On the other extreme, groups like Antifa (anti-fascists), the Green and other parties on the Left argue that every German was complicit in the Holocaust and WWII because they did not stand up to Hitler’s government. Antifa sometimes use violence and shaming tactics to prevent groups from holding memorial services.
I chatted with one older gentleman who is a member of the conservative/radical-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). He told me how some of his first memories include walking with his hand in his father’s through the rubble of the city. For him, remembering the bombing was personal. Family members and friends died in this bombing. Further, his father was conscripted into the German army and fought in WWII. His father wasn’t a bad man, he said. His father was a good man. So why should his father be dishonored and his memory shamed just because he was conscripted into the army? What about a son’s right to honor his father’s military service and mourn for the death of loved ones?
But this sort of thinking isn’t just limited to 13 February. It’s a wider trend within Germany to create a more positive picture of the past and the part Germans played in their past. This trend has been happening for decades now in sharp contrast to the sense of “German guilt” for WWII and the Holocaust. The sense of German guilt had permeated Germany’s sense of self since the end of the war.
While many Germans are wary of saying they are “patriotic” or “proud to German,” they do feel a disconnect from the Nazi period. After all, most people in that generation have either died or are dying. So why should Germans feel guilty for something they didn’t do?
As one person said to me, “The U.S.
