As a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, I certainly do not have any love for the Nazis. But it’s absurd to deny a special day that will honor the German soldiers who fought for their country because some of them served under the Nazis during WWII. Germany’s Veterans Day will honor its soldiers, not the Nazis.
HONORING THE NAZIS: GERMANY PLANS VETERANS DAY FOR FALLEN SOLDIERS INCLUDING THOSE WHO FOUGHT IN WWII
Anger at army being honored, given bloody history
By Allen Hall
Mail Online
April 4, 2012
Germany is breaking one of its major post-war taboos by announcing there will be an annual Veterans' Day to remember fallen soldiers.
The country's defense minister has unleashed a storm of criticism from opposition politicians and pacifists who object to the army being honored given Germany's bloody past in the 20th century.
German Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière has proposed May 22 as an annual Veterans’ Day to honor former soldiers living and dead.
This would mean honoring those troops of both world wars who acted as aggressors - and in the case of the Nazis in World War 2 - often as criminals.
'Against the background of our operations and the questions they pose our society, it is time to speak objectively and openly about our veterans' policy,' de Maizière said.
The center-left Social Democratic Party is against the move. 'I'm skeptical whether there can be a day that really reaches society,' said SPD defense spokesman Rainer Arnold.
'If the defense minister wants to do something for former soldiers, he should get some money and improve their social security, instead of invoking some cheap 'ideal honor',' said Left party defense spokesman Paul Schaefer.
The Green Party was equally scathing. Their defense expert Omid Nouripour called the Veterans Day nothing but a 'fig-leaf' for a minister who is 'avoiding his core duties'.
He condemned the Veterans' Day as 'superfluous', unless it was used to open a debate on military operations abroad - and also honored development workers and diplomats abroad.
Germany's first foreign military mission since World War II took place in 1991 during the second Gulf War.
Since then 300,000 German soldiers have been in action abroad and more than 100 have been killed.
More than 5million German servicemen fell in WW2, and 2million in the First World War.
There has not been a specific day to honor the military dead ever since the Third Reich fell in 1945.
1 comment:
My great grandfather was killed in a concentration camp. It seems like a horrible suggestion but I think it is their business and they should do what the German public wants no matter how unsavory it might sound.
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