[siber]

I remember when I was younger, we went to meet a German family that was in contact with my mother. We stayed with them for 2 weeks but were very confused why the grandfather wouldn't talk with us. As we were preparing to leave, he came out to us, sobbing. He explained in broken English that he thought that we, as English people, would hate him because he'd fought in the Wehrmacht in WWII. He couldn't understand why we were being so nice to him and his family - he had killed British soldiers, possibly my own family members.

We explained to him that members of our family had killed German soldiers and civilians in WWII, just as he had. He then confessed to have belonged to the Nazi party. We asked whether he knew about Hitler's attrocities (you know what I mean). He didn't. He had just followed the crowd and the propaganda and the pressure from the government unquestioningly. He even relayed that he was arrested at the front line and investigated by the Gestapo for his criticism of the SS...

The point is, just because German troops served on the 'wrong' side, it doesn't necessarily mean they were evil people, lesser men or somehow unchivilrous. The majority of German servicemen in WWII were simply fighting for their country, just as soldiers of many other nations were. They killed Englishmen, we killed Germans. The Luftwaffe flattened Coventry. The RAF flattened Dresden. U-boats sank ships. Ships sank u-boats. It was war.

Aside from those directly involved in Hitler's attrocities (the leadership, the SS and members of the Gestapo etc.) I do not feel any hatred for Germany. For the most part, the average German suffered just as much as the average Englishman.

As for playing SH3, I feel that we should all experience the realities of war. I do think that it's poigniant that upon being sunk, the game returns direct to the 'death' screen. This makes it very clear how suddenly u-boat crew's lives were extinguished. This reminds me: 'If this was real, I would have just died...'

I always remember a quote in a Guestbook at Auschwitz: "If we forget the suffering of those [in the past], we must suffer again ourselves before we remember. We must remember..."