Holger Stephan wrote:

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 06:56:42 +0000, Robert Perkins wrote:


In Germany, the subject simply never comes up in polite conversation.
The topic of Nazi's is banned in Germany. The norm by now is expected to
be widespread ignorance of that part of their history.


There is one thing I should add. AFAIK the discussion of the Third Reich
was not an official part of the curriculum in West Germany for some time
after the war. I think it was somewhere in the 60s or maybe even 70s when
they added it. I guess it took some time for them to figure out how to
present it to the next generation.

You can also blame "De-Nazification." People were afraid to bring the
subject up, for fear of seeming to condone the NSDAP, or just preferring
to avoid investigation.

Let's also remember the minor detail that Germany launched a war, lost
that war, and was broken into two because of that loss. These are not
things that anyone would be too eager to talk much about.

In a way, the Berlin Airlift (hey, AIRPLANES!) cemented the relationship
between the Germans and the Western Powers. We proved our commitment to
support the BRD with the same kind of effort that had ended the
Thousand-Year Reich 990 years ahead of time.