Word: holocaustic
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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During his speech, Jenninger said, he tried to reach the youth of West Germany by describing the horrors of the Holocaust and explaining how a civilized nation could descend to sheer barbarism. "And when it got so bad, as it was in November 1938, people could still say, using the words of a contemporary--'What is it to us? Look away if it terrifies you, it is not our fate,'" he said...
Snyder's and Jenninger's remarks offended many people--but they spoke of ugly, abhorrent deeds that actually happened. Blacks were forced to breed by their masters, and the German attitude toward Hitler and the Jews facilitated the Holocaust. Although the truth is often unpleasant, it is too important to be revised and sensitized to the needs of everyone who happens to be within earshot...
Many Germans felt that Hitler's Third Reich would bring glory to their nation. Many Germans felt that annihilating the Jews was warranted and gladly took part in the insane assaults upon their fellow citizens. Many ignored the Holocaust completely while others remained fearfully silent...
Despite the more callous aspects of his speech, Jenninger hoped to deal candidly with the reasons why Germans--with barely a peep of protest--allowed Hitler to wage a war on humanity. If so, Jenninger recognized that it is not enough to remember that the Holocaust happened. It is necessary to ask how and why it happened so that such a tragedy may never recur...
...sadly, the condemnation of Jenninger's remarks clouds his message and allows the millions of Europeans who sat silently by during the Holocaust to escape the blame of history. It is a cowardly retreat to a position of moral comfort--where it is easy to believe that the Holocaust was the creation of a single madman and his henchmen. The Holocaust was more than the sick dream of a deranged dictator--it was the cheap, dark side of collective human nature unleashed...