I am Hitler

[Jetsun]

I have a friend with a German name from Argentina. I went to his birthday party at his parents' house several years ago.

His father was drunk, recognized that I was a Jew, pulled me aside into a private room and began confessing to me his sins as a German soldier involved in genocide in WWII. He didn't share too many details but it was clear that he spent time working in an extermination camp. It was a very surreal and terrifying experience for me, listening to this old man confess his complicity when many of my family was killed in Europe in WWII in pogroms and camps. I listened for a while and simply told him that I was not in a position to forgive him or absolve him of his guilt.

 

My friend is a beautiful person with very strong moral and ethical character. Could he have committed the sins of his father? Given the right set of circumstances, I do not doubt it.

 

Woah I bet that was surreal

[ralis]

There is nothing humorous about any war, even years later! This has nothing to do with shadow projections. War is about horrific suffering. WWII claimed around 70 million lives.

 

The British asked the U.S. to save Europe from utter annihilation and we did. If it weren't for the U.S. sacrificing 413,000 lives, England would have been reduced to a pile of rubble, along with most of Europe.

 

The U.S. put a direct assault on Omaha beach with over 6,000 casualties. Further the battle of Normandy cost over 200,000 American lives. There are some Europeans who don't appreciate the full effect of that sacrifice. So when I hear about laughter as a therapeutic remedy, I am troubled. Not only that, if the U.S. didn't put a stop to the war, the death camps would have continued. I can't even begin to imagine the horror of continued genocide.

 

Two of my uncles were in WWII Europe. One of them was on the third wave on Omaha beach, front lines in North Africa and Italy, Battle of the Bulge and one of the first to cross the Rhine river. In other words, front lines all the way. He could never talk about it and most likely didn't want to. No smile or laughter ever was expressed by him in this regard.

 

I also have a very good friend who was a French translator at the Nuremberg tribunals. He is from a French Jewish family and served in the U.S. Army. He also is reticent to discuss what he witnessed.

 

Interview with Major Dick Winters of E Company.

 

 

 

In this interview, he still wears the emotion of the horror of war.

 

 

Edited May 17, 2011 by ralis

[Jetsun]

Watch Blackadder Goes Forth if you want to see a war comedy, it's about making fun of the insanity of war not making light of peoples sacrifices.

[三江源]

Watch Blackadder Goes Forth if you want to see a war comedy, it's about making fun of the insanity of war not making light of peoples sacrifices.

 

Exactamundo! Nice example.

[Jetsun]

Catch 22 is another example of dark war comedy, I think the contrast between the horror and the comedy is what makes the impact of the horror so much more real for the reader/watcher which is why both Blackadder and Catch 22 are regarded as absolute classics in their field.