Response to "A thousand years will pass and the guilt of Germany will not be erased" -- Jessica

This is a difficult statement to agree or disagree with. In part, I believe this statement to be true, the horror of the holocaust will never be forgotten and the people of Germany will never be allowed to forget the terrible thing that their country has done. However, I disagree that the people of Germany should feel the guilt of those of the generations before them. However horrific and no matter the impact the holocaust had on the rest of the world, the generations of German people today are no more responsible for the holocaust than anyone else in the world, they should not bear the burden of their ancestors.

Though most people have the ‘forgive and forget’ mentality and have followed it through to an extent, I believe that the German people perhaps take more blame onto themselves than anyone else does and this is because they personally are ashamed of what their ancestors had done. There need not be more ‘fuel’ placed on the ‘flame’ of guilt that this country already possesses. So in part this statement is true, the guilt of the German people will not be erased until they are ready to forgive themselves and their ancestors for the mistakes that were made.

In conclusion, I both agree and disagree with this statement that “a thousand years will pass and the guilt of Germany will not be erased”, as it is true that the memory of the holocaust will be used for years to come as an example of what we as humanity should not do, however the German people should not individually be punished for what they did not personally do.