{"id":1078,"date":"2016-06-04T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-04T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chgs-blog.org\/?p=1078"},"modified":"2016-06-04T19:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-06-04T19:00:00","slug":"berlins-message-to-ankara-learn-from-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/berlins-message-to-ankara-learn-from-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlin\u2019s Message to Ankara: Learn From Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the occasion of the 40th<\/sup> anniversary of the end of World War II, on May 8th<\/sup> 1985, German President Richard von Weisz\u00e4cker addressed the country\u2019s parliament with the following words: \u201cAll of us, whether guilty or not, whether young or old, must accept the past. We are all affected by the consequences and liable for it. We Germans must look truth straight in the eye \u2013 without embellishment and without distortion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weisz\u00e4cker\u2019s speech became a milestone in\u00a0 the distinctively German process known as Vergangenheitsbew\u00e4ltigung<\/em> (a composite German word which can be best rendered in English\u00a0as the struggle to overcome or confront the [criminal] past.) Acknowledging the Holocaust and other atrocities committed by Germany during WWII was not an easy process. Weiz\u00e4cker\u2019s speech challenged persisting idealized or self-victimized national narratives, and it undermined citizens’ identification with their history.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Will a Turkish statesman ever deliver a similarly courageous pronouncement about the\u00a0 country\u2019s horrific past vis-\u00e0-vis the Armenian and other Christian minorities?<\/p>\n

\"1040659419\"The German Parliament\u2019s recent declaration<\/a> recognizing the genocide by its name might actually bring that moment a bit closer. This declaration was not fingerpointing nor blaming. It was, again, an example of self-reflection: it recognizes the\u00a0German\u00a0Reich’s complicity in the 1915-1918 events. \u201cThis is not a matter between Armenians and Turks,\u201d said the President of the Bundestag<\/em> in an interview after the historic declaration, \u201cit concerns us in Germany as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is also important to understand that Germany\u2019s declaration is about more than acknowledging the crime itself. The passage of time (more than a century) removes the actual victims, perpetrators and bystanders. The question, now, is how their descendants will deal with this divided history. In too many instances, we see that victim identities are passed on to subsequent generations while others will be condemned with the perpetrator stigma. In this respect, the German example is valuable for all, as it distinguishes clearly between guilt and responsibility. In listening to the statements of the German members of Parliament, I was reminded of how political theorist Hannah Arendt elucidated that distinction: \u201cWe are always held responsible for the sins of our fathers as we reap the rewards of their merits, but we are not guilty of their misdeeds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s declaration this week in the spirit of Vergangenheitsbew\u00e4ltigung,<\/em> provides guidance for a process through which societies can move from a divided past to a shared future. It also teaches that one can only step out of the dark shadow of the past by ceasing to deny the undeniable.<\/p>\n

Alejandro Baer is the Stephen Feinstein Chair and Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. He joined the University of Minnesota in 2012 and is an Associate Professor of Sociology.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II, on May 8th 1985, German President Richard von Weisz\u00e4cker addressed the country\u2019s parliament with the following words: \u201cAll of us, whether guilty or not, whether young or old, must accept the past. We are all affected by the consequences and liable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2081,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48824],"tags":[50991,52720,248,1538],"class_list":["post-1078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-director","tag-alejandro-baer","tag-armenian-genocide","tag-germany","tag-turkey"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}