German grandchildren of Nazis delve into past

@sabiwabi, since this is not Germany and you need not fear arrest/prosecution at the hands of the German government, perhaps you can enlighten us in here with a "positive story" about Commandant Hoess or the regime in which he was a participant.

“You look exactly like your grandfather.”

Ouch! Nothing is more hurtful than this. Too bad there's almost no one but he who can figure out how to save himself from a haunted ghost of his grandfather.

There are laws against saying anything positive about that regime.<

German law is primarily concerned with Holocaust denial and glorifying the Nazi regime, particularly with regalia. I am sure that if you said Hitler was kind to his dogs you wouldn't get in trouble.

True to form, sabiwabi the Holocaust denier shows up on this thread. So by all means, please tell us something positive about Rudolf Hoess.

She should talk to her relatives, those who were actually there and saw what happened; she would get a better idea of what really happened.

What really happened? Which part? That her grandfather was a psychotic monster, who murdered, or helped murder hundreds of thousands of people? Or that he was hanged for his crimes?

Nothing to be ashamed of. War is war.

Bebert61: Nothing to be ashamed of. War is war.

War does not mean anything goes without accountability and responsibility. WWII was unlike any war before its time. The Nzis exterminated the Jews of Europe and Jewish soldiers who fought against the Nazis along with other undesirable people they believed to be subhuman. A crime against humanity.

The children or grandchildren should not be held accountable for their forefathers crime just because they are from the same family. People should be held accountable for their action not those of others.

It's good to see that some of the grandchildren are seeking counseling and facing their family past so that they and their children can move forward. They are human beings too.

@sabiwabi,

As you now have no excuse not to do so and as others have asked, please post a "positive story" about Commandant Hoess. Personally, I doubt you can.

Yeah not much good positive stuff there im afraid. At least some in Germany (like his grandson) are coming to terms with this and moving forward while some others still deny it happened and try and get positives from some of the worst crimes in human history. I guess that is the problem in this world some see good in the worst of events and glorify it and that is the scary part

"Germans have for decades confronted the Nazi era head-on, paying billions in compensation, meticulously teaching Third Reich history in school, and building memorials to victims."

How admirable, given that nations like Japan simply try to forget, deny, and rewrite history so that they are the victims and not the aggressors.

That said, I feel absolutely awful that kids and grandkids are being visited with violence because of the sins of the fathers. It's clear, through their searching, that they have done nothing wrong on their own and are merely looking for answers instead of nations that try to bury the past and lie about it, but they do not deserve wrong doing based on the actions of their grandparents.

I was hoping that maybe he would tell me one positive story about my grandfather, something that shows that he wasn’t all evil after all, that there was some goodness in him,” Hoess confided.

That is not permitted in Germany. There are laws against saying anything positive about that regime.

It was only during her university years—reading books about the Holocaust—that Ursula Boger found out her grandfather...

She should talk to her relatives, those who were actually there and saw what happened; she would get a better idea of what really happened.