Last night I had a really interesting discussion with one of my flatmates, Konrad. It started off with me talking about my Berlin trip which of course had to even involve a delicate subject like World War II. His German perspective of the War kind of threw me off. Apparently, German kids study World War II multiple times while in grade school. They read about it twice in German class, twice in History class, once in Social Sciences and once in Ethics. I'm not even including the random references that teachers throw in throughout their schooling. This means that when the average German schoolkid goes to college, they are absolutely bored and frustrated of hearing how Germany was the reason the war turned out this gruesome, over and over again.
Understanding why and how the human brain thinks has always fascinated me, so when I heard this I asked him for more. If you have ever repeated a school year, or have studied the same syllabus again for a different exam, recall how pathetically disinterested and impatient you were to get done with it. Now try to imagine the impact that an over dosage of a topic such as this, could have on young minds trying to start afresh - devoid of war. Moreover, the excessive history is taught from a highly biased viewpoint, where every German is forced to think that Hitler was completely the worst thing to have ever happened and anything and everything associated with the Third Reich is negative. Does a back fire seem evident even to you here?
It's not just me, a recent poll shows that a quarter of Germans agree that Nazi rule had some positive aspects. The weekly Stern magazine commissioned the Forsa agency to conduct the poll after talk show host Eva Herman was fired from Germany's NDR public broadcaster last month for her comments on how the Third Reich was pro family life and motherhood. This is probably bubbling inside the inquisitive minds of young thinkers who just cannot take it that all of Germany could have been bad. A strange kind of awe towards the Nazis is bound to arise due to the constant negativity that they are surrounded by. Think about the same kind of awe when you as a kid, saw the local punkster in a garage shop and your parents forbid you to talk much to him to avoid any possible influence. One of the positive aspects which arose from such a backfire, that Konrad pointed out to me was the flawless execution of the concentration camps. It was out of sheer mastery in logistics that they were able to operate a mass extermination camp, where they killed and disposed millions in an astonishingly small time scale. More people died in the Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chambers (the metaphorical mother of all death camps) than those in the initial atomic bomb attacks at Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined!! Pure evil genius?
But this is us hearing it for the first time. Imagine, if this was drilled into your head for as long as you can remember. Imagine, if you were never once allowed to appreciate what your country has done for the world just because they made this one grave mistake. Imagine, if you could never be patriotic towards your country just because patriotism is confused for extreme nationalism which may translate to another Hitler. Imagine, if you were never allowed to impartially analyze the causes and effects of the War and were tired of being held responsible for all the deaths. Imagine, if you were always forced by your country to express strong emotions of love and hate for certain communities without free will of your own. Imagine, a time where being in the military does not stir a sense of pride in your heart...nor does singing your national anthem. Imagine a time when you can even barely remember your national anthem, leave alone sing along on national holidays. Imagine living in a country which is prejudiced for eons to come - stunted from achieving excellence in any field, only for the sake of international peace and retribution. Imagine a country which still opines for forgiveness and wants to say, "Yes, we learnt our lesson, but please let us be free from any accusations." That is Germany, today. They are world class in many things, but there is always this fear which hinders them from from being the best that they can. The after effects of the War have indirectly shaped the psyche of the next generation of Germans which renders them stoic towards anything to do with their nation. Is patriotism really that big a deal for a nation, then?
Haha, not to forget, Konrad very aptly gave a disclaimer warning that he thinks it was really sad and nasty that the genocide took place before he started with this conversation.
Prost! (Cheers in German)
Understanding why and how the human brain thinks has always fascinated me, so when I heard this I asked him for more. If you have ever repeated a school year, or have studied the same syllabus again for a different exam, recall how pathetically disinterested and impatient you were to get done with it. Now try to imagine the impact that an over dosage of a topic such as this, could have on young minds trying to start afresh - devoid of war. Moreover, the excessive history is taught from a highly biased viewpoint, where every German is forced to think that Hitler was completely the worst thing to have ever happened and anything and everything associated with the Third Reich is negative. Does a back fire seem evident even to you here?
It's not just me, a recent poll shows that a quarter of Germans agree that Nazi rule had some positive aspects. The weekly Stern magazine commissioned the Forsa agency to conduct the poll after talk show host Eva Herman was fired from Germany's NDR public broadcaster last month for her comments on how the Third Reich was pro family life and motherhood. This is probably bubbling inside the inquisitive minds of young thinkers who just cannot take it that all of Germany could have been bad. A strange kind of awe towards the Nazis is bound to arise due to the constant negativity that they are surrounded by. Think about the same kind of awe when you as a kid, saw the local punkster in a garage shop and your parents forbid you to talk much to him to avoid any possible influence. One of the positive aspects which arose from such a backfire, that Konrad pointed out to me was the flawless execution of the concentration camps. It was out of sheer mastery in logistics that they were able to operate a mass extermination camp, where they killed and disposed millions in an astonishingly small time scale. More people died in the Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chambers (the metaphorical mother of all death camps) than those in the initial atomic bomb attacks at Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined!! Pure evil genius?
But this is us hearing it for the first time. Imagine, if this was drilled into your head for as long as you can remember. Imagine, if you were never once allowed to appreciate what your country has done for the world just because they made this one grave mistake. Imagine, if you could never be patriotic towards your country just because patriotism is confused for extreme nationalism which may translate to another Hitler. Imagine, if you were never allowed to impartially analyze the causes and effects of the War and were tired of being held responsible for all the deaths. Imagine, if you were always forced by your country to express strong emotions of love and hate for certain communities without free will of your own. Imagine, a time where being in the military does not stir a sense of pride in your heart...nor does singing your national anthem. Imagine a time when you can even barely remember your national anthem, leave alone sing along on national holidays. Imagine living in a country which is prejudiced for eons to come - stunted from achieving excellence in any field, only for the sake of international peace and retribution. Imagine a country which still opines for forgiveness and wants to say, "Yes, we learnt our lesson, but please let us be free from any accusations." That is Germany, today. They are world class in many things, but there is always this fear which hinders them from from being the best that they can. The after effects of the War have indirectly shaped the psyche of the next generation of Germans which renders them stoic towards anything to do with their nation. Is patriotism really that big a deal for a nation, then?
Haha, not to forget, Konrad very aptly gave a disclaimer warning that he thinks it was really sad and nasty that the genocide took place before he started with this conversation.
Prost! (Cheers in German)
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