I read the article you referenced and I thought it was poorly written and agenda-driven. I also roamed the web site--it's new and not very compelling--and found a brief bio of the guy who wrote it. His background did not have enough information to justify his take on Germany (oh, I forgot, he lives in Europe so he's an expert) and what credentials he did have did not justify his take on the German Volk, as he calls them.

That said, as a child of two Holocaust survivors (and whose family is either dead at the hands of the Nazis or scattered in pockets all over the world), I do have a knee-jerk reaction to Germans and, unfortunately, have yet to meet one whose buttons couldn't be pushed far enough to finally utter some kind of damning, implicating phrase that told me more than I wanted to know.

Not that I tried hard in pushing those buttons. It just seems that some of the Germans I have come in contact with (some very closely) are thin-skinned and prepared to spout philosophy much easier than others. Others seem blissfully ignorant of their incendiary views, as if it's okay to have them. While expressing dismay over their actions, they don't seem overly obliged to offer an apology.

I don't know what I expect at this point so I realize my family's background (by the way, my parents were Polish and the knee-jerking I feel extends to the Poles as well) implicates me as well. I want very much to forgive and look for some guidance in my faith--which I don't get; Jewish guilt extends far beyond one's mother--to get on with it. (From a purely commercialized standpoint, I want my faith to give me permission to buy a Mercedes and I have lust in my heart for BMWs.) But it's hard to let go of what my parents went through. My mother said "Schindler's List" was accurate but was about one-tenth of what she actually experienced. And I thought "Schindler's List" was pretty harrowing myself.


I think I'd like to give "The Pianist" a chance because Polanski is much more cerebral than Spielberg. But I thought "Schindler's List" was a remarlable undertaking nonetheless. And while Spielberg did try to show the humanity of certain Germans, I think Polanski--who was there--is a pragmatist whose films are nothing if not brutally honest. ("Bitter Moon" comes to mind as a film made by an auteur who couldn't care less what anyone else thinks of him.)