The Polish hate the Russians far, far more (Germans - brief occupation, Russians - centuries of oppression, first under the Tzars and then the Soviets.
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Will Germany ever live down Hitler?
- Thread starter Jack Scofield
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The Polish hate the Russians far, far more (Germans - brief occupation, Russians - centuries of oppression, first under the Tzars and then the Soviets.
SiteSeer
Member
hitler will not easily be forgotten by western history, but we sometimes forget that there are 3 billion other people out there that don't share our culture or our history. perhaps in a hundred years another madman will come along and overtake hitler in death and destruction, as human beings we've proven we're capable of greater and greater glory as well as ignominy. no one can guarantee that western culture will be the dominate culture of the future, let alone the dominate force of world history. a couple hundred years can make a big difference. i will concede that hitler will likely always be known. but i conjecture that he will be just one of among many of humanity's great failures past and future.
D
Deleted member 1235
Unconfirmed Member
I think a lot of people like to believe that they are better than the germans of 1940s, but really, if Obama scaled out his drone program slowly (read over 2 years) to just start brazenly murdering off 'problem areas', and propaganda'd over the whole mess while slowly expanding the terrorist label to include 'anyone we don't like' most Americans would go along with it. Not because you're inherently evil, but if you started speaking out and were declared 'enemy of state' and put in guantanamo, you'd keep your mouth shut, from that, denial would develop among the population that what was occuring 'wasn't so bad'.
East Asia has a troubling obsession with Adolf Hitler.
Napoleon lost.
movie_club
Junior Member
this.
Bullshit.
They even released information about opening concentration camps to the press.
http://www.holocaust-history.org/dachau-gas-chambers/images/photo02.jpg
Note the date. That newspaper clip is from 1933.
You had to be completely dense to not notice that something was on when the "Kristallnacht" happened. "Oh well, first they smashed all Jewish property and now more and more Jews are gone. I wonder where they went???? I guess on holiday!!!" smh
This whole "Hitler was evil, everyone else was good, they didn't know about anything" makes me mad. Because the latter was the actual problem. Hitler without the support of the general population wouldn't have been able to do the things that happened.
The general view of Germany is so weird, it's either Hitler or this:
And very little middle ground
that pic really doesn't reflect the majority of Germany, that's just Bavaria.
that kind of festivity doesn't happy anywhere else in the country just there.
Yeah but those incidents don't have entire cultural movements behind them. You usually don't forget the last guy who tried to take over the world.
Arjen
Member
Germany did an outstanding job at reinventing herself and building a national identity outside of the Third Reich. Hitler will hopefully not forgotten, but the link between Germany and and him will grow more tenous as the time passes by.
As for the Holocaust, the only thing that could ever make people forget it would be yet another bigger genocide or 3rd world war, which is something that I hope that never, ever happens. However, let's wait for North Korea to crumble and open its doors to the press, I bet that the type of shit that we will probably find inside will make the Holocaust look like a minor affair. Yickes.
Most anti-German sentiment in Europe comes from the South, as many people thinks that their current austerity woes are due to Germany's diktat trought Brussels, but even then it is more of a love-hate relationship. Many, many people admire Germany, myself included, and understand that their politician's fuckery is one thing and the country is another different one. In the case of Spain it is even harder to hate them, since many of our youth is working in Germany as inmigrants and treated well, while many Germans lives not only as tourists, but as our neighbours in places like Mallorca. You cannot truthly hate people that you know well, and our two countries are more linked than what geography and history would suggest at a first glance.
As for the Holocaust, the only thing that could ever make people forget it would be yet another bigger genocide or 3rd world war, which is something that I hope that never, ever happens. However, let's wait for North Korea to crumble and open its doors to the press, I bet that the type of shit that we will probably find inside will make the Holocaust look like a minor affair. Yickes.
Most anti-German sentiment in Europe comes from the South, as many people thinks that their current austerity woes are due to Germany's diktat trought Brussels, but even then it is more of a love-hate relationship. Many, many people admire Germany, myself included, and understand that their politician's fuckery is one thing and the country is another different one. In the case of Spain it is even harder to hate them, since many of our youth is working in Germany as inmigrants and treated well, while many Germans lives not only as tourists, but as our neighbours in places like Mallorca. You cannot truthly hate people that you know well, and our two countries are more linked than what geography and history would suggest at a first glance.
Chuckie
Member
Doesn't matter. It was given as an example of the general view on Germany by foreigners, not if it is actually a correct view.
I love Germany, their peeps, their food, Christmas markets etcetera. I just hate them during football tournaments!
Ironically had Hitler not come to power Germany would have remained under the thumb of others!
People forget how and why someone like Hitler came to power.
The repression Germany was under nurtured and created Hitler!
Countries should just go to war...fist it out till someone gives up and then just go on your way after with the satisfaction of victory.
Signing treaties that cause harm to the defeated nation is just asking for trouble at a later date.
People forget how and why someone like Hitler came to power.
The repression Germany was under nurtured and created Hitler!
Countries should just go to war...fist it out till someone gives up and then just go on your way after with the satisfaction of victory.
Signing treaties that cause harm to the defeated nation is just asking for trouble at a later date.
Given unlike other tyrants Hitler is from an era where he was captured on film and portrayed many times in pop culture it'll take much longer, a simple swastika emblem is more powerful than any other symbol in modern times. I think people can easily separate THAT Germany from today's though. But Hitler wont ever be forgotten.
One of the reasons Nazi propaganda is so pervasive is because it modernized and distilled monarchist and nationalist propaganda into a form recognizable to the modern era. I'd even go further and argue that traditional media was at its highest stature right before television and it contributes greatly to the iconic status Hitler has in mass media today.
Stalin was "Uncle Joe" during the war, and Mao received a visit from Nixon after the horror of the Cultural Revolution. Too many gray areas to contemplate.
Stalin was "Uncle Joe" during the war, and Mao received a visit from Nixon after the horror of the Cultural Revolution. Too many gray areas to contemplate.
Nathan Muir
Member
And present.
That's the joke! Of course Germany isn't like that, but in terms of visual export you've got Hitler, because it was such a horrible time and "face of evil", and Oktoberfest, because the beer's great and people like to dress up in Lederhosen once a year.
-Plasma Reus-
Service guarantees member status
Germany was a prime factor in two world wars. Justified or not, people will never forget that.
Ah so he's that gif material guy. Maybe it's sad that I can actually believe someone would give similar statements for real
It does sometimes take me aback when I think about the Nazi era and that it was actually real, that all of those things actually happened and that only 70-80 years ago. The pure evilness, the death factories, the Nuremberg rallies, Hitlers ravings, the Fuhrer cult, and their bizarrely appealing style in terms of uniforms and appearance etc. that was in stark contrast to their machinations. It's sometimes unbelievable.
So different from Germany today, an almost naively pacifistic country.
So different from Germany today, an almost naively pacifistic country.
Their uniforms were designed by Hugo Boss. At least the SS and Nazi Party uniforms. Wehrmacht uniforms look pretty much on par with the other countries'.
SomethingInTheSea
Member
History is written by the victors.
D
Deleted member 231381
Unconfirmed Member
They have lived it down, haven't they? I mean sure, people make Hitler jokes and whatnot, but they don't have any malice behind them intended towards Germany as it stands today. The British still make fun of the French and they've not actually been to war since the Napoleonic conflicts or even gotten close since the Fashoda incident.
dapperbandit
Banned
The Holocaust has kind of been inflated into this cultural behemoth that other genocides don't possess. Nobody is going to forget it because it because it's influence and impact is everywhere in popular culture. Actually I say nobody, but some East Asian countries don't seem to have a problem with Hitler.
Which is kind of the way I see it happening in the future. It's been amplified in popular culture to the extent where it actually impedes understanding and Hitler just becomes a cartoon villain no one can learn from.
I wonder though, what people would think of Hitler and the Nazi's had they sent the Jews to Madagascar as planned.
Which is kind of the way I see it happening in the future. It's been amplified in popular culture to the extent where it actually impedes understanding and Hitler just becomes a cartoon villain no one can learn from.
I wonder though, what people would think of Hitler and the Nazi's had they sent the Jews to Madagascar as planned.
ElectricBlue187
Member
Hopefully that was the last Great War so nobody will ever forget how horrible it was.
Even if it is of course people are going to forget. When the last person to have experienced it is dead, the most visceral frame of reference will be gone and it'll become petrified in history like every other war.
Mongolia has lived down Genghis Khan is a pretty weird statement, as he is the only thing Mongolia is known for pretty much anywhere in the world. Mongolia is still associated with Khan and Khan is much farther away in history than Hitler. Hitler will always be associated with Germany in the same way that all crazy dudes who killed tons of people and tried to take over the world tend to be associated with their country or region.
Lambda Pie
Banned
they can't even live down Blablurn.
Applefiend
Member
People will drop it as soon as The History Channel drop it I think. There comes a point when people get that the Nazis were evil, yet snappy dressers, and there are other periods of history we can make TV programmes about.
Although an Assassin's Creed in Nazi Germany would be rather tasty.
Spending lots of time in Thailand, and you do see people with Swastica tattoos. They're not Nazis obviously. In time even that symbol can be taken back.
When I think of Germany I think of excellent cars, Oktoberfest, and in NZ, Kim Dotcom.
Although an Assassin's Creed in Nazi Germany would be rather tasty.
Spending lots of time in Thailand, and you do see people with Swastica tattoos. They're not Nazis obviously. In time even that symbol can be taken back.
When I think of Germany I think of excellent cars, Oktoberfest, and in NZ, Kim Dotcom.
Nicktendo86
Member
I have a 'friend' who started that in a pub as we were watching an England game during the last World Cup, I think during the USA game. It was so embarrassing, I mean this bloke is a cunt at the best of times, but my god.
Anyway, I thought Stalin actually killed more than Hitler, but he never seems to get mentioned at all? Is that because the USSR was our ally during WWII, so we don't give a shit that he killed millions of his own people?
Arjen
Member
They were selling Hitler masks on the beach in Koh Samui. Stil a pretty big WTF? moment for me.
Applefiend
Member
Stalin was on our side during the war, so his atrocities were given less attention. Simple as that.
But yeah, took a trip to the WW2 war museum in Kiev and it's an incredible place. No people have suffered as much as the Soviet people under Stalin, and in some ways continue to suffer.
But yeah, took a trip to the WW2 war museum in Kiev and it's an incredible place. No people have suffered as much as the Soviet people under Stalin, and in some ways continue to suffer.
Applefiend
Member
I've seen German WW2 helmuts too, which would be considered very bad taste in the West.
KiwiLannister
Member
As far as I'm concerned they've already lived down Hitler. Modern day Germany is a productive, innovative, modern nation. It would be weird to describe a nation as being "nice" but I never hear much controversial to do with Germany's foreign policy.
Quite frankly Hitler was just as much the fault of the Allies at the Treaty of Versailles as anyone in Germany. He would never have risen to power in a stable German state that wasn't trying to get back at the world for WWI.
Or maybe my history is terrible.
Point is modern day Germans have no affiliation with Hitler and I don't see the point relating them.
Quite frankly Hitler was just as much the fault of the Allies at the Treaty of Versailles as anyone in Germany. He would never have risen to power in a stable German state that wasn't trying to get back at the world for WWI.
Or maybe my history is terrible.
Point is modern day Germans have no affiliation with Hitler and I don't see the point relating them.
Chuckie
Member
SniperHunter
Banned
I don't like Germans, I won't visit the country a or buy their products.
WWIi was horrific, I will never forgive
WWIi was horrific, I will never forgive
Applefiend
Member
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2356705/Fried-chicken-takeaway-called-Hitler-opens-Thailand-comes-complete-logo-Nazi-leader-bow-tie.htm
Read this whole article.
Dear god what kind of country am I moving to...
Weimar Germany was actually a pretty booming and progressive place, up until the point that the political system decided to give Hitler and his party a second chance. The thought was that they could be constrained and tempered by the more moderate elements in the system, but they underestimated his capacity for shrewdly playing by the rules until such a point in time that he could make new ones. This was all after he had previously led an armed revolution and went to prison. Anyone with sense knew he was a radical and no good, but they let him have a seat at the table because they thought they could use him. Enter the Hitlerian gangs sowing chaos and lighting fires to later blame on Communists, exit the relative calm that was ensuring recovery from Versailles and a rapidly liberalizing society. Hitler quite literally ran Germany off of the rails.
How old are you?
wait, what?
He will forever be engraved in their history, I mean he killed millions of people in the most horrible way possible. Is hard to shake that off..
But I don't blame Germany for that today, they have plenty of stuff to be blamed of as it is. I keep my blame to the present with what they are doing to Europe.
But I don't blame Germany for that today, they have plenty of stuff to be blamed of as it is. I keep my blame to the present with what they are doing to Europe.
Dinosaur Tamer
Member
Like what exactly? I am genuinely interested in what you think Germany is doing to Europe.
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