| German-Jewish author Ralph Giordano wrote a book about the German way to suppress and to hide facts about the Holocaust, especially about the fact that leading Nazi figures continued to be leading figures in after-war Germany. He called it the Second Guilt. From the hundreds of thousands involved with the German annihilation machine only 150 received life sentences. Many of those convicted came free after a few months, many had not to start their sentence at all. The trials took place only decades after the crimes, so that the perpetrators could plead to be ill or to have a bad memory. Germany waited for more than 60 years to open the Nazi archives, so that the extent and the influence of former Nazi followers in after-war Germany would not be revealed. Last weekend, a neo-Nazi rally in Berlin was well protected by the police, and as usual, the same police was beating up protesters. This is the logical outcome of the soap opera called coming to terms with the past. |
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