 I don't know that Germans do get embarassed every time someone brings up Hitler, it is a part of history that is not pretty, each country goverment has had opressors, dictators.
I have known Germans, who didn't get embarassed, and some who felt annoyed that as a race they are still having to take the blame for Hitler.
While I agree that there were people who supported him others who worked with underground to oppose him and others who were trapped by circumsances, others who tried to help even when they were not working with the underground. some by hiding Jews, others by trying to help them escape.
The USA has Washington, it is just that 200 years ago it was easier to hide the fact that we had a leader who was attempting to commit genocide, then of course there is Andrew Jackson, and his attempts to eliminate the Native Americans as well.
Before anyone jumps all over me about George Washington, the very Native American tribe who sent food to his troops at Valley Forge, are the ones he tried to kill. First he had their crops burned so they were being starved out, when that was too slow, he then had blankets infected with small pox, sent to the tribe as a "gift"
This was something that was reported on the History channel one of the mini series they ran, and then said where the documentation could be found from Washington's letters.
So maybe the Germans get embarassed or maybe they feel akward because they are still being colored by the actions of one man who died 60 years ago.
There was Papa Doc, in Haiti, and Idi Amin in Uganda, there have been murderous dictators for generations, unfortunately Hitler happend at the right time and place, that it created a stigma, yet Hitler was not the only one who tried for worlk conquest, Napolean did, the Italians are not being held accountable for those despots that ruled in Rome,
If there is embarassment or other issues over Hitler on level of a race for a specific country, it is due to the fact that for some reason, we are not still blaming Americans for George Washington's and Andrew Jackson's attempts at genocide, we are not blaming the Haitians for Papa Doc, We don't say that all French are power mad and blame them for Napoleon, nor are we pointed fingers at the French for those who were commiting whole sale murders during the French revolution, so why blame all Germans for Hitler?
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