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Seventy-five years ago today Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany leading to 12 years of horror, war and death. The interesting part of this Associate Press article marking the anniversary is 
the discussion on how Germany deals with its Nazi past. Unlike many other country's forced to surrender by military defeat, Germany accepts responsibility for it's actions during the Nazi era by including this history in the public school curriculum. According to the article "German students spend at least half a school year learning about Hitler's rise to power and the Third Reich, part of a concerted effort on the part of modern Germany to prevent history from repeating itself." Unlike it's axis partner Japan, the truth of Nazi atrocities are not hidden or left out of German text books, but are presented and discussed openly. The result of this German educational policy has ensured there is no myth perpetrated questioning it's WW 2 defeat like the one following the first world war.
(The photo above is of the Reichstag fire in 1933)
I think collectively the world never learns the lessons of history and the US is no different...historians study and publish it and the same old knuckleheads (from either party) get elected and do the same...or similar mistakes...I'm just a cynic i guess.
Posted by: Tim Agazio | February 02, 2008 at 05:45 PM
It is certainly true that if we do not learn the lesson of history, we are bound to repeat its mistakes... now if the United States could only do the same.
J
Posted by: Janice | February 02, 2008 at 01:26 PM