Thoughts on WWII

A while back I read a short article in the Stars and Stripes newspaper about a publisher in Europe that was reprinting Nazi articles in a current magazine. In the article, the publisher said that they just want to educate the current society on the atrocities of yesteryear. The German government and censors apparently went ballistic about these reprints and ordered police to raid newspapers stands to take all unread copies off the street.

Obviously, by the title of this blog you know that I have a vast interest in WWII. I also have a interest in History, in general. So I usually look at instances like I mentioned above from a historical perspective. I can understand that the German government doesn’t want to publish old Nazi propaganda, I’m sure that part of history is an embarrassment to them. However, I don’t see many other reasons not to allow the publication and reeducation of the public about Nazi Germany. The articles that were being published were from the 1930s so it was during the buildup of the Nazi’s. Reeducating everyone on what was going on in Germany in the 1930s just may help keep another Hitler off the street. We all learn from history; what went wrong and what went right. Study the past and you just may know enough about the future to identify a future Hitler and ensure he doesn’t rise to power before it is too late.

Also, history is nothing more than an account of what happened in the past. Nazi Germany was a dark period in German history that no one wants to repeat. And that is all it is. There are still German citizens around that were part of the Nazi party and fought in the war but that was over 60 years ago; they are no longer the same people. We, as a society, have to stop letting the happenings of yesteryear control our decisions for the present and the future, they should only act as a guide for decision making. We need to use history as a source of information that we can pull from so we can make intelligent decisions about our actions in the future. Banning all material concerning Nazi Germany will not make that part of history go away; it only makes it that much mysterious to those they may have aspirations of being another dictator.

So, I say let the articles be printed and let the public choose whether they read them or not. Why should a democratic government try and hide the past from it’s citizens when that history can do nothing to us except help shape our future. Publish the articles!