Re: For all those who ponder the castingof stones

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: : Dear Vita,

: : Though I have no doubts about Dresden being an absolute hell during that time, you must not forget that there were many places like it during WWII. And that the Germans could certainly hold their own when it came to bomb attacks on civilian areas. Famous examples are London and Coventry, but to bring it a little closer to my home, the city I call my home, Rotterdam, was heavily bombed on May 14 1940, which resulted in many casualties and the total destruction of our centuries old city center. My parents were children then, and living there. They witnessed it, and witnessed a lot more during the occupation that followed.

: : War is cruel, however this war was not started by the Allied, it was started by Germany. And the guy who started it, was put into power through a democratic election process, which shows he had quite some support for his policies. I am sure that the "little history" of the war is heartbreaking (but no more so in Germany, than in the rest of Europe), but I firmly believe that this was a war that needed to be fought. And a monstruous ideology that needed to be destroyed.

: : Me, I am just grateful for the sacrifices made by the Allied soldiers. I may be critical at times about American policies and attitudes, but that doesn't mean I have forgotten about that. I grew up in a free country because of those sacrifices.

: : Ilse

: Hi Ilse,

: Although things are crazy around me these days, I must reply to your post..

: As you know my father is German and of course I have many German relatives in the "old country"..I am not so sure how "democratic" the voting system was.My father was only 16 when he was FORCED to go to war in France. He had NO choice.Neither did my uncle, who had to fight in Russia and lost his toes..As a matter of fact I have met many people who did not agree with the Nazi regime and were put into concentration camps. Some people never returned... Here is an excerpt of one German ( in his own words) who shared his story for my upcoming book ( btw it tells stories from ALL over Europe.):
: "As far as the Nazis were concerned my family and also a lot of other Germans were not too fond of the regime. Dad was 1st cook of an oceanliner. His name was Willem. Well, one day he was told: "Willem, it's time for you to join the Nazis". He replied: "No, I am not going to join." So he lost his job.An uncle of mine- he was a communist- was found out during the war by the Nazis,and ordered up in a concentration camp. He suffered."

: So,what about those people? Are THEY entitled to reparations or perhaps not because it was a so called democratic voting system??
: How democratic is our democracy anyway? What about corruption? I've seen plenty in my country/province..No, don't get me started on that.:):)

: Yes, war is cruel. War is horrible and truly there are no winners and losers..But- everybody suffers the same, no matter what nation they belong too.

: Peace, Bea


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