With all those holocaust memorials in Germany, the country is doing the exact opposite of keeping a low profile. You‘re probably thinking of Belgium, USA, Canada, Russia, Japan or the Ottoman Empire. Like, there are so many countries that committed genocides and trying to sweep it under the rug but that‘s simply not true for Germany. Germany has a guilt culture that some say is also problematic for different reasons.
Most of the perpetrators got away with it, though, by keeping a low profile. (Of course, they were all “properly denazified”, with official, rubber stamped and signed paperwork to “prove” it) The performative collective remembrance is merely an empty shell, and goes hand in hand with a justice system that has systematically and purposefully dragged its feet when it came to prosecute them. Only in the recent few years, a handful surviving accomplices were dragged to court, if they even were still able to stand trial.
Nazis have been on trial throughout the decades. The Nuremberg trials in particular were a huge media spectacle and Nazi officials were convicted. Yes, many got away with it and that‘s a huge injustice to the many victims but a lot more has been done prosecuting Nazis than perpetrators of any other genocide in history. Again, low profile is not true here.
Yes, there were spectacular show trials for the big wigs, but the large majority of the perpetrators (pretty much the entirety of public administration, and the “justice” system) were allowed to carry on as if nothing had happened. They even were allowed to train their successors. (which they did in their spirit) It really was (and still is) a disgrace. It’s really no surprise that the post WW2 German justice system is largely blind in the right eye.
That is a completely different conversation and has nothing to do with the initial argument, however. Most legal systems are blind on the right eye because laws largely exist to protect property, not human rights. It has nothing to do with failed denazification whatsoever. Many nazis making career later did so in other countries outside of Germany’s jurisdiction anyway. Germany didn’t sweep nazi scientists‘ and engineers‘ crimes under a rug, the allies did. Again, the holocaust was definitely not swept under a rug and you‘re drawing some wrong conclusions about the current state of the world I think.
It has a lot to do with failed denazification, because largely (minus a handful of very vile high profile individuals) the very same “justice” system that was administering Nazi injustices during the 3rd Reich did continue to operate just as if nothing had happened afterwards. It is no coincidence that it took until the 1960s for the first German war crimes trial to take place, because by then, a sufficiently high number of old Nazis in the justice system had retired to even make this possible.
With all those holocaust memorials in Germany, the country is doing the exact opposite of keeping a low profile. You‘re probably thinking of Belgium, USA, Canada, Russia, Japan or the Ottoman Empire. Like, there are so many countries that committed genocides and trying to sweep it under the rug but that‘s simply not true for Germany. Germany has a guilt culture that some say is also problematic for different reasons.
Most of the perpetrators got away with it, though, by keeping a low profile. (Of course, they were all “properly denazified”, with official, rubber stamped and signed paperwork to “prove” it) The performative collective remembrance is merely an empty shell, and goes hand in hand with a justice system that has systematically and purposefully dragged its feet when it came to prosecute them. Only in the recent few years, a handful surviving accomplices were dragged to court, if they even were still able to stand trial.
Nazis have been on trial throughout the decades. The Nuremberg trials in particular were a huge media spectacle and Nazi officials were convicted. Yes, many got away with it and that‘s a huge injustice to the many victims but a lot more has been done prosecuting Nazis than perpetrators of any other genocide in history. Again, low profile is not true here.
Yes, there were spectacular show trials for the big wigs, but the large majority of the perpetrators (pretty much the entirety of public administration, and the “justice” system) were allowed to carry on as if nothing had happened. They even were allowed to train their successors. (which they did in their spirit) It really was (and still is) a disgrace. It’s really no surprise that the post WW2 German justice system is largely blind in the right eye.
That is a completely different conversation and has nothing to do with the initial argument, however. Most legal systems are blind on the right eye because laws largely exist to protect property, not human rights. It has nothing to do with failed denazification whatsoever. Many nazis making career later did so in other countries outside of Germany’s jurisdiction anyway. Germany didn’t sweep nazi scientists‘ and engineers‘ crimes under a rug, the allies did. Again, the holocaust was definitely not swept under a rug and you‘re drawing some wrong conclusions about the current state of the world I think.
It has a lot to do with failed denazification, because largely (minus a handful of very vile high profile individuals) the very same “justice” system that was administering Nazi injustices during the 3rd Reich did continue to operate just as if nothing had happened afterwards. It is no coincidence that it took until the 1960s for the first German war crimes trial to take place, because by then, a sufficiently high number of old Nazis in the justice system had retired to even make this possible.