After Hitler: Recivilizing Germans 1945-1995

The author of this book is German and so the book is already slanted towards the plight of the Germans as victims from the beginning. While the author does state that there can be no excuse for allowing the Holocaust to happen he does make excuses as to why Germans willingly followed Hitler and allowed the World War to happened.

The book does not really show that all Germans were "civilized" after the war. There are many differences between those living in West Germany over those living in East Germany - which would make sense because of the two different ideologies. Once the two Germanys reunited in 1990 the differences between the two groups really became apparent and has lingering effects within Germany to this day.

One item that really got me was how the book ended. The book goes to 1995 (5 years after the country was reunited) and talks about all the anti-foreigner violence and how more and more Germans follow the call "Germany for Germans." I don't see how the book can claim the majority of Germans to be re civilized (since 1945) and in the same note talk about how even ordinary Germans are calling for violence and deportations against foreigners - the majority of whom came legally into the country.

From 1933-1945 the Germans called for a pure Germany and murdered millions of non-Germans. Nowadays the Germans are calling for a Germany for Germans and are using violence and threats to kick non-Germans out. I don't see a difference other than the fact that Germans are not currently using concentration or death camps. I lived in Germany in the 1990s and saw first-hand ordinary Germans use violence against Turks, Kurds and other non-Germans. On the surface Germans today may be considered civilized (and I am sure some are) but the true nature can not be erased even after 60 years. Throughout history Germans have been war-like: the Germanic tribes (called barbarians) that destroyed much of Europe throughout the Middle Ages, the Prussian united Germany of the 1870s, the militaristic Germany of the First World War, Nazi Germany during the Second World War, the dictatorship of East Germany and now the xenophobic and nationalistic Germany of the reunited Germany. History continues to repeat itself.