by Steven Macpherson

Created on: May 27, 2009

A country cannot separate itself from its past without doing serious damage to its present. I do not believe the present generation should bear the shame of a previous generation's actions like a mantle but it must deal with the consequences past actions have brought into the present. The holocaust and the other atrocities of the Nazi era are part of the genetic code of the German people. It was a national sin, not just the sin of few psychopathic individuals but of every single German who had any role in supporting the existence of the Third Reich. The Nazi era emerged from a sickness in the spirit of what it meant to be German. It was the result of a profound bitter root that was exploited by a team of demonically inspired megalomaniacs. The continued acknowledgment of the wrongness of that generation's actions and the repugnance the German people of today feel towards all things Nazi is an ongoing expression of national repentance. Repentance involves a process of contrition, confession, and restitution. Repentance is a lifestyle not simply an act of acknowledging guilt and moving on to what comes next. As long as there remains any residue of that atrocity that still affects today, it behooves Germany to humbly acknowledge it and do its best to make amends.

From my perspective, Germany's ongoing willingness to acknowledge its responsibility for the holocaust is no longer a symbol of its shame. It is a clarion reminder that even the most noble of people can fall into the traps of extreme nationalism and be deceived by a scapegoat mentality. Germany not only serves itself by continuing reparation payments to holocaust victims; it functions as a beacon of light to the rest of the world. Of all the countries who have committed atrocities against other people including the United States, Russia, Turkey, Great Britain, Japan and China; Germany is the only one that is currently acknowledging its crimes on the world stage. This acknowledgement has brought a significant measure of healing to surviving holocaust victims and their descendents. Jews are once again taking up residency in Germany and in the other countries most affected by the holocaust. There is a revival of interest in all things Jewish, and many festivals, highlighting Klezmer music and other aspect of Yiddish culture, are drawing massive audiences. There is a growing tourist industry; where the regions of Western and Eastern Europe, that use to be the bastions of Jewish culture, are being celebrated and re-experienced by both Jewish and Gentile visitors. Germany has played no small role in what appears to be a transformative change in the attitudes towards Jews held by the present generations of both Western and Eastern Europeans. Its willingness to not put a time limit on its own emergence from a dark past has allowed the rest of Europe and perhaps the world to do its own soul searching.

Germany needs to continue its symbolic role of being an example to the rest of the world of what it means for a country to turn away from a dark past. The very suggestion that reparation is an unfair burden on present generations suggests the possibility that a significant moment from its dark past has still not been entirely weeded out of the mentality of some Germans. Bitterness over reparation payments from WWI was one of the attitudes Hitler and his cronies were able to exploit. Germany is an extremely rich country; the burden of holocaust reparations is highly relative and obviously not a significant factor that seriously affects the national economy. Its value as a powerful symbol of the new Germany's capacity to be a major player on the world stage is, however, inestimable.

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