I’ve been in Berlin for the past few days, having a great
time. But also a bit bleak, it’s hard to be in Berlin without
seeing the awful German history of the 20th century. The Holocaust,
the division of Berlin, the Stasi, the people murdered trying to cross
the Wall. It’s inescapable.
What I admire is how directly the German state seems to engage
with its evil history. There are museums and monuments everywhere,
from small plaques at the former homes of Jews who were deported and
murdered to reminders of the Wall to state funded museums like the Topography of Terror.
The tone of the presentations (at least in English translation)
is forthright and neutral. So all you see is an unvarnished
explanation of how the Third
Reich inventoried and killed millions of people. No attempt to explain
or contextualize the act,
certainly not to justify it, not even color commentary on how horrible
it was. Just meticulous, detailed documentation of the terrible crimes
of the Holocaust.
It feels like an honest attempt to understand and account for the
past crimes of German governments. By presenting things so directly
it becomes impossible to explain it away as some aberrant past, some
temporary mania, the inexplicable actions of others. They are saying
“Here are the facts of our history. Never forget.”
I’d like to see a similarly forthright American account of some
the worst parts of our history. The genocide of the Native Americans,
the importation and enslavement of Africans, the Civil War (on both
sides). There’s too much explanation and justification in our
historical narrative, not enough simple accounting of the evils in
our past.
