The funny thing is very few Americans understand how respected Hitler was in Germany when he was running for office. I don't know how many on ET had family from Germany during that time period besides Reardon and myself or how many of you actually have the opportunity to talk to Germans that lived there at that time. But Hitler was not seen as a lunatic or madman. But rather as a man that had a very genius way of getting Germany out of the depression they were in. At the time, he made no references to the Jews, or even foreign policy in general, he ran on a very strong economic platform. Even his first few years in office where most impressive. I know Arnold Swarzenagger made comments as to what a gifted orator Hitler was. My grandparents made similar comments. People really wanted to hear this man speak. He had ideas that were very progressive and big dreams. Btw, my mother has retold me the story many times of the bombing runs over Dresden close to where she lived. They would be eating dinner and then bomb sirens would start to go off. The first thing you did was turn off all the lights, and head to the basement. It was very important not to have any lights anywhere in or near your home as the American bombers would look for lights to where to drop the bombs. This happened almost on a daily basis. Quite an experience to go through as a 7 year old girl. It's unfortunate most Americans don't have any idea what a bomb siren sounds like or what it feels like to be attacked or not knowing if you will make it through the night. Freedom really is a great thing. Will we ever truly appreciate it? Probably not.
Result of Elections to The German Reichstag, 1919-1933 http://www.yadvashem.org/about_holocaust/documents/part1/doc6.html The Third Reich: Consolidation of Power ... The election of March 5 was the last held in Germany until after World War II. Although opposition parties were severely harassed, the NSDAP won only 43.9 percent of the vote. Nonetheless, with the help of political allies, Hitler presented the Reichstag with the proposal for an Enabling Act that, if passed by a two-thirds majority, would allow him to govern without parliament for four years. On March 23, the proposal was passed with the support of the Center Party and others. All Communists and some Social Democrats were prevented from voting. ... http://www.germanculture.com.ua/library/bl_third_reich.htm Reichstagswahl 05.03.1933 http://www.dhm.de/lemo/objekte/statistik/wa19333/index.html
I said it was comical only because it was not a 'fair' election. It is well known that Hitler never won the majority and basicaly lied and manipulated his way into power... As far as your own personal view. You're right in that you sound unreasonable, but I am not jewish and my family was not killed -- so its not right of me to judge your own feelings on the matter... For me though, its hard to justify the Dresden Firebombings, regardless of what their motives were for doing so or the fact that it was a succesful way of knocking down the German's morale. I simply cannot accept that it was neccesary to firebomb a heavily populated civilian city with barely any military presence whatsoever. And while I won't be and never have shed any tears for either the innocent Jews killed in the Holocaust or the innocent Germans killed in Dresden, my heart feels equally bad for both whenever I take the time to ponder what went on in that horrific period of fuck-ups we call history...
Since Vonnegut was aiming those remarks at the current admin, I wonder what, specifically, he finds so inhumane and unreasonable about the America of today?