Tag Archives: Nuremberg trials

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Nation faces its own past

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“A great nation does not hide its history.Ā It faces its flaws, and corrects them.”

Former President George W. Bush, in remarks dedicatingĀ the Museum of African-American History

Indeed, they dedicated a museum this weekend that pays tribute to the contributionsĀ African-Americans gave to this country’s rich history and culture.

It also revisits the grim aspects of that experience. Slavery, life under Jim Crow laws, the street battles that ensued as the civil rights movement gained traction.

It was a bipartisan affair this weekend, with Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama on hand to welcome the opening of this exhibit.

I wanted to share the quote from President Bush and put itĀ in another context.

My wife and I returned recently from two weeks in Germany and The Netherlands. It was in Germany where I saw how another great nation treatsĀ a grim portion of its otherwise glorious past.

Nuremberg became the site where Nazi Germany’s high command was put on trial for committing the most hideous crimes against humanity one ever could imagine. The Germans have erected a museum there toĀ remember that dark chapter. They do not honor it. They don’t celebrate it. They put it out there for all the world to see.

That’s how they remind the world — and themselves — that they cannot allow the persecution, intimidation and murder of their fellow citizens simply because of their religious faith. That, of course, is what happened in Europe prior to and during the Second World War.

The African-American museum that’s now open in Washington, of course, also honors the extraordinary contributions that African-Americans have given to this nation. It also remembers the terrible times brought on by the enslavement of human beings and the struggles they endured as they fought for the equality the nation’s founders had declared had been granted to them by their “Creator.”

President Bush is right. Great nations do not sweep their darker chapters away. They don’t ignore them. They don’t wish them away.

They stare those chapters down and declare never again will we allow ourselves to repeat these tragic mistakes.

International news

They face their grim history daily

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NUREMBERG, Germany — My friend Martin lays it on the line.

“We know more about the Holocaust than anyone,” he said. “We confront our history every single day.”

And there it is in front of them, standing out among the other edifices Nuremberg residents see every day as they go to work, go home, travel with their children … or perhaps as they visit what’s called the “Documentation Center.”

It is a large building constructed during the era of the Third Reich. It is built in a size that, according to Martin, is meant to demonstrate “the superiority” of the Nazis who ruled Germany for a dozen years from 1933 to 1945.

There’s more than enough shame to go around in Germany. Martin reminded my wife and me that Nuremberg was one of Adolf Hitler’s two favorite cities; the other one was in Munich.

The Documentation Center chronicles the Holocaust, Hitler’s “final solution” to the existence of Jews in Germany and the rest of Europe.

It’s popular among foreign tourists — notably Jewish citizens — who come here to see for themselves how the Germans “document” what happened during the Holocaust.

Martin said the center receives roughly 1 million such visitors annually. The Germans don’t hide this hideous part of their history, Martin said. Yes, he reminded us, they are ashamed of what happened under Hitler’s reign of terror, but there’s no point in brushing it aside.

The picture I posted at the top of this blog is of cards containing the names of victims who were sent to concentration camps. Many of them went to death camps, never to be seen again.

Nuremberg was all but destroyed by American and British bombers during World War II, Martin reminded us. Much of the city was rebuilt. It is a lovely city now. Not all of us was turned to rubble.

Indeed, one of the structures that remain from that dark period is the hall where the Nazi murderers were put on trial. Most of them were put to death; some were sent to prison for the rest of their lives. Still others took their own lives before facing the justice they deserved.

Another is the site where we toured the Documentation Center, where Germans live with this terribly dark chapter in their country’s rich history. It was written by the monster shown below.

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I’m glad we came here to see for ourselves how a great nation deals a historical chapter its citizens likely would rather forget.

They look it straight in the eye.