SS Officer who burned Hitler's body dies at 86.

[Dinner]

It seems the last reminents of the Nazi regime are dieing off. When the people who lived through the Nazi's war crimes die will we begin to forget the horrors they commited?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3187566.stm

[SlowwHand]

Hopefully not.

[JCG]

Not our generation, but probably sometime in the next one-two centuries they'll matter even less to everyday people....

[Jack_www]

Well there are some crazy people in the world that claim the Holocost never happened.

[GePap]

Most likely..when is the last time anyone cared a hoot about Luois XIV's campaing in the Palatine in the 1680's IIRC, which was noted in its time for the cruelty and horros shown to the local population (and this is back when people got cut up for public spectacle!)?

I think a better analogy though would be the Mongols..everyone will remember from history class how bad and nasty the Nazi's were, but the memories will have as much impact as those of the Mongol conquests.

[The Emperor Fabulous]

History will always remember the Holocaust...though in a historic rather than emotional way

EDIT: Or, see GePap's reply

[centrifuge]

Originally posted by GePap

I think a better analogy though would be the Mongols..everyone will remember from history class how bad and nasty the Nazi's were, but the memories will have as much impact as those of the Mongol conquests.

That is a true but unfortunate reality.

Younger generations will never understand what my grandparent's generation fought against....and just how truly heroic they were.

They accomplished more heroically, scientifically, socially, and historically than any other generation in the 20th century, probably the 19th as well.

[DaShi]

"Let my people go!"

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by centrifuge
They accomplished more heroically, scientifically, socially, and historically than any other generation in the 20th century, probably the 19th as well.

I don't know about that.

[Lancer]

I didn't know that Social Security performed cremations...

[GePap]

Originally posted by centrifuge


That is a true but unfortunate reality.

Younger generations will never understand what my grandparent's generation fought against....and just how truly heroic they were.

Heroic?

I don;t think a generation can be heoric. Million of people did what tey were told to do with diligence..some individuals did things heroically, but otherwise....

Those few humans that traveled hundread of miles on foot through terrible climates chasing prey animals.. that is just simply harder..and probalby more heroic.

Many generations beofre them lived through cataclismic events of unimaginable horrors greater than those that generation saw. There were at least 2 billion people when WW2 begun, and 60 million dead later, there were still 2 billion people: some areas saw great destruction, like Eastern Europe, and some saw none, like the US...

Compare that to some poor peasant that sees 50% of the local pop, and the pop. of all places aorund die off in just a few years, I mean, imagine the horror. It goes well beyond the modern experience, at least for people of the rich countries.

NO, generations aren't heroic.

[centrifuge]

Originally posted by GePap


Heroic?

Absolutely... I'd call fighting for the freedom of the world pretty damned heroic. Imagine being among the first invaders at Normandy, knowing that the odds are that you and/or most of the people around you will soon be facing certain death... but you still fight to your last breath, because of what it will mean for future generations. That my friend is heroism.

Originally posted by GePap
Those few humans that traveled hundread of miles on foot through terrible climates chasing prey animals.. that is just simply harder..and probalby more heroic.

Possibly, but those were completely different times, I'm assuming that you are talking about the onset of civilization? You can't hardly compare the two.

Originally posted by GePap
Compare that to some poor peasant that sees 50% of the local pop, and the pop. of all places aorund die off in just a few years, I mean, imagine the horror. It goes well beyond the modern experience, at least for people of the rich countries.

Ever heard of Hiroshima?

Originally posted by GePap
NO, generations aren't heroic.

I respectfully disagree.

[GePap]

Originally posted by centrifuge


Absolutely... I'd call fighting for the freedom of the world pretty damned heroic. Imagine being among the first invaders at Normandy, knowing that the odds are that you and/or most of the people around you will soon be facing certain death... but you still fight to your last breath, because of what it will mean for future generations. That my friend is heroism.

And so was fanatically fighting to the lastr man in the name of the Emperor and Bushido on some remote Jungle island, and the battles and carnage of the Eastern front humble almost everything in the west. 250,000 men attacked a limited front on June 6. Over 1 Million men attacked on a 500 MIle front at the end of June, called Bagration. IN fact the vast majority of the human baings that died between 1939 and 1945 dide in fights bnetween two dictatorships of different sorts. Though people in the US forget this simple irrefutable fact.

Possibly, but those were completely different times, I'm assuming that you are talking about the onset of civilization? You can't hardly compare the two.

Why? Two side of the Human experience.

Ever heard of Hiroshima?

Or Tokyo, March 1945? What about Baghdad in the 1280's, were the MOngols put 80,000 people to the sword and burned down the city, or what about eery other city razed after defense was put up. MOre people, more dead. Simple principle....Oh, and it was the bad guys that got Hiroshima, not the "heroic" generation.

I respectfully disagree.

Go ahead, your perogative.

[centrifuge]

GePap,

I fear that you are arguing just for the sake of argument,

...not my style.

...I never said that it was just the Americans that were heroic.

...in addition if you read my original post, you would see that I said "of the 20th century and probably the 19th."

[GePap]

Actually, the whole "greatest generation" monicker ukrs me. Soldiers in WW2 were no braver than soldiers through countless campaigns. The principle of scale, which is what separates WW2 from most other wars, is an end result of socio-ecnomic factors, and has no moral significance. And as brutish as the Nazi's were, they sadly rank among, and not far above, the countless cruel conqerors of the world that history has seen: again, only scale comes. And as always, most people DID NOT die from freedom, but for pride and nationalism and all the other base emotins that usually droive most young men to their deaths under the commands of older men.