bear responsibility for the crimes of those who planned, executed, and tolerated Nazi genocide.

My metal band has a song called "The Last King Tiger" which is a grim tale told from the perspective of a dead-ender Nazi tank commander who has been sent to his doom in the waning hours of the fall of Berlin. When we performed this song in Germany, several people wanted an explanation and were concerned it was glorifying the Nazis (which it doesn't do.) Many people over there are still mighty sensitive about being cast as ersatz fascists. The band Rammstien is a big seller, but (their own claims notwithstanding) has not been able to shake their reputation for glorifying the German/Prussian ideals of the past. It will be along time before the germans loose the mantle of the National Socialists. That's good.

I have the utmost respect for you, mostly because I tend to think Malkin is crazy, but I think you are doing contemporary Germany an injustice. I grew up in Germany with a picture of Einstein on my bedroom wall, my grandfather gave me Einstein books and he is generally regarded as a national treasure in contemporary Germany. National Socialism has done terrible things to German heritage, desecrated Heinrich Heine's grave, prosecuting Einstein and the guilt that each one of us still carries for the victims of National Socialism. To say Germans can't take pride in a figure such as Einstein means that they cannot take pride in the best humanity has to offer. But now I am rambling.