Date: Mon, 8 May 1995 17:42:33 -0500 Reply-To: H-NET List on German History Sender: H-NET List on German History From: H-GERMAN EDITOR Dan Rogers Subject: Victimization Submitted by: Roland Wagner It seems that the 50th anniversary commemorations are stimulating us to step outside our academic framework and to offer a few personal comments on the great events of the war and its aftermath. Personally I find the debate about whether V-E day marked liberation from Nazi tyranny or the beginning of oppression under the Soviets to be a rather silly false dichotomy. The answer seems obvious -- it was both. It is rather dismaying, after half a century, to see continuing pressure for what appears to be a simplified, "politically correct" framework to view the complex series of events of the war. Obviously there were millions of common people, non-combatants, who were victimized on both sides by the events during and after the war. The stories of all of these people should be grist for the mill of history and the social sciences. Should we really not feel moved by those who died at Dresden? Should we have no sympathy for an elderly veteran who immolates himself? Is it really necessary to continue demonizing human beings caught in the wheels of the great events of history? .