Re: Letters from HINDENBURG (fwd)
Manny Karbelnig (aj667@lafn.org)
Sun, 4 Feb 1996 11:23:47 -0800
Gunter: I read your note and the other comments that were included. I
continue to "live and hope". I have an open mind (despite what I have
read, the unkind comments are interesting, but my several visits to
Germany in recent years, including the current activities in Germany
today, as I have read in our newspapers, both American and British, haver
left me skeptical and ever hopeful. My problem is: Where did Hassan
of Iraq get his poison gas?? Why does our CNN (on television) report on
Neo-Nazi activity in Germany? I remain skeptical, puzzled, and a bit
frightened. One of your writers brought up the hypothetical question of
"what if Germany had won the war". In following that line of reasoning,
would New York and Washington been Atomic Bombed? As Yul Brunner said in
the movie "Is a puzzlement". Keep in touch, you sound like the voice of
reason.
>
>Dear Tom,
>
>we tried to give a contribution to the discussion that is going on at the
>moment.
>We dont know why we werent accepted and what was wrong with the address.
>Can you help us? If so, please forward our message.
> Thanks in advance
>
> Guenter Reichardt
>
>============================================================
>
>Manny Karbelnig said...
>> Still, I know
>>these people (I use the term generically), and dread what they will
>>certainly do in the future. Keep hoping, it's a wonderful quality.
>
>
>Dear Manny, dear colleague,
>
>I apologise for addressing you in this familiar way and I
>hope you're not offended.
>
>When I studied your first letter (1/14/96) I was astonished
>to read the line
>
>> what Germans are capable of
>
>and I thought you might have chosen the wrong tense. So,
>why should I tell you that Germans are capable of reading
>and understanding English?
>
>To be honest I was shocked and disappointed when I read your
>answer to Don's letter. The different lines have already
>been quoted several times so I'm not going to distribute
>them once again.
>
>As a young student I experienced such reactions in the
>sixties when in the discos we meet GIs who were stationed at
>Baumholder. Within the first months of their stay some of
>them were extremely cautious and full of prejudices. The
>longer you got to know them the more they confessed that
>their knowledge about Europe and Germany was incomplete. In
>the seventies I paid several visits to England and in a very
>few cases I was confronted with similar reactions. In all
>these situations we were able to discuss our opinions and at
>least it was possible to exchange, alter and accept
>different attitudes.
>
>Now, 50 years after the war, you made me think of these
>events again. How is it possible that in the nineties one
>hasn't realised that Germany has developed a new image.
>Being situated in the heart of Europe, sorry, perhaps we
>should say, the centre of Europe, we might be seen as the
>bullseye for an atomic attack but alas how are you going to
>explain to the families of the Polish truck driver on his
>way to France, the Swedish tourist going to Austria and the
>Frenchmen on business in Frankfort that they were hit by
>accident (not mentioning the American tourists on a Rhine
>river cruise).
>
>We have opened our borders and are taking part in a process
>that might result in a united Europe. And immediately the
>traditional fear wells up: 'They are trying to take over
>the leadership in Europe again.' By the way, the term
>'oberleute' doesn't exist in the German language. Where did
>you pick it up? I hope it wasn't used in one of the
>American series about the Second World War.
>
>Well, what's to be done to convince people that the Huns are
>a product of war propaganda and that the new generation of
>Germans has not inherited a malicious gene but has been
>educated in a democratic system and taught to be critical?
>
>I'm a teacher at a grammar school in the south-west of
>Germany (on the border to France and Luxembourg). In one of
>the courses we were doing a project on the EU and the role
>of the Commonwealth and got into contact with Tom Holloway
>who asked us to take part in Memories of 1945. We have been
>studying most of the contributions of the recent months and
>have collected several reports by elderly people which we
>intended to translate into English.
>
>The members of the course are all about 18 years old. One
>of them has a Swedish mother, a girl an American father,
>another one was born in Australia and several of them have
>been to the United States (one student stayed there for a
>year).
>
>I distributed your letter and, ad hoc, they decided to write
>an answer to you. These answers have not been censored nor
>altered by me and I have added two of them to this letter in
>order to show you in what way young people reacted.
>
>---------------------------------------------------------
>
>Manny Karbelnig, we are a group of young German students and
>we're pretty shocked about your statement. The facts you
>have mentioned are just a few you've picked out of the
>whole of the German history. Didn't you see in the news
>that there are many people in Germany who are protesting
>against the terror of the Nazis. You are just seeing the
>negative side of Germany, but what about America?
>1. Hiroshima 2. Vietnam 3. Ku Klux Klan 4. Oppression of the
>Blacks 5. Martin Luther King 6. Rodney King who was killed
>by white policemen
>
>Another example is the Gulf-War. You probably wouldn' t
>come to Germany because of your opinion. And we here in
>Germany get so many prejudices about the USA from series
>shown on TV. America seems to be full of crime, but a lot
>of Germans love America and are there on their holidays.
>
>Verena, Marco, Steffi, Gerit and Sascha
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>
>- News from the front -
>
>Hello!
>We, German Nazi-cockroaches, are trying to justify ourselves
>against those bad, bad prejudices. Of course, fascist
>attitudes still exist in our country, but this is only a
>very small minority (2% of the youth, concerning older
>people, we don't know any numbers, but we don't expect them
>to be much higher. The terror and graffities only come from
>young people anyway). We cannot justify this minority of
>silly youngsters, but can you justify the Ku-Klux-Klan?
>
>You asked where Hassam Hussein got his poison-gas from. We
>don't know who this is, but we're sure you mean Saddam
>Hussein. He got it, !partly!, from persons who worked for
>big German chemical plants, but what can the politicians do
>against that? It's too difficult to control. Further, this
>hasn't got anything to do with the 'war-making psyche', but
>with the greed of firms. We don't know who ferments the
>conflict in the Middle East. Are we naive? No, because we
>believe that American interests played an essential role in
>the Gulf War.
>
>Please come to Germany again and look at every man and woman
>in the street. Ask yourself if the majority of them has got
>a Nazi-psyche - if you think that, yes, YOU are the fascist.
>
>Finally, we would like to request from you more tolerance
>and respect to us poor little cockroaches, crawling in the
>dust of the Reich.
>
>Think it over, and learn who could be YOUR friend.
>
>Sven and Mathias
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>
>You should keep in mind that the students have had
>difficulties to express their thoughts and feelings in
>English but from the above reactions you can undoubtedly see
>that they were offended by your letter and that Zvonko's
>statement that your attitude is extremely dangerous from an
>educational point of view is right: the pupils were
>provoked and willing to write back. Tom's, Peter's and
>Zvonko's reactions to your letter have incited a discussion
>within the class and we have decided to deal with your
>letter in a more rational way. Your letter is a very
>emotional one and it probably wasn't a gut reaction. There
>must be reasons or experiences that have caused this
>reaction. Will you be able to explain them to us? We would
>like to find out what your motives are.
>
>We have to admit that you will be able to find graffiti,
>swastikas and even reactions that might remind oneself of
>the disastrous past. The media tend to give these events a
>special consideration. But from your letters we weren't
>able to guess what could have caused your strong reactions.
>
>You only seem to have been in Germany in combat or as a
>tourist. As you are able to read and speak the German
>language we would like to invite you to an exchange of views
>and to spend some time in Germany to 'brush up' your
>knowledge of our country which has become one of the most
>reliable partners of the American Nation. Perhaps we can
>learn together not to see enemies where there aren't any.
>
>As we wouldn't like to put a further strain on Tom's project
>we add our e-mail address so that you can contact us
>directly:
>
>hgt@uni-trier.de
>
>We have been smiling when deciding on ending this letter
>with....
>
>The surviving cockroaches
>(because it's the insects that have best chances to survive
>the mushroom cloud.)
>
>LET EDUCATION BE OUR TARGET !
>
> Heinz-Guenter Reichardt
>
>
--
MannyK/usr/local/67/aj667.Merlin
May the rest of your life be like the best of your life before today.
x
m