Stipes writes:
Those people weren't brainwashed when they were born. I percieve Germans as being educated before the rise of Hitler. They weren't brainwashed before Hitler came to be. They were "brainwashed" as a result of Hitler. I think the reasons why they followed them were just because of the conditions made by the Treaty of Versai. Hopefully I spelled that right. I have a spelling problem, I think it is a disease.
In the contrary, I don't believe that the german adults were brainwashed at all. Yes, the harsh terms of the treaty of
versailles contributed much to Hitler's rise to power. However, anti-semitism had already been present. Hitler's use of the Jews as scapegoats gave the perfect excuse for people to act out their most hidden desire to be cruel to others. I think that rationalization (or the irrationality of rationalization) played a big part in it.
Brainwashing came when they began to teach the german youths to act the same way.
So no, I do not buy in any of the excuses gave by the defendants at the war crime trials like "we were only following orders" and "we were brainwashed."
You want a current example of such injustices? Look at the Japanese. While it is illegal today in Germany to not believe in the holocaust, the japanese people are still worshiping the generals in WW2 (the same generals that ordered the extermination attempt on the Chinese race) as gods. The Chinese and Koreans have made many attempts to get the Japanese to put accurate information in their textbooks, but the Japanese are still refusing to do that. According to their history textbooks that they use for their children today, Japan was attacked by the rest of the world and it was only defending itself. There are sections where they kept saying Japan was a victim of this and Japan was a victim of that.
Anyway, what was my original point?...
The Laminator
™ Version 4.2
