Just another comment on the "Nazi" discussion, despite the rule
that says once the N-word is mentioned, it's no longer a
discussion... it seems to me, whenever the matter is brought up, it
is from our near-omniscient historical perspective, an accumulation
of over half a century of testimony, documentation, and
viewpoints.
I think it is an often forgotten point, and one that Clark, above,
touched on, that few people, Jews OR others, in Germany at the
time, knew the true extent of the crimes being perpetrated in their
name. My mother's family was in Germany during the war; they
emigrated in the fifties. My grandfather was a minister, and he did
preach with fair regularity against the political regime. I am told
that he was occasionally "asked after" in a threatening manner by
the authorities, though never in any real danger by the sounds of
it. Both his sons, my uncles, fought in the German army. (NOT the
SS, I emphasise. The German army. In defense of their country and
family.)
They knew some of what had happened, after the Allied victory, but
my mother says that they didn't get the full picture until after
coming to Canada.
I think it is more difficult to pull that off on such a large scale
these days of course, what with the Web -- but then again, are a
majority of American citizens surfing the alternative news sources?
Are the majority of American citizens that well versed in history?
The majority of the Canadian ones I know, aren't. To them, Nazis is
"something bad, Jews were killed, swastikas."
My point, I suppose, is that if the comparison is going to be made,
it must be made fairly, and not with the attitude of one who has
seen the whole movie. We make these assumptions, and are then
surprised when average people think us hysterical, or paranoid.
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