Comments by "Jim Luebke" (@jimluebke3869) on "Do Germans Talk About World War II? What Do They Teach About the Holocaust? | Feli from Germany" video.

  1. My grandfather (who died when I was a baby) rolled into Germany with the US Army in 1944. He was captured during the "Battle of the Bulge" and later liberated, spending Christmas of his 18th year as a prisoner of war. He was a radio operator and probably knew some German (and had a German last name), so if anyone in his outfit was interrogated, he would have been an obvious choice. My father said he didn't say much about his service. My father found a Purple Heart (recognition for being wounded in battle) he earned, in a shoebox of his knickknacks after he died. Among the reminiscences of his division, filled with fellow 18 year olds, fighting against the last of the German conscripts -- "It became a regular experience to see the look on a 14 year old's face as he died." (Picture a team vs. team Call of Duty map of a 1940s factory, fought at night in the dark. Except, the teenagers aren't playing.) A scout from his company was the first American to discover a concentration camp -- Mittelbau-Dora, where slaves built rocket machinery for the V-weapon program. It wasn't the worst of the war, but it was bad enough. "Never again" if we can, but if the '30s taught us anything, preparation is prevention.
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  2. Germany treated its neighbors (and its own citizens) very brutally under the NSDAP. Germany was treated very brutally by the Allied Powers, in return. I believe it's possible, with some effort, for all of us to agree never to let any of that happen again, and to thrive together in the present and future.
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  3. The atrocities against random civilians in occupied territories are severely under-reported just about everywhere. It's understandable that Jewish people are particularly interested in keeping the memory of what happened to them alive, but to focus on themselves is to sacrifice the fellow-feeling all the victims of that regime ought to feel with one another.
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  4. "Didn't your grandfather fight in the war? Did he ever talk to you about it?" "Yes, and he was killed, so no, he didn't talk about it." - More realistic exchange.
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