Yesterday was the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In the context of mass killings, the Nazi regime still represents a distinctive low point. I have been interested about how a country manages to put its self view back together after such an episode. Schroeder may have a possible direction when he says:
"The overwhelming majority of Germans living today do not bear guilt for the Holocaust. But they do bear a special responsibility." He then went on to say they needed to make a special effort to challenge similar actions in the world around them, and particularly in politics at home. BBC
If you cannot learn from you mistakes and take responsibility for them, you can never overcome them.
It is probably also worth noting that 250,000 - 1,000,000 political prisoners died in Nazi Germany.
For some context:
1 million people died in Pol Pot's regime in Cambodia during the 1970s.
Hutus killed over 800,000 Tutsis by hand in 100 days in 1994.
Joseph Stalin killed 7 million in the Ukraine in 1933 by engineering a famine. Less mechanical than gas chambers, but just as effective.
50 million died in world war II.
40 million died during Mao Zedong's reign in China (1949-1975).
Posted by carla at January 27, 2005 12:16 AM