Flippanarchy

It's understandable that some of the older generations who most likely lived through the occupation of Denmark wouldn't be the biggest fans of Germany. I remember as a child watching a news coverage of an anniversary memorial of the 1864 battle at Dybbøl Mølle where Denmark was utterly humiliated by the Germans and there was this very old guy from the area who was old enough to have had family members harmed by in that battle and he had so much hatred for the Germans still. Meanwhile everybody else saw 1864 as a part of Danish history that we no longer held any grudges over.

I grew up in a Denmark where WW2 was talked about all the time in history classes, in radio shows and documentaries and movies. The through line in all of these different forums and medias is that there was a general push for understanding how these things can happen and how we have to see each other as human beings because the minute we dehumanize the one we don't like, we open ourselves up to becoming the very monster we hated.

I remember listening to a radio program back in the early 2010s where a holocaust survivor was talking about exactly this. That we cannot forget that the nazis were humans too and we cannot treat Hitler like he wasn't human. I held on to that program in my psyche hence forward.

Der Untergang is in my opinion the most important ww2 movie ever made for that exact reason.

And this is also the difference between how Europe and especially Germany and eastern Europe portrays ww2 vs how America portrays it in media.

America always makes movies about how they are the heroes with big gun, noble soldiers who sacrifices their lives for others. Band of Brothers is an amazing show and I love it to death.

But European ww2 movies are about the human soul in crisis and in conflict with itself. The Germans have always shown a very unique and rare grace about that war and how they portrays it. It is always raw, honest and thought provoking to watch their war movies. Also their post war movies. Eastern Europeans also have a very raw and honest take on the war as its biggest victims. Theirs is a story of immense pain and the destruction of innocence. How it makes you a monster in the end if you don't find the strength to withstand it. Come and See is a great example of that.

But yeah, when it comes to the Germans they have taken responsibility in way no other nation has and they are not fucking around with that shit. There is also the fact that they managed to rebuild their nation from rubble both figuratively and literally and become the strongest economy in Europe. That is impressive. They have been humble and held on to the concept of responsibility with an iron grip for all the years I have been alive and they have suffered in their own right for what they did to Europe. In 8th grade my class read a novel about German refugees post ww2 and how they were treated in Denmark. The author was invited to my school to have a q and a with my class which was very eye opening for 14 year old me. Movies have been made in more recent decades about the suffering of the German refugees. There is a part of the cemetery in my town that is a dedicated memorial to German refugees who died here.

The tone towards the Germans has been a gradual, earned shift from hatred and hurt to acceptance and friendship because we were all willing to look at the full picture of that war and acknowledge the humanity in everybody regardless of nationality and ethnicity. I have walked the ruins of Auschwitz and Birkenau and visited Schindlers' factory as part of my education. I have read books, seen movies, documentaries and listened to witness testimonies. My dad remembers the day we were freed from the German occupation. People running the streets with our flag and yelling we are free we are free.

In Denmark we have acknowledged our own resistance against the Germans and our cooperation or even collaborations with the Germans during the occupation and the terribly fine line we had to balance too keep them happy while still holding on to our values as a nation. We helped many many jews escape to Sweden. Some delivered them to the Germans. Some died for our freedom, others gave it away willingly for profit or safety. It is never simple. My Mother in law's grandfather was a policeman. He and his colleagues were captured by the Germans and sent to concentration camps where they were forced to burn dead jews in ovens. Those who survived were returned to Denmark after the war and they were never the same.

Germany today is not Germany in the 40s. Most of us in Europe experienced a complex trauma where we both did good and bad things during and after the war. Every nation's experience was similar but different in small or big ways. It was the willingness to forgive and build bridges between us that changed things for the better and laid the groundwork for a Dane like me being able to defend my German neighbors today.

I genuinely hold no grudges against Germany. I see nazi Germany and Germany-Germany as two differnet things. They are not perfect. No nation is, but their willingness to do better and take responsibility and change is something they don't get enough credit for. To come out on top like they have, a much more principled and reflected nation that has been a net positive for Europe the past many decades is absolutely awe inspiring.

And while America did their part in the war and definitely deserve their praise for that, they have not reflected at all on anything in the decades since, but gassed themselves up to believe they are the greatest nation on earth, often neglecting to remember that overcoming the nazi regime was a united effort from multiple nations and not just one.