German Memory

In a recent post I mumbled something to the credit of the Germans who have confronted their horrendous past admirably. Susan Neiman, writing from Berlin, suggests that while this is true, it's not fully true, and the choice the Germans have made of their few heroes of the Nazi era to be celebrated in the communal memory are the wrong ones: they've chosen the ones who died, thereby effectively saying that heroism was heroic, but also futile. Instead, they should have concentrated on the (very few) heroes who successfully stood up to the Nazi regime and didn't die.

It's an interesting point.

(I got here thru Normblg).