went to see the german movie “der untergang” (the downfall) yesterday. it’s about the last 12 days of the world war II in berlin. the gruesome reality of my country’s history crept up to me. it’s our history and turning towards the future to make sure that we won’t allow history to repeat itself doesn’t mean, we can not look back and bow our heads to the victims of the terror that we spread all over europe 60 years ago. after 2 1/2 hours of bunker atmosphere, fatality in the air, the crowd left the theatre in silence. total silence.
i believe.
Hi, I’m Stef from the Philippines and I stumbled upon your blog today. It’s always interesting to hear Germans like you speak about World War II these days, because it’s still a sensitive topic and most people would rather not discuss it. But I think it’s important for people to know that collectively, most Germans do feel a pronounced sense of regret about what happened. They feel it even if the war happened before they were born, even if they didn’t have anything to do with it. For as you said, your country’s history is, in a way, your own as well.
For what it’s worth, I know that there were Germans who opposed the war from the very beginning and fought bravely through it all. So maybe there is still something to be proud of, eh? The best of times and the worst of times makes both heroes and villains.
By the way, nice title for a blog (“Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind”). That was a beautiful movie. :)
Hi Stefanie,
nice to see you stumbled across our little universe. What I’d like to stress is, that I am not German. Not because I don”t like them, but I just believe that the role Austria played in WW2 is a lot more subtle, first of all being Hitler”s home country and secondly always willing to victimize itself..