'@Dragonguy22'
Hitler did his whole thing in Germany regardless of where he was born (Austria is ethnically Germany regardless so that's no much consolation).
His early rise and failures, his successful rise, and of course his actual seizure of power. All in Germany. Not Austria. Hitler was a German nationalist to begin with, meaning he didn't care about political borders, he cared about ethnic Germans. Which is exactly why he annexed Austria and the Sudetenland. Even used that partly to justify the invasion of Poland. There's no separating ethnic German from Hitler, it was his thing and what his whole program revolved around.
"Secondly, some Germans at the time didn't agree with hitler."
It's not an individual sort of guilt (well not the rational sort anyway), it's a sort of guilt toward the country/people due to that period of history. A general sense of guilt as a nation. Not as people. I don't know if I'd say it's good to feel guilty as modern Germans? But certainly it is a blot on the history of Germany, and THAT sense of their history owning the crime should absolutely not be contested. Like for instance I don't feel personally guilty for what happened to the natives or slaves here, but America has those blots on it's history. The nation was guilty of them, and we as Americans (and they as Germans) need to look that guilt in the face with full sober reality when regarding our history and what the actions caused visibly up to this day.
"SS soldiers would take that opinion to the grave."
The SS may have been the diehard core operators of the Holocaust, but they were NOT the lone perpetrators. Virtually all armed forces and even lesser groups than that were involved in the Holocaust on the Eastern Front in some fashion. Even civilian recruited police forces. There were tons of Jews in Poland and the USSR. Basic military units of any sort rolling into villages and setting down the law and camp would become involved in liquidating or deporting the Jewish parts of the population.
But of course while I'm coming down on Germany....let's not forget how many locals participated willingly or even enthusiastically in the Holocaust throughout Europe. The Germans were the ringmaster of the Holocaust, but they had help when outside their own borders, lots and lots of help. Not everywhere, but plllllenty of help. And I think it's sick that many of those countries just whitewash that away and point at Germany as the lone source of all evil. That's crap in most cases.
And in that way we should admire the modern Germans for carrying that weight, while so many of their neighbors (including Austria!) play pretend with their own histories.
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'@Dragonguy22'
Hitler did his whole thing in Germany regardless of where he was born (Austria is ethnically Germany regardless so that's no much consolation).
His early rise and failures, his successful rise, and of course his actual seizure of power. All in Germany. Not Austria. Hitler was a German nationalist to begin with, meaning he didn't care about political borders, he cared about ethnic Germans. Which is exactly why he annexed Austria and the Sudetenland. Even used that partly to justify the invasion of Poland. There's no separating ethnic German from Hitler, it was his thing and what his whole program revolved around.
"Secondly, some Germans at the time didn't agree with hitler."
It's not an individual sort of guilt (well not the rational sort anyway), it's a sort of guilt toward the country/people due to that period of history. A general sense of guilt as a nation. Not as people. I don't know if I'd say it's good to feel guilty as modern Germans? But certainly it is a blot on the history of Germany, and THAT sense of their history owning the crime should absolutely not be contested. Like for instance I don't feel personally guilty for what happened to the natives or slaves here, but America has those blots on it's history. The nation was guilty of them, and we as Americans (and they as Germans) need to look that guilt in the face with full sober reality when regarding our history and what the actions caused visibly up to this day.
"SS soldiers would take that opinion to the grave."
The SS may have been the diehard core operators of the Holocaust, but they were NOT the lone perpetrators. Virtually all armed forces and even lesser groups than that were involved in the Holocaust on the Eastern Front in some fashion. Even civilian recruited police forces. There were tons of Jews in Poland and the USSR. Basic military units of any sort rolling into villages and setting down the law and camp would become involved in liquidating or deporting the Jewish parts of the population.
But of course while I'm coming down on Germany....let's not forget how many locals participated willingly or even enthusiastically in the Holocaust throughout Europe. The Germans were the ringmaster of the Holocaust, but they had help when outside their own borders, lots and lots of help. Not everywhere, but plllllenty of help. And I think it's sick that many of those countries just whitewash that away and point at Germany as the lone source of all evil. That's crap in most cases.
And in that way we should admire the modern Germans for carrying that weight, while so many of their neighbors (including Austria!) play pretend with their own histories.