2026-01-06 Responsibility
=========================

For all the US citizens who are angry and disappointed about how they
world is treating them only because they happen to be citizens of a
country ruled by wanna-be dictators, all I have to offer is my
impression of how the world treated Germans for decades after the
second World War. The Germans would say: "I didn't know!" Or: "What
was I going to do?" Or: "I desperately needed to keep my job." Or: "I
didn't do it!" And people elsewhere hated them all the same. Yes, it
was probably unfair to some. But what has haunted me ever since is
this: How much resistance is required for you to be cleared of the
stain of collective guilt? Not on the individual level, but on the
collective level. Yes, some of my ancestors were Nazis, most likely.
Or cowards. Or beneficiaries. It's the small fragments and rumours
that remain. A great grandfather got wounded in Italy and deserted,
walked all the way back to Lübeck and got nursed back to health in the
cellar of his Grand Hotel. The neighbours felt that the Nazi got what
he deserved. One grandfather apparently cheered the Anschluss on the
Heldenplatz in Vienna. Does cheering for the wrong party make you as
guilty as the concentration camp guard? No. Are all descendants
absolved of their ancestor's sins? Also no. The responsibility
remains. To keep the memory alive. To hear the accusations and to
acknowledge what happened. To right the wrongs. To give back what was
taken. Some have always been part of the resistance. Some might be
waking up to it just now. Some might say, like in that meme, with a
smirk, "first time around?" Some will never understand and they need
to be outvoted or outgunned. Collective responsibility is hard because
most of us were taught that the children must not suffer for the sins
of their ancestors. But at the same time, we live in a society,
benefit from it, suffer from it, and share responsibility for it. Even
if we don't like it.

(For future readers some historical context: The Trump administration
has kidnapped Maduro from Venezuela much like the Bush administration
kidnapped Noriega from Panama and now the Trump administration is once
again threatening to take Greenland from Denmark.)

When we visited Amsterdam many years ago, I think the museum that I
remember best is the Resistance museum. "The Dutch Resistance Museum
tells the story of people in times of war. These people aren’t heroes
and villains, but ordinary people forced to make choices in the face
of scarcity and oppression." It showed that when your country is taken
over by dictators, there's a big spectrum of responses possible.

And just now I discovered that last year the list of suspected Nazi
collaborators in the Netherlands got released: A list of half a
million names shines new light on Dutch collaboration with Nazis. A
law had kept access restricted for eighty years. About 425,000
individuals were suspected of collaborating with Nazi Germany.
Wikipedia says there were 9.2 million inhabitants at the time, so
nearly 5% of the population.

Here's what I'm hoping for all of us: When the time comes, don't be a
fucking collaborator.

#Life #History #USA #Germany