Gents, I've started this thread so as not to take over any of Carls excellent holocaust threads with a separate topic. I just want to make mention of my own personal experiences regarding whether current Generations of Germans, or any nation for that matter, are aware of what took place in the 1930's and 1940's.
As many of you know I was a tour guide for many years along the west coast of Australia and came into contact on a weekly basis with a great deal of overseas tourists. Many of these were Germans. The tours we ran lasted over an eight day period and inevitably at some stage or another the war would come up in conversation. I only ever experienced regret, sorrow, sadness, and a deep sense of shame from the German tourists I met. I never once, bear in mind I literally met thousands of German tourists, never once met any that denied the holocaust or were unable to understand why the allies had bombed german cities and towns. I very often found myself feeling a great deal of sympathy for my German crew as they all had genuine remorse - yet not one of them had even been born before the war ended. I never once met a German who wasn't well aware of what had taken place in the camps.
Another observation was that I could count on one hand how many Japanese I met who had any knowledge at all on Japan's involvement during the Second World War and not ONE that felt any guilt. Again, I literally met thousands of Japanese tourists. I didn't blame them but I did blame their successive governments since the wars end as clearly there is little to no education about this period in their nations history. That is wrong in my opinion.
Anyway, all of the above is just my personal experience, others may have had other experiences. Current generations cannot be blamed for the crimes of past generations but we all need to be aware and educated to try to prevent anything like this taking place again. For the sake of our children and all future generations, it's important we all know about these terrible times and events.
Cheers,
Dave.
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