History should be simple fact with equal attention to all the points of view of the people who lived through it. Unfortunately, this is never the case. Occasionally, we get lucky and there are diaries and publications from the "loser" in a historical event, but generally these points of view are suppressed. We can be certain that a terrible tragedy was perpetrated, but there are many missing pieces of detail that would give later generations a better understanding of the time. Our history books are plagued with slanted views, outright fabrications and falsehoods and suppressed information. There are quite a few people that try to give an alternate viewpoint, but rarely are they given without an agenda of their own. I am proud of the good things the people of my nation have done in the past and feel sad by the evil that we have perpetrated. The good can pour forth from many sources, but the evil is generally perpetrated by the few and propaganda and manipulation is what spreads it to the masses. The folks that denounce all Germans and Germany have a chance to look around to what is happening today to understand how propaganda steered an entire nation, and eventually most of the world into WWII. The ones that decry how the German people went along with the war machine, can simply look around and see how much tyranny was allowed to spread among all the "normal" citizens. This is the power of an evil minority to manipulate the good majority onto the path of evil. This is what we need to learn from history, this pattern has been repeated too many times and we should know better today, we have been warned from many sources and yet a large number of people not only went along with the tyranny, they participated in persecuting their fellow citizens and even their own family and friends. The Germans of the 1930's were in a worse depression than the USA and the rise of power of the Nationalist Social Workers Party was achieved through skillful use of propaganda and preyed on the hopes for a better life. The people of that time were not aware of how they were being manipulated and had no warnings of the threats of propaganda. We no longer have that excuse. As a race, we were fooled once, shame on them. This time around, we were fooled again, shame on us.
History should be simple fact with equal attention to all the points of view of the people who lived through it. Unfortunately, this is never the case. Occasionally, we get lucky and there are diaries and publications from the "loser" in a historical event, but generally these points of view are suppressed. We can be certain that a terrible tragedy was perpetrated, but there are many missing pieces of detail that would give later generations a better understanding of the time. Our history books are plagued with slanted views, outright fabrications and falsehoods and suppressed information. There are quite a few people that try to give an alternate viewpoint, but rarely are they given without an agenda of their own. I am proud of the good things the people of my nation have done in the past and feel sad by the evil that we have perpetrated. The good can pour forth from many sources, but the evil is generally perpetrated by the few and propaganda and manipulation is what spreads it to the masses. The folks that denounce all Germans and Germany have a chance to look around to what is happening today to understand how propaganda steered an entire nation, and eventually most of the world into WWII. The ones that decry how the German people went along with the war machine, can simply look around and see how much tyranny was allowed to spread among all the "normal" citizens. This is the power of an evil minority to manipulate the good majority onto the path of evil. This is what we need to learn from history, this pattern has been repeated too many times and we should know better today, we have been warned from many sources and yet a large number of people not only went along with the tyranny, they participated in persecuting their fellow citizens and even their own family and friends. The Germans of the 1930's were in a worse depression than the USA and the rise of power of the Nationalist Social Workers Party was achieved through skillful use of propaganda and preyed on the hopes for a better life. The people of that time were not aware of how they were being manipulated and had no warnings of the threats of propaganda. We no longer have that excuse. As a race, we were fooled once, shame on them. This time around, we were fooled again, shame on us.