Reflect on this. Most countries erect memorials to fallen soldiers, politicians or some particular, usually positive, event. Rarely, if ever, are memorials put in place to remember something "bad" or a blot on a nation.
Germany is different. As it remembers the ascension of Hitler to power 75 years ago this week, the NY Times reports ["Germany Confronts Holocaust Legacy Anew"] that Germany is still erecting memorials to remember the country's dark Holocaust past - not only in relation to Jews [of whom some 6 million were murdered] but also gypsies and gays and lesbians:
"Most countries celebrate the best in their pasts. Germany unrelentingly promotes its worst.
The enormous Holocaust memorial that dominates a chunk of central Berlin was completed only after years of debate. But the building of monuments to the Nazi disgrace continues unabated.
On Monday, Germany’s minister of culture, Bernd Neumann, announced that construction could begin in Berlin on two monuments: one near the Reichstag, to the murdered Gypsies, known here as the Sinti and the Roma; and another not far from the Brandenburg Gate, to gays and lesbians killed in the Holocaust.
In November Germany broke ground on the long-delayed Topography of Terror center at the site of the former Gestapo and SS headquarters. And in October, a huge new exhibition opened at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. At the Dachau camp, outside Munich, a new visitor center is set to open this summer. The city of Erfurt is planning a museum dedicated to the crematoriums. There are currently two exhibitions about the role of the German railways in delivering millions to their deaths."
Germany is different. As it remembers the ascension of Hitler to power 75 years ago this week, the NY Times reports ["Germany Confronts Holocaust Legacy Anew"] that Germany is still erecting memorials to remember the country's dark Holocaust past - not only in relation to Jews [of whom some 6 million were murdered] but also gypsies and gays and lesbians:
"Most countries celebrate the best in their pasts. Germany unrelentingly promotes its worst.
The enormous Holocaust memorial that dominates a chunk of central Berlin was completed only after years of debate. But the building of monuments to the Nazi disgrace continues unabated.
On Monday, Germany’s minister of culture, Bernd Neumann, announced that construction could begin in Berlin on two monuments: one near the Reichstag, to the murdered Gypsies, known here as the Sinti and the Roma; and another not far from the Brandenburg Gate, to gays and lesbians killed in the Holocaust.
In November Germany broke ground on the long-delayed Topography of Terror center at the site of the former Gestapo and SS headquarters. And in October, a huge new exhibition opened at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. At the Dachau camp, outside Munich, a new visitor center is set to open this summer. The city of Erfurt is planning a museum dedicated to the crematoriums. There are currently two exhibitions about the role of the German railways in delivering millions to their deaths."
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