Human Nature?

So I was looking at the local newspapers from where I used to live online and I came across this. What is it? It's an article, in Dutch, about how the opposition for the remembrance day tomorrow. Why? Two Jewish groups and a bunch of locals are angry because the German soldiers who are buried there are to be remembered and honoured too.  They have declared that doing this would disrespect the memory of the Dutch people that passed and that it would blur the line between the occupying forces and the occupied during the second world war.

So they're making a gross generalisation that every single German soldier in the second world war agreed one hundred percent with the occupation and with Hitler's methods and beliefs. And have declared that the death of these people is not sacrilege but good. Something which I cannot understand and which disgusts me utterly.

Fair enough, a lot of the misdoings  that occurred are things which cannot be forgiven - however, I do not, even for a second, believe that every single soldier was doing the things that they wanted to do.

Harry Patch, a first world war survivor, who has since passed, remembered the German soldiers on the English remembrance day - he visited the German cemetery and respected the dead. I think that takes a great deal of courage and demands a huge amount of respect.

These protests, on the other hand, do not. I think they are infuriating and disgusting. The people who are buried there still had families, many of whom will not have agreed with what was happening, and deserve a little respect. They were doing what they were required to do by the law at the time.

But do not mistake what I am saying here, I am not saying that what happened during the first world war is forgiveable, a great deal of atrocities happened. I am, however, attempting to say that not everyone believed what they were told and not everyone was 100% bad just because they were forced to do the things they did. There are many psychological theories about human nature that explain why the soldiers were able to do what they did.

And also remember that a large part of the death and work camps was run by the inmates themselves, they also sorted out the weak from the strong, the men from the women, children and elderly. Why? Because they thought it might help them survive or perhaps because they felt it was better for them to do it than the Germans that were working in the camps - not many survived to explain why. And those who did die are still remembered, respected and loved by any family that survived and by the millions - perhaps even billions of people - that remember the atrocities that occurred under Hitler's rule in Germany. Just because they did those jobs does not make them inhumane.

I hope I have explained myself clearly enough, I may not have done and you may misconstrue what I am saying, and if that is the case - please do send me a message. I would love to explain myself further to try and get you to understand my point of view (no, not trying to get you to agree, just to understand).