Germans want apology

Romero

Romero

Active member
I was reading a newspaper the other day, and apparently the Germans want Queen Elizabeth, who will be in Germany on a royal tour, to apologise for the Allied bombing of Dresden during WW2. What do you think?

I disagree. The Germans should apologise to Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, and France first, and then apologise for the the bombing of London during WW1.
 
here is a related article from the web

Do Mention the War?
The Queen will meet Horst Köhler again but apologies won't be offered

A British newspaper has alleged that the German government is putting pressure on Queen Elizabeth II to make a public apology for the firebombing of Dresden in 1945 when she visits Germany in November.

In the minds of many thousands of Britons, it is something they would never expect from the Germans. In fact, Brits have made a point of not doing it while in the company of Germans because of the sensitivity of the subject.

But now, with Queen Elizabeth II due in Germany next month on a state visit, it is alleged that the Germans are actively encouraging the monarch to disregard Basil Fawlty's advice and "do mention the war."

A report in the conservative British newspaper Daily Express suggests that the queen, who will have talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and President Horst Köhler during her trip in the first week of November, is being put under pressure by the German government to apologize for the firebombing of Dresden in 1945...

READ MORE
 
Oh how dumb... I would say, ya know what, that was in the past, something I can't change. And if saying a few little words is going to change that, then it isn't that big of a deal...

But that's just my opinion of course...YMMV
 
I want 1 too. For 100s of years of ocupation killing rape and rade, need I mention the black and tans and our famine?

Think we (Ireland) deserve one more.
 
So, what about US actions in My Lai in Vietnam? Or the Red Army in Eastern Germany? German troops on the eastern front? German troops on the Balkans? France in Indo China? Japan on Perl Harbour? US on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? The old Roman Empire in Europe and Africa?

How long back should we really apology for?

We live in a world gone mad a long time go, now back to Empire Earth!
 
As Japan has been extremely obstinate in even admitting to its numerous warcrimes of WW2, I don't think they deserve to have an appology for USA and Allied attrocities (much much much fewer than Japan's). If they'll fess up and admit to their own wrongdoing, it's only fair that the WW2 Allies do the same. Because Japan is so stubborn, the Allies will likely never have to worry about it. Japan asking for an apology would be hypocrisy.

Germany, on the other hand, has been very forthcoming and has offiicially appologized for virtually all of its attrocities -- and there are a lot of them. I think that giving them a "We're sorry too, Dresden was very bad of us." can't hurt, can it? Its one small case where the Allies committed itself to slaughtering non-combatant civilians enmasse and unnecessarily. Even if you buy into the Allies official versions of things and Dresden was a massive producer of military hardware for Germany ... why not take the opportunity to better relations with Germany anyway?

Mostly it would be conditional on whether Germany has made an official apology for the deliberate targetting of civilians with V1's, V2's and the London Blitz. If Britain and the USA do not consider any of their actions in the war to have been criminal, then the London Blitz and all the rest was 100% fine and just an acceptable part of the war.
 
I dont know....Very diffecult, espcially for me as a Jew. On one side it was a war crime. On the other side, its like an armed robber asking the police officer to apologize for shooting him... :? Dont know.
 
The Germans ran out of things to say about iraq so they they decide to go back a few decades and bring something up.
 
As a German who is fully aware of the failures and bloodstains in our history, I say this:

Requesting an apology for the bomb raid on Dresden is just ridiculous.
Of course, it was a terrible thing, IMHO terrible enough to be considered an atrocity, but it was wartime and it was us who started the war. Not to mention the holocaust, the atrocities on the Eastern front etc.


But if Elizabeth II apologizes for the bombing, then everbody will want apologies from anybody else and we all would be apologizing to someone all day long. No country is free of a bloody history, but history is the past and we are living now and the world is full of actual problems.

All we can and should do is to learn from mankind's history and avoid doing the same bad things again.
 
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