Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Richard von Weizsacker: "We Seek Reconciliation"

Main Idea: Weizsacker is saying that Germans must come to terms with their individual role in the Holocaust and their personal guilt. They must remember their past atrocities in order to make the future a better place for all.

Remembering [the Holocaust and the deaths of 6 million German Jews] means recalling [the] occurrence honestly and undistortedly so that it becomes a part of our very beings.

The origin of this crime was in Hitler's hatred for Jews and he made the entire nation a tool of it

The day before his death, Hitler wrote in his "will," "Above all, I call upon the leaders of the nation and their followers to observe painstakingly the race laws and to oppose ruthlessly the poisoners of all nations: international Jewry."

The specific crimes of the Holocaust were directly committed by only a few people. It was concealed from the public, but every German was able to experience what his Jewish compatriots had to suffer, ranging from plain apathy and hidden intolerance to outright hatred

Who could remain unsuspecting of the Jews' plight after so many crimes were committed against Jews out in the open. Deportation would not have been surprising since so many Jews merely disappeared one day

There is no such thing as the guilt or innocence of an entire nation. Guilt is, like innocence, not collective, but personal

All people must accept the past. Anyone who closes their eyes to the past is blind to the present






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