Zoë's journal entry

Vergangenheitsbewältigung:

I think modern Germans, most prominently need

to come to terms with the Holocaust. It's something

that's very difficult to comprehend and understand,

and even more difficult to come to terms with. I think

Germans need to come to terms with the Holocaust

by not forgetting what happened, not letting others

forget, and understanding why and how it happened

in order to prevent any similar even from happening

ever again. Germans also need to come to terms

with world war two. It cost many lives and was very

destructive. Germans need to take what happened

and use it to prevent future wars. Modern Germans

should see WW2 as a duty to promote and practice

peace.

Americans have a lot to come to terms with: Slavery,

the slaughter of Native Americans, Japanese

internment camps, the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima

and Nagasaki, civil rights, women's suffrage, and, in

the future, gay rights. I think we should remember that

at one point, the majority of Americans were in support

of the positions on these issues that we now clearly

view as immoral. I personally believe that the opposers

of gay rights will eventually be looked at like those who

opposed civil rights. Coming to terms with the past is

definitely not uniquely German, although I think

Germans have arguably the most serious history to

reconcile. Pretty much all of Europe has to com to terms

with slavery and imperialism. Japan has the events of

the Rape of Nanking. China has the famine and terrible

conditions as a result of communism, whether or not

the government or the people of China will recognize

it, and their treatment of Tibet. Turkey has the Armenian

genocide. No country or people is innocent. I think the

countries that deny things that they should come to

terms with or have grossly inadequate methods of

doing so are insulting to those they have hurt. I think

Germany does the best job (that I have seen) of

respectfully and effectively coming to terms with the

past.