I was listening to a documentary on the radio this morning which discussed a new memorial being built around Berlin (I think). It's basically the size of two football fields and contains rows upon rows of tombstones - all differing heights - to represent the holocaust victims. As mentioned by an elderly eyewitness, it looks like a "small jungle" and that "the German youth of today probably wouldn't really understand the interpretation".
The fact is, World War 2 happened over 50 years ago, and we now have a generation of children around the world who are far removed from the 'fallout'. The guilt that Germans are still put through is now being pegged with the term "holocaust fatigue" - I can't imagine what it must be like to be a German child being taught the atrocities of the war, alongside alegbra and gym.
What do you guys think? Do we keep teaching and remembering the affects of WW2 with such vigor? Certainly when I was at school, we were taught WW2 in our history class, and never managed to venture further past the 20th century. Anything taught related to Anglo-Saxon history or the Industial Revolution, for example, was almost negligible in comparison.
Also, if memorials are to be built in Germany, then shouldn't the US be doing something equivalent for the Japanese? For sure, I've always felt the dropping of not one, but two atomic bombs, was a ridiculously exaggerated reaction to a wartime attack on Pearl Harbor.
The fact is, World War 2 happened over 50 years ago, and we now have a generation of children around the world who are far removed from the 'fallout'. The guilt that Germans are still put through is now being pegged with the term "holocaust fatigue" - I can't imagine what it must be like to be a German child being taught the atrocities of the war, alongside alegbra and gym.
What do you guys think? Do we keep teaching and remembering the affects of WW2 with such vigor? Certainly when I was at school, we were taught WW2 in our history class, and never managed to venture further past the 20th century. Anything taught related to Anglo-Saxon history or the Industial Revolution, for example, was almost negligible in comparison.
Also, if memorials are to be built in Germany, then shouldn't the US be doing something equivalent for the Japanese? For sure, I've always felt the dropping of not one, but two atomic bombs, was a ridiculously exaggerated reaction to a wartime attack on Pearl Harbor.