Originally Posted by woolliamser
One thing I get very upset about is when I hear people saying they hate "all" Germans because of WW2. I have many German friends in their mid 20s. They tell me that every year at school they were taught to learn from their grandparents mistakes, to feel guilty for being German. And they say... but what can we do? We weren't born then, we can't change the past. What happened in Germany back then was terrible, the war that followed was also terrible. But it is not so simple as "the evil Germans wanted to take over the world, which is a complete part of their character that two new generations can't destroy." No. Germany was left at the end of WW1 in a very bad state, by the British and Americans. It's not directly "our" fault that Hitler rose to power of course, but it was a combination of factors. Germany has done what it can since to ensure that it never ever happens again and continues to pay huge reparations to Israel, which Israel spends on ... (but I don't want to start another arguement).
Someone asked what can we do about people like Dogboy's friend. I know the answer: it is so important that young people get to know people of other nationalities, if she met some Germans her own age, I think her opinions would soften. That was the worst thing about the Cold War --- a wall dividing people so we could never make friends with each other. Now it's come down I think both sides realise that the other side was not quite how we thought.
It's a naive view point, I know. But I still have hope that the people of this world can live together.
My Grandfather was a prisoner of war in Germany. He wrote a poem while in the camp which really moved me. I can't remember the poem now, but the message was that one evening he was standing by the fence, looking at the moon and the German officer came up to him and said "It's a beautiful moon". And for one moment, they shared something positive together. Later on he was almost killed trying to escape. Immediately after the war he became a teacher, and only 5 years after the end of the war he organised the first of an annual school choir exchange between his school and a German school. That was the most important thing for him---that the young people met. Interestingly the men who'd been soldiers were really enthusiastic about this exchange. It was the people who had stayed in Britain that said he was wrong.