Getting public statements correct

Published by carolyn on Fri, 2017-09-29 13:43

By Carolyn Yeager

EVERYWHERE I AM READING THAT Alexander Gauland (above), a leader of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party in Germany, has said that Germany should be proud of what its military did in WWII. This gives quite a different impression than what Gauland actually said, which was that he specified 'soldiers'.

A current article by a Jew for the Australia Israel & Jewish Affairs Council is one of the few who gets it right and actually uses quotes rather than paraphrasing and twisting the meaning of what Gauland said. Shmuel Levin writes:

Leading AfD politician Alexander Gauland stated in the run up to the election that Germans "have the right to be proud of the achievements of the German soldiers in two world wars"

A full quote from Gauland's address to party members in Thuringia on Sept. 2:

“If the French are rightly proud of their emperor and the Britons of Nelson and Churchill, we have the right to be proud of the achievements of the German soldiers in two world wars.”

So when you read these essays, editorials and blogs decrying the AfD's praise of the “Nazi war machine,” do not fall for it, and perhaps even call it out for what it is: Fake News

It is my personal opinion that nothing about the German war effort in 1939-45 should be the object of shame, but I understand the climate created by the propaganda arm of the victorious allies along with organized Jewry, and also the laws established by the puppet Federal Republic of Germany created at that time, so I do not expect more. As it is, brave and highly capable German soldiers who fought for their nation lie in ignominy in unmarked graves, without a single monument erected to their sacrifice. At the very least, this disgraceful attitude taught to young Germans should be changed.

Comments

My father fought on the German side as a Foreign Volunteer, losing his life from wounds sustained on the the Eastern Front. As I grew up, learning what happened during and after the war, I learned to be proud of him and I will say this straight to anyones's face. Anyone. What has happened to the German people who were once so strong, proud and valiant? Pathetic.

Thanks for sharing, Joseph.

My Dublin born grandfather of English/Scottish descent on my mothers side landed on the beaches of Normandy at some point and ended up fighting Germans somewhere in France. 
 
The story goes told to me by my 76 year old aunt is that his unit was overrun and he was shot and wounded. He lay dying on the floor where a noble German soldier found him dying. Pictures of my aunt and her older sister when they were children had fallen out of his pocket which the German soldier acknowledged, the soldier saved his life by getting him to a POW camp where my grandfather Joseph survived. But the strange thing he said was, he could never recall how the pictures ended up there in the first place.
 
This was towards the end of the war I believe, as eventually he made it back to Belfast where my grandmother lived at the time. He was considered dead as nobody had heard from him for a while, anyway he turned up one night in the pouring rain and surprised everyone, so much he made my grandmother faint.
 
Anyway, as a person who was told much lies about National Socialist Germany growing up, I have come to realise they were justified in what they believed and stood for. And the bravery of the soldiers is unmacthed considering the odds they were up against, still to this day they try to destroy Germany's heroic legacy against Bolshevism/Communism which was the real enemy then and today.
 
Keep up the great work, Carolyn.
Gott mit uns.

As soon as I heard news of Gaulland's comment (correctly quoted) I thought it's about time. Anybody who has taken the trouble to learn about WW2 from the German side - that is not through a prism of war time propaganda that will evidently last forever - will know of the phenomenal bravery with which German soldiers fought and died to defend their homeland.
 
I was in Germany lately and was struck by the complete absence of WW2, or for that matter WW1, war memorials, while the lands of the victors are dotted with memorials. I remember seeing one memorial, and that was to the soldiers killed in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 - 71, the last war the Germans are allowed to feel any measure of national pride about. It's an absolute disgrace.
 
JM
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