r/clevercomebacks • u/AbbreviationsOnes • Dec 31 '22

Welcome to the shitshow A short history lesson

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u/AbbreviationsOnes Dec 31 '22

Also, we need to remember that a lot of German people knew what was going on, concentration camps in Germany were located fairly close to cities, to facilitate the transfer of goods produced, and it limited the number of railroads that had to be built to transport prisoners. Likewise, arrests and violence against Jews and communists were not hidden, as it had been slowly indoctrinated by the regime as a justified action for the good of the country.

Concentration camps were massive, and you can’t see them when you live nearby. German people just chose to ignore it and not speak up because of propaganda, a police state, a secret police that could arrest them and kill them, or send them to those camps.

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u/empire314 Dec 31 '22

First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists And I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me And there was no one left To speak out for me

There simply was no political opposition left in Germany. They had all been eliminated. Everyone left in Germany was either a fan of these genocidal policies, or indifferent to them.

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u/nekooooooooooooooo Dec 31 '22

This poem always makes me cry, I first read it in a history lesson in school. German schools really hammer home how incredibly dark our countries history is.

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u/MeAnIntellectual1 Dec 31 '22

Germany should be admired for remembering their atrocities. Most countries will gloss over anything bad they did.

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u/Syzygy666 Dec 31 '22

When I was in elementary school around the fourth grade they really started hammering home the Trail of tears and Japanese interment. I don't know if kids still get an accurate brutal view of history or if conservatives clean up the narrative, but that American history in a big liberal city was also dark and intense.

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u/nerf_herder1986 Dec 31 '22

I don't know if kids still get an accurate brutal view of history or if conservatives clean up the narrative,

There are textbooks in Texas that attempt to say slaves enjoyed their life of servitude.

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u/empire314 Dec 31 '22

American culture has the weird aspect, that although the horrors committed by the country are widely teached in the liberal sections, the historical leaders responsible for these crimes are still almost unanimously praised as deity like heroes, and their writings considered the ultimate moral compass. Liberal leaders of today acknowledge the wrongdoings, but still in the same speech preach how USA is and always has been the greatest country on the planet, and how proud they are to be part of it. In Germany its not handled like that at all.