-->By RALPH PETERS

"November 6, 2003 -- GEN. Reinhard Guenzel, the head of Germany's Special Forces Command (KSK), got the hobnailed boot on Tuesday. His mistake? He expressed a bit too publicly the sort of Jew-hating sentiment tens of millions of Germans harbor privately.
In a letter to a vicious right-wing extremist who sits in Germany's parliament, the general praised the claim that Jews bear at least as much blame for the bloodshed of the Russian Revolution as Germans do for the Holocaust.

Next, we'll hear from Berlin how Jews planned the Holocaust all along. Just as we hear that Israel is the only terrorist state in the Middle East and that Palestinian suicide bombers who butcher women and children are freedom fighters.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's flacks have begun their damage-control effort, insisting that the general's views are rare and isolated. Bull. I lived in Germany for 10 years while serving in the U.S. Army. I speak German. My family's bloodlines are half German. And because of all that, the Germans among whom I lived assumed I shared their bigotry and, eventually, spilled their guts.

It wasn't pretty.

Of course, there are good Germans. Plenty of them. But they live in Philadelphia, not Frankfurt. They or their ancestors all left Germany by 1938. Those who stayed didn't just support Hitler - they loved him and fought for him to the bitter end.

The whopping difference between the Allied occupation of Germany and our occupation of Iraq is that the overwhelming majority of Iraqis welcomed their liberation. We had to force freedom and democracy on the Germans at gunpoint.



They'll never forgive us - no more than they'll forgive Jews for surviving the Holocaust, making a success of Israel against all odds and enriching the United States in virtually every field of human endeavor.

And Germany? In the 19th and early 20th century, German-speaking countries led the world in culture and science. Then they killed or drove away their Jews. The result? Germany's greatest contributions to world culture since 1945 have been Milli Vanilli and Gummi Bears.

What about the charge that the terror in the wake of the Russian Revolution was the work of Jews? Like so many of the Big Lies"made in Germany," there's a tiny grain of truth in it. Yes, Jewish subjects of the Czar played a prominent role in the Russian Revolution. Had I suffered as horribly as Jews suffered under the Romanovs, I'd like to think that I would have been a revolutionary, too.

But Lenin wasn't a Jew. Stalin wasn't a Jew. And just by the way: Hitler, Himmler & Co. weren't Jewish, either, although I fully expect a revisionist historian from Munich or Marburg to argue that they were all secretly manipulated by the International Jewish Banking Conspiracy and guided by the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

In Germany today, there's an utterly repulsive movement - ranging from such dreary literary"stars" as Guenter Grass down to Herr Meier behind the wheel of his Opel - to shift the blame for World War II atrocities away from Germany and to insist that the Allies were equally evil.

Tell it to the ghosts of Auschwitz. And Babi Yar. And Warsaw. And, for that matter, Malmedy.

The German resistance? Almost as big a lie as the denial of the Holocaust. Count von Stauffenberg and his fellow aristocrats, whose inept attempt to kill Hitler with a bomb in 1944 is forever cited as an example of German courage, never lifted a finger against the Nazi regime until the Red Army closed in on their hereditary lands in East Prussia. They weren't fighting for high ideals. They were defending their real estate.

The only thing most Germans regretted was that they lost.

And now we hear that it's high time for an end to German guilt, that the present generation had nothing to do with the Holocaust, that Germany paid its dues for its misdeed and, anyway, it was all a long time ago.

Sorry, Fritz. It wasn't long ago. Holocaust survivors just had a reunion in Washington, D.C. When the wind's just right, we can still smell the smoke of the ovens.

And let's not forget that the Third Reich was supposed to last a thousand years. There's no reason why German guilt shouldn't last 500. That's a 50 percent discount.

Oh, sure, making anti-Semitic remarks is a crime in today's Germany. But anti-Israeli remarks are just fine. You've merely got to choose your words carefully. Don't say the J-word. Talk about"Zionists" instead.

The truth is that we're still so close to the Holocaust that, despite all the books, films and debates, we still have not come to grips with just how much the Germans destroyed. The annihilation of the great Jewish cultures and populations of Europe's heartland may have been the single most tragic loss in human history.

What is to be done?

For a start, don't buy German products. The boycott of French wine sent a strong message, but if Americans stopped buying Mercedes, BMWs, Audis and Volkswagens, it would really hurt.

Anyway, German cars of recent vintage have become a lot like the Germans themselves - grossly overrated and unreliable. Let Gen. Guenzel buy one.

Ralph Peters' latest book is"Beyond Baghdad: Postmodern War and Peace.""

Quelle: www.nypost.com

Tjaja soso das enken also vereinzelte Amis über uns? Der Typ hat doch nicht mehr alle Steine auf der Schleuder. Nunja aber schauen wir uns mal die Reaktionen auf diese Hasskolumne an:

November 10, 2003 -- Ralph Peters was totally wrong on his assault on Germany ("Canned Kraut," Opinion, Nov. 6). Was this diatribe started by the remarks of one general? Millions of Germans were maligned.
When will Peters write about the crimes of others against American Indians, or even the cities of Dresden and Hiroshima? How about comments about the genocide of the Armenians or the rape of Nanking? The Post owes every German an apology for this blatantly racist column.
Gary Schoen
North Babylon



***

I was appalled when I read"Canned Kraut" by Ralph Peters, and by the fact The Post granted Peters a half page of its editorial section. Peters' venting mixed up facts and fiction, and apparently he has a very limited perspective on the issue.

Hate crimes are an issue all over the world - ignorant and generalizing views do not help to improve the situation, and The Post should be aware of this.
J.P. Hermans
Norwalk, Conn.

am surprised and, frankly, disgusted that The Post allowed such a piece of trash to disgrace its pages. This was neither journalism, nor an assessment of policy, nor an evaluation of a political situation.

It was a blanket condemnation of an entire society.
Eric Drouin
Seoul, Korea




***

Luckly, I am one American that speaks German, has visited Germany, has German friends and respects the German government more that Mr. Bush's America. No wonder the Europeans think we are jokes.
Jim Smith
Boston, Mass




***

This is the second time this year that the New York Post has allowed an anti-German, hate-filled article to appear in print. What is particularly disconcerting is that Ralph Peters admits that he has German blood running through his body. He is absolutely clueless as to how I and other Germans and German-Americans feel Jews and the Holocaust. Germany has paid close to $100 billion in war reparations and had a third of its land taken from it besides millions killed after the war by Allied forces.

Would The Post print opinions that slander Jews, blacks or Hispanics? The answer is a resounding no, because Abe Foxman and Al Sharpton and others would raise a ruckus that could be heard halfway around the world.

I would like to demand that The Post fire this writer and apologize to Germans and German-Americans. If no one else is allowed to put down, then Germans should not be singled out.
Karen Staub
Brooklyn




***

I applaud Ralph Peters' direct, distinctive and astute writing style. His articles are never a disappointment, nor is his courageous and passionate approach to the matter he writes about.

At the time of almost worldwide bashing of Israel and rising anti-Semitism, lending one's voice to the Jews means standing up against vicious hypocrisy and malicious distortion of facts.

It came as a surprise that Peters is half German, speaks German and lived in Germany for 10 years. It only gives weight to what he says in his article.
Olga Gurariy
Secaucus, N.J.




***

Ralph Peters dwells on bigotry. The truth is not all Germans were or are Nazis. Not all Germans were or are Nazi-sympathizers. Not all German-Americans were, are or ever will be Nazi-sympathizers.

Not all (American) Jews are Zionists or hate the French or Germans or their products, cars or luxury goods. There are many neo-Nazis and sympathizers all over the world and in the United States.

Many French, Polish, Russian, Hungarians, Italians and Irish have histories of being anti-Semitic before and after Hitler. Are we to boycott them, too? How about just boycotting bigotry in general?
Teri Bollweg
Long Beach




***

A military officer writes a letter, and we have to get another history lesson about the Holocaust and Nazi Germany. I have news for Peters, maybe these two Europeans might know more about the Russian Revolution than he does.

Why not go through the mail of all generals in foreign countries and see what they are up to?
Mark Schauer
Stony Point




***

As a Dane living in Germany I should be free of the inherited collective guilt that according to Ralph Peters affect every German man, woman and child for the next 500 years.

Although I was born many years after the Second World War, I should, however, according to Peters' distorted logic, be able to take full responsibility for the heroic acts of the resistance fighters who risked their own lives bringing the entire Jewish population of Denmark to safety in Sweden. I do not intend to do so. However much I may admire their courage, that heroism was theirs not mine.

Likewise the actions of Germany during the Second World War should in no way reflect on any German born after the war.
Lars Gredsted
Heidelberg, Germany

Sieht so aus als hätten wenigstens die Leser dieses Herren noch etwas verstand.
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