“The Germans are not good at controlling their emotions. They have a hysterical streak. You will notice that they throw themselves into uncontrolled passion when the slightest goes wrong. “
” Be on your guard. German is brutal when he wins, but whining and feeling sorry for himself when he loses. “
” German think we are Aryan cousins, because on the outside, we are equal, but the more you delve into it German soul, the more differences you will find. “
The quotations come from the British Foreign Ministry’s instruction that every English soldier who would go out in Germany at the end of the war was provided with.
On reseguiders way describes the both the political system – the Gestapo, SS, etc. – the German mentality and rivers’ length. And ends with the obligatory phrase book:
I beg your pardon. Hands up! Ein Wiener Schnitzel bitte.
The little red book that last Christmas was translated into German is still on Der Spiegel’s bestseller list. It is not just an absurd laughter mirror where stereotypes run amok, but also a chronicle of what the Allies would actually meet in the defeated Germany.
“The Germans will be emaciated and malnourished, tired and pleading, but they have themselves to blame. Be a gentleman – but never become sentimental. “
This weekend commemorated the war.
But the fight over what to call the day is still ongoing. Day of liberation? Capitulation – Catharsis – or Conquerors?
In Sweden we say that celebrated peace. But for the rest of Europe is peace more than to throw confetti at each other on Kungsgatan. Both morally and materially world lay in tatters. There was no one who did not have blood on their hands. In Europe, zero hour.
Get to remember how the chess conditioned by his conscience. Most places prefer memories to oblivion compost – or any sealed archives. Full madness the idea of sending people to concentration camps would have been impossible to implement without sound, well, zealous collaboration of a headless Europe.
There is much difference between being comfortable, coward and terrified. Moral courage is not innate, it is a skill you need to practice. The exceptionally well-made French TV series “A little French town” (the third season now broadcast on SVT 2) tells his little.
Those who converted from Nazism to Stalinism got more to eat. If you cut away the swastika flag was red.
Like the neutrality and non-alignment of some regarded as clever survival strategy, perceived the other as a forever chafing shame. A painful reminder pragmatic: What did I do? Nothing!
It’s always the victors , who writes the story.
If I want to be a winner should I listen to them. But if I want to become an open and complete person, I must also understand how the loser thought. And think about the strange incomprehensible: the traveling monument and write history without talking about women.
I’m thinking here of the German Trümmerfrauen .
which after the war was in the scrap and ash and cleared up in the ruins. Those with their bare hands rocks sorted into different buckets. Who moved the scrap, cleaned, dragged and ripped.
Just in Berlin is about 75 million cubic meters of debris and ruins. This represents a five-meter high and 30 meter wide dyke that would extend all the way between Cologne and Berlin (47 mil) – if you got the idea to pour it out again.
Forget the excavators, they came first in the early 50s. Forget the men, they were either killed or captured – one-legged, drunken and traumatized.
So what is Die Trümmerfrauen – losers, victims or heroines?
has long been clear, they were prey. When the liberators came to hear everything the occupying powers. The whole of Berlin was turned into a free brothel. In the days came Miriam Gebhardt’s book “Als die Soldaten Kamen” (When the soldiers came) and took from us the last delusion; that there were only Russians raped. From all German women would Germanic pride banked, with the help of the Patriarchate’s main weapon: sexual violence.
How will Die Trümmerfrauen to celebrate “peace”?
In the Grunewald district of western Berlin is a retirement home. On Tuesdays meet some of them there – and gymnastics. If I want I can be on jumpan and eating sausage with Sauerkraut afterwards.
I want. But I’m afraid. I am afraid of the pain and the smells.
I know they swept the vagina with Lysol, a strong detergent, to the occupying powers would think they had venereal diseases.
I know that medical assistants fighters. How to wash correctly someone who can not take in? Whose body carries memories that no one has spoken about? How do you tell the pain victories think that they themselves to blame for?
I take joined by my colleague from the Irish Times. Our neutral heritage – supposedly or not – is a kind of entry ticket. Moreover, usually German grannies appreciate well-bred young men. And Silvia Sommerlath.
It is April and everything is bright green when we park the bikes at Hertha Strasse.
Nine ladies in their 90s , sitting on chairs and waiting on us. Some see, others hear, most can go passably. Frau Adly leads the group, it costs $ 20 to join and they are placed in the pig. Once a year, draining it on and treat themselves to Christmas lunch and a small Christmas gift. She sits on the disc by Johann Strauss and begins its imaginative instructions on how to move the body.
We stretches of arms – up – and fall – down – that airplane in the Alps, up and down, or currency, she said.
You should meet with the enemy under the chin, she continues, so this – and so wielding the its brown mottled fists in the air as the Strauss operetta will sound from the speaker, Wienerblut – smocking, Wienerblut – smack.
I’m bursting with tenderness, glances at the Irish Times, he sits on the chair and smockar with – with noticeably shiny look.
Germany spends millions Statues and memorials. Having built up Berlin 1945 provides no supplementary pension. These ladies do not get invited to some ceremonies. When the rent is paid, they have a femtiolapp left a day.
Either you eat or take the bus, says Frau Adly.
Do you speak ever of “peace”, I ask. And get no answer.
We were defeated. We sat on the ground and sorted rocks, says Frau Görlitz We are doing the best they can. You try to forget.
Those who converted from Nazism to Stalinism had more to eat. If you cut away the swastika flag was red.
I will never condemn a young man, says Frau Kopitz. When you’re young, you are passionate and thoughtless. Not even wise people saw for what was coming.
While they are trying to forget about fighting world to remember.
When Margot Wallström feminist foreign policy sometimes maligned, sometimes hailed, it is worth think of the Die Trümmerfrauen .
When Merkel puts down his wreath and Putin running their missiles over Red Square, the “Day of Peace”, I’ll do it.
I will never be able to hear Strauss Operetta – without smiling.
Lotta Lundberg is a writer, columnist and recurring SvD employee, residing in Berlin. Her latest novel “Hour Zero” came out last fall.
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