Tony Parsons on Anti-German attitude
Question: Why can't the British forget the Second World War?
Answer: Because it is just too soon.
A residual resentment of Germany remains in our national consciousness, and that is entirely understandable.
Do you think the Chinese still resent the Japanese for their brutal occupation of their country? You bet they do. These wounds do not heal overnight. They do not even heal after 50 or 100 years. Have the Jews forgiven Germany for Belsen and Auschwitz? No - and why the hell should they?
If you are under 30 you probably have grandparents who lived through the war. And if you are in your middle years you certainly had a mother and father, like mine, whose lives were altered for ever by the war.
For my parents, and for millions of others, the war wasn't a history lesson, a forgotten episode from a dusty textbook. It was the defining experience of their lives.
MY parents lived through the Blitz. They saw neighbours blown to pieces. They lost friends.
My father carried the scars of a German grenade to his grave.
So it does make me laugh when we worry too much about hurting German feelings. Hurt feelings? Between 1939 and 1945 the German nation hurt a lot more than feelings.
Mirror.co.uk
Answer: Because it is just too soon.
A residual resentment of Germany remains in our national consciousness, and that is entirely understandable.
Do you think the Chinese still resent the Japanese for their brutal occupation of their country? You bet they do. These wounds do not heal overnight. They do not even heal after 50 or 100 years. Have the Jews forgiven Germany for Belsen and Auschwitz? No - and why the hell should they?
If you are under 30 you probably have grandparents who lived through the war. And if you are in your middle years you certainly had a mother and father, like mine, whose lives were altered for ever by the war.
For my parents, and for millions of others, the war wasn't a history lesson, a forgotten episode from a dusty textbook. It was the defining experience of their lives.
MY parents lived through the Blitz. They saw neighbours blown to pieces. They lost friends.
My father carried the scars of a German grenade to his grave.
So it does make me laugh when we worry too much about hurting German feelings. Hurt feelings? Between 1939 and 1945 the German nation hurt a lot more than feelings.
Mirror.co.uk
Daniel Kulla - Mar 31, 21:16
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