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by chmod775 5153 days ago
Most of the people that where 20 in ~1930 are not alive today. I'm a 17 yrs old German and I can't feel responsible for what some people I dont even know have done a hundred years ago. That would be as stupid as the concept of original sin....
1 comments

You should feel responsible. You should be willing to learn something. I certainly do.
Have I killed Jews? Did my dad? My Grandfather? Nope. My family lived outside the big cities the entire time.

Even so. If your Grandfather killed someone before you even were born. How could you feel responsible? It's not like you were able to whisper: "kill him! Kill him!"

But of course we can learn from that tragedy. Everyone can. But learning something and being responsible are two completely different things. It's ok if you say Germany's responsible though.

The lesson of the Holocaust is "look at the nasty things that Humans can do. Don't do that." It is absolutely not "look at the nasty things that Germans can do." The more that people make the latter argument, the less they've learned the learned the lesson of the Holocaust.

NB.: I'm of Jewish ancestry and have counted several Holocaust survivors among my friends. This shit is personal for me.