MovieChat Forums > L'armée des ombres (1970) Discussion > I Really, Really Hate Germans After This

I Really, Really Hate Germans After This

posted 13 years ago by nathan-blanton
10 replies | jump to latest

So, I watched this film on Netflix tonight. I've also watched a couple of other documentaries recently and couple of other films about WWII over the summer. I've decided that it must be terribly difficult for the rest of Europe to get along with the Germans after the actions taken by the Nazis during the occupation of Europe during the war. I think that Americans don't really understand how terrible the Nazis were, since we were so remote from it. My grandfather flew a B-24 during the war, but never set foot on the continent or dealt with being occupied by a hostile force. The animosity during the Cold War towards the Russians prevented the West from understanding the suffering the Nazis subjected on those of eastern Europe as well (not that Stalin was much better).

Given the situation Europe now faces itself in, with the debt crisis and the resistance to a bailout by Germany it is surprising that the other European states don't call the Germans out on it. The least they could do would be to eat the cost of the financial trouble after the occupation and suffering their twisted ideology inflicted upon their innocent neighbors during the 1930's and 1940's.

[–] goodf3lla 13 years ago

mate, the point of these films is war is atrocious. look what it made the resistance people do to each other.

besides, America has done its own fair share of invasions / occupations post WW2 (germany, austria, japan, korea, vietnam, iraq, afghanistan etc.) , and don't be foolish enough to believe your people didn't do their own fair share of sht - guantanamo detention camp, abu ghraib prison etc .

however you feel about the germans, a lot of foreign cultures / people probably feel the same about you.

i'm sure you don't wish to be judged on actions you took no part in. most of the german population now, and its leaders, were not born when this sht happened. and a nation has to move on.

[–] diagoro-2 13 years ago

"besides, America has done its own fair share of invasions / occupations post WW2 (germany, austria, japan, korea, vietnam, iraq, afghanistan etc.) , and don't be foolish enough to believe your people didn't do their own fair share of sht - guantanamo detention camp, abu ghraib prison etc ."

The only fair examples here are Iraq and Afghanistan, and in the later we overthrew a government that helped foster terrorist organizations that carried out 9/11. Germany (and Austria) and Japan were 'defeated' after they tried to literally take over the world, killing millions in the process. Both 'South' Korea and Vietnam asked for our help, after each sovereign nation was invaded (your term) by a communist aggressor in the north.

I do agree it's not fair to judge a nation fully for the acts of prior generations, but there is a fair amount of trendy American bashing that is usually unfair.

[–] franzkabuki 13 years ago

You might as well find it "terribly difficult to get along with" the French because of the Napoleonic wars.

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

[–] agera 13 years ago

I'm still overcome with animosity towards the Romans after the way they behaved during the Punic Wars.

"The night was sultry."

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] thedude_85 12 years ago

The OP's reaction is understandable, but we should not hold modern Germans (or even non-Nazi Germans of WW2) responsible; they are no more to blame for what Hitler did than we are. Imagine being an ordinary soldier in the Wehrmarcht, forced to fight for the hate-filled morons running your country, yet at the same time understandably wanting to defend your homeland & family from the Red Army and other Allies that were obliterating it. At least the Allies were risking and losing their lives for a good cause. Imagine having to lose your life for a bad one. We should hate Nazis, not Germans.

[–] SofaOnWheels 12 years ago

"We should hate Nazis, not Germans"

Thank you, that sums it up perfectly.

[–] el_amigo_amiguito 10 years ago

"We should hate Nazis, not Germans. " That's my feel and really what -I think- the OP tried to say, he just misused the words at his momentum (he saw the movie then a couple of documentals and recalled his relative's war stories) so the rage to a dark movement is quite easy to be tagged to the nation where it was conceived.

Lots of WW movies and documentals describes the war against the germans not specifically the nazis.

[–] ishiidobie 12 years ago

To the original poster: I really, really hate YOU after reading this.

[–] jd-276 8 years ago

Given the situation Europe now faces itself in, with the debt crisis and the resistance to a bailout by Germany it is surprising that the other European states don't call the Germans out on it. The least they could do would be to eat the cost of the financial trouble after the occupation and suffering their twisted ideology inflicted upon their innocent neighbors during the 1930's and 1940's.

De-Nazification was a pretty extensive program but it was necessarily one of carrot and stick. If you had been a party member and were denounced as one, you got the stick. If you were a regular German, you probably got more carrot. The Marshall Plan basically made all this possible. The Soviet Union extracted reparations from Germany, including packing up whatever functional factories and machinery they could lay their hands on and sending it to Minsk or Kiev as part of their own rebuilding program after the war. On the other side, the Marshall Plan was born of the notion that if you want to get rid of totalitarianism, the best way is to provide a comfortable alternative. But it came down to how hard the war was for each of the major victors. The US could afford to give money away to cultivate willing allies. The Soviet Union could not afford that.

I don't think Germany needs any more of the guilt culture it has undergone for the last 70 years. I have known enough Germans to know that, while it's finally ebbing away, it's still in their minds. But you can take it too far. This sort of thing makes it too easy for nationalism to rise, as it has in places like Leipzig with skinheads and Neo-Nazis. The same thing happened in Russia. After the fall of the Soviet Union, people wanted to put communism behind them and they probably did too good a job. Schools were teaching the evils of the old regime, Stalin, etc.. So along comes someone like Putin, who tells Russians that they weren't so bad and he ends up with a massive toe hold. Truth be told, he's probably got a point. I'm not trying to justify anything. Just saying that not everything in their history was bad.