German History and Fear of Involvement in War

This is a powerful, insightful and poignant essay posted with permission of the author. I will add nothing more, the piece speaks volumes about power, shame, and war's aftermath.

Growing up in a country with a reputation as bad as Germany’s in regards to war is tough. You learn about WWI and WWII just about every other year in history class, you get to visit former concentration camps, and you go to any holocaust exhibition near where you live. You get it rammed into your head that Germans did bad things, that they killed millions of people for no real reason at all, and that you have to do all you can to make sure that history never repeats itself. I didn’t grow up being patriotic and even today I have a hard time saying or writing that I am proud to be German (or, now that I have the American citizenship, that I am proud to be from Germany. I have no problem to say that I am proud to be from Berlin – but the words pride and German together just don’t feel right – they always make a somewhat uncomfortable feeling creep up, because those two words together always bring up pictures of Germans in Nazi uniforms, of the mass graves in the former concentration camps that I saw, and of all the horror that has been shown on TV and in museums. Even waving a German flag during a game of the National soccer team felt wrong – a shame actually. So when Germany was asked to enter the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Germans were hesitant to do so, because there was a fear and believe that if anything goes wrong, other nations will find some way to blame Germany for it. Germans did not support Germany’s involvement in those wars — but it was expected.

During the last days I have followed news coverage of two German officials resigning because of air-strikes in September in Afghanistan.

Read the rest HERE.

Thanks redwaterlily.

And so it goes.

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