Experimental Blog #59

Comments on "Tearing the Silence" - On Being German in America by Ursula Hegi

These 16 stories of 9 German women and 7 men who were born from 1939 to 1949, and who immigrated to America from 2 to 35 years of age, from 1947 to 1984, are very revealing and thought provoking.
The author, Ursula Hegi, emphasizes what can happen when a people become so self-righteous that they feel completely different from other people.
Perhaps this particular period of history might begin when the uncompromising French and English presented the hypocritical, vengeful, and very stupid Treaty of Versailles to Germany in 1919 at the end of World War I. And the Germans, not being any smarter or more imaginative, absurdly accepted it.
The result was the discrediting of any and all moderation and the extreme destabilizing of German society, politics, and government. When Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party came to power only 14 years later, it can be said that the French and English had created, or, at least stimulated, precisely what they had so dishonestly tried to prevent.
"And so the war came..."
Winston Churchill , a staunch promoter of the British Empire, is often considered to be the dominating allied world leader during that war, World War II, and he seemed to be equally concerned not only with defeating Germany, again, but, also, with keeping Russia out of Eastern Europe.
For that reason he stubbornly refused to allow an invasion of Nazi occupied Europe from the west, but kept promoting an invasion from the Balkan Peninsula, no matter the "mountainous" obstacles. Perhaps he hoped that the Germans would eventually stall and stop the advance of the Red Army, but that did not happen. He only agreed to the Normandy Invasion, which finally took place at least a whole year later, it is said, than when Franklin Roosevelt felt that America was ready and the invasion should occur, when it became clear that the Red Army would take Berlin, and even possibly threaten to go all the way to the Atlantic.
Of course, there is a case for such a view. After all, the communist Soviet Union was the declared uncompromising enemy of all "capitalists, kings, and landowners," and would likely have shot all of them if they could. But it turned out that by trying to force his will on the world around him, Winston Churchill helped accomplish what he was trying so hard to prevent, that is, Russian domination of all of Eastern Europe. And he might be considered one of the chief architects of Cold War Europe, that lasted for about 44 years, with its "Iron Curtain," Churchill's term, right across the continent.
Of course, all of the opinions expressed here have the advantage of what is sometimes called "20/20 hindsight."
Are Germans the only people who are "clean, orderly, obedient, thorough, conscientious, and punctual?" Ursula Hegi frequently mentions these stereotypes.