How do you feel about the Germans today?

Hey there!
This question is really important to me because I am German and I feel like we are still blamed for the things that happened during WWII. My ancestors were no Nazis and there are plenty of other Germans whose parents or grand-parents judged the SS for what they did.
Germany has changed and the people are different as well.
How do you as Americans or British or whoever feel about us.
I'd be happy about many responses.
Die_Selina

 

I have the pleasure that I have got a few friends living in Germany. They're just normal lads like I am. young,enthousiastic and ww2-interested. If I talk to them I don't think them as being nazi's or ss-breed. They are normal lads to me. off-course the older generation is thinking otherwise then me. My grandfather lost some older friends in the war, they picked up the weapons to fight against the Germans and they all died during those 18 1940 days.

He has got nothing against Germans but if he sees a German uniform (even a present one) he always turns away his head.

I think the overall opinion in Belgium against present Germany is quite good. yess, you did some horrible stuff over here in ww1 and ww2 but why should we be mad against you guys, now?

Although if a ss'er would come to here and say : hey I used to fight in the ss. I think he would be laying in the hospital the next morning.

Just my opinion, my 2 cents.

Friendly greetings

Arneken

Edit: I see that you are just like me 18. good to see another youngster over here. Wilkommen.

 

I am particularly interested in how Axis nations saw their own war efforts...

One must, I feel, put aside emotions for history, and simply tell the facts...

If this means we have to face things unpalatable, it really is a small price to pay as an armchair participant....Compared to how the protagonists on BOTH sides suffered, it's the very least we can do.

I don't think we should let the same wartime animosities go from generayion to generation.....One of the reasons the "troubles" in Ireland kept flaring up was an inability by both sides of the conflict to let go of their family emotions passed down to them, and simply get on with the business of living in the 21st century...

It does us all no good to keep the old hatreds flying high...Europe has gone beyond that....

Look at what muti-generational "grudges" are doing to the Middle East.....Problems passed down from father to son as the different generations pick up the same "cause celebre" as their fathers and grandfathers did....As humans, we are TAUGHT to hate, it does not come naturally out of nowhere....

Africa still suffers from TRIBAL differences going back to the dawn of their formation.....many thousands of years of animosity passed down from one generation to the next.

I hope Europe will not make the same mistakes....I am a European, a Londoner by birth, but I live in Australia, and I see just what sort of productive society we can create by putting aside past differences...and getting on with it...

But, history deserves to be looked sqaurely in the face, from a RATIONAL and UNEMOTIONAL viewpoint.....The future demands something better than the same old hatreds going round and round for evermore....

We can do it, AND tell the truth at the same time.....

 

AND, if we ever had an SS vet come in here, I for one, would be just as interested to hear his views as any other.....

World War 2 is OVER.....let the older generation deal with the emotions....

WE just want the facts.....

 

Hey!
Thanks for your responses.
You're right, history must be seen rationally but though the question I asked is a question that moves especially the German youth.
As I said, what happened is not our fault, but we are still signed by the war.
Corncerning the comment about a man coming to the US saying he fought for the SS: many SS-soldiers didn't want to go to combat, they were forced. Of course, it is different if this person was proud of what happened and what he did (in this case he deserves being in hospital).
Well, maybe I can write a few lines about the reasons that I'm here in this thread. Firstly I'm very interested in other views, and in discussing. I want to know how people in other countries felt/feel about the war, whether they were involved or not, maybe I will find sources here that give me the possibility to learn even more.
Secondly I am open to questions, I don't know if there are any other Germans in this thread, but if not I am open to questions and I'm happy to give you information that you maybe wouldn't receive in whatever which country you are.
Last but not least, thank you Arneken for the warm welcome. Vielen Dank
Take care!
selina

 

Dear Selina...

It won't be to many years into the furture before all veterans are dead.

We must act soon, otherwise their experiances will be lost to the mists of time.

I, for one have no wish to have the historical account of WW2 as a one sided affair.

A double sided view of WW2 IS possible.....we just have to make it happen.

War itself, is an atrocity. The people flung into it and affected by it are from all nations that fought. National leaders have a lot to answer for, but most of them are gone, so they personally can't be taken to task for their actions.

It is high time we all stood shoulder to shoulder as PEOPLE, and look history square in the face. Many allied soldiers didn't want to go off to fight a war that really was an extension of the mess that Erope found itself in after 1918.

Many historians are beginning to see the entire conflict as ONE LARGE WAR, with a 21 year break.
When politicians can finally stop blaming the people for the consequences of their actions, maybe, just maybe, ordinary people won't be asked to ruin their lives for political concepts that only exist a ideas.....

Politicians, themselves, have no intention of justifying their actions. They simply put the blame on others.....and thats the REAL crime.....the rest of us simply tag along behind, held in place by loyalties to other ideas, like duty, and service, honour and nationalism.

To many people have died for the ideas of the powerful....too many ordinary people.

 

Hi Selina and welcome to the forums.

I am from Finland and we certainly should have something against germans, because of a tragedy of the Lapland, but most of us don't feel any angry against german people. Ofcourse there is always some jokes if you see german car here but nothing serious and nothing against german youth.

 

Kate, you're absolutely right . Thanks again for the comments. Must say that I'm a bit relieved now
Well, I'm looking forward to chat with all you guys again.
Take care
Selina

 

Hi Selina.

I was nine when the war started and fifteen when it finished. I learnt to swear during the war. I swore when the sirens went and got me out of bed. I swore when the bombs were dropping. I swore when mum was shivering and crying cos dad was at war. I swore when anti persnel butterfly bombs were dropped. I was happy when the last all clear sounded. My dad came home safe. But I was a schoolboy, it was soon forgotten. I went to Germany for my company years later and enjoyed the friendlyness of the people. Don't worry Selina, its past history now, all be it an interesting one.

Ken

 

The War is long over and old enemies re today facing the new enemy, Islamic Fundamentalism and the relgious terror it has spawned. I say we must all try to forget the past as much as we can, but remember that we must NEVER repeat that part of our history and that goers for ALL sides in the late World War. For to long Europeans faught each other and for no good reason. As for us British, well, I suppose as an Island nation we just went overseas to do our thieving, pilfering, piracy and empire building, but Hey! thats the way the world was in those days, now its over, its done so lets get on with making the world we live in, safe and free of mad God Bothering Zealots who know only the BOOK and the Sword.

Sorry to bang on like this, here endeth the Rant.

 

I don't see Nakhodas answer as a rant at all. We all know past is past and should anger be at past. Nowadays modern world must act together against terrorism that is rising in all parts of the world.

 

Tak!, many thanks mate.

 

And a worthwhile "rant" it was too....

It is high time we all stood proud AS HUMANS....NOT as German, British, or whatever else....and not as Christians, Jews, Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists, or even Atheist....

ALL of these LABELS are designed to obscure the essential facts....

We're all humans....with the same frailties, emotions, needs and sufferings...

If World War Two taught Europe and Asia anything at all, it is that co-operation is essential to survival....dragging up the past simply to justify the present or future is no longer simply enough. We have to survive as a species, and learn that we all can work together for the common good....

The Moslem community at large knows this....they are going through a turbulent time in their history, examining what it is about themselves that makes them different...They are barking up the wrong tree....WE ALL SHARE THE SAME HUMANISM.

As I say.....a worthy rant.

 

I took a university class 20 years ago in the US on genocide and the professor invited a Holocaust survivor to speak to the class. This woman, a Hungarian Jew, not only survived Auschwitz, but survived the long march west as the war was drawing to a close. One student asked if she hated Germans. Her response was interesting: "I don't hate Germans, but I hate Nazis."

My paternal great-grandparents all came from what is now Nord Hessen (around Kassel) and I live in east Germany so of course I like Germans. I say I'm a half-breed dritte Generation geboren in Texas (my mother was a Norwegian).

 

WOW.

I've been in Kassels few times (only passing trough tho) and those hills there is, is really awesome. Wish I had time to stop there...

From where was your mother? I've seen Kristianstad and northern Norway.

 

My mother was born in Texas. Her father was from a farm outside of Bergen and her mother was from Oslo. Je nei kann snekker Norske! I was in Oslo for 3 days several years ago and it was beautiful, very clean, outstanding food, great museums. I hope to eventually go back and also see more of the country.

 

The War is long over, old son, and we British have fought too many people of different nations to hold grudges, real or imagined, to keep up any animosities which at that time in Germany may have merited a hearty dislike of all things German. So in my humble opinion I say live and let live while there is room enough on this planet, and get our selves together to confront the common enemy of today which is International Terrorism.

But don,t take that to mean I want to be called a European, by God no, I,m a Little Englander and want to stay that way. But that doesn,t mean I wont stand with you when the Balloon goes up.