Obituaries for Nazis?

[Kellanved]

--snip
Angry German diplomats are protesting against a decision by the country's foreign minister to ban the publication of fawning official obituaries of colleagues with Nazi pasts.

In a ruling that has dismayed senior ambassadors, Joschka Fischer has put a stop to "honorific" obituaries after the publication of one that glorified a diplomat who was also a convicted war criminal.

The obituary, published in an official foreign ministry communiqué, lauded Franz Nüsslein for his "services to the country", only for it to be subsequently revealed that he had spent 20 years in prison for his role as a senior Nazi prosecutor in occupied Czechoslovakia.

Highly embarrassed, Mr Fischer, a Green Party member and former radical who is proud of his strong anti-fascist credentials, ordered that from then on, deceased foreign office staff should have nothing more than a brief death notice outlining the posts they held.


..
--snap
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/04/03/wgerm03.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/04/03/ixworld.html
IMHO: no way. The fact that it caused an outrage in the German RW camp, is reason for even greater outrage IMHO. A nazi is a nazi and will always be a nazi.

Edit: replaced the MSN article with a telegraph one about the same incident

[LiberalVoice]

1. Well just a thought...

I won't say "A nazi is a nazi and will always be a nazi." because it makes me about as open minded as Delay. Obviously I hate everything they stand for but I won't throw the idea that people can change out the window.

[Kellanved]

2. To some degree I agree.

The situation irks me nonetheless. After 60 years, a minister finally has the guts to stop the Nazi tradition the ministry is in. And instead of the applause deserved, the media rails against it. (to their defense: they have switched sides during the past week).

The absurd thing is: the very people now crying bloody murder for the dishonoring of diplomats who "weren't nazis despite being members int the nazi party", were very quick about demoting all eastern German diplomats.
It may just be me, but the implied statement that Nazi diplomats were better than communist diplomats just reeks of hypocrisy.

[Xithras]

3. Depends on what kind of Nazi they were.

In WWII Germany, you had to join the Nazi party to hold any kind of decent job, so the country was filled with "paper-Nazi's" who had nothing to do with the party at all. History has clearly recognized this fact and most of these rank and file Nazi's were never persecuted for their party affiliation.

High ranking Nazi party members, SS, and other tools of Nazi power don't deserve any kind of public respect or obituary.

High ranking Nazi's who participated in the post-War government should get obituaries giving whatever respect they deserve for their post-war roles, but those obituaries should certainly point out their crimes and should never glorify their pre and wartime achievements.

Rank and file Nazi's should be treated just like any other German citizen. When the Nazi's walked into the schools and told the teachers "Sign these membership forms or we'll execute you", the teachers had little choice in the matter and became paper Nazi's. They shouldn't be punished for that.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

4. Good point. I agree with that.

[Kellanved]

5. I don't see that

That is the same as the difference between the SS and the Wehrmacht (for instance the recently honored German major was incorrectly called a nazi by the English media). It might have been beneficial for the career to join the party, the fact remains unchanged: joining the party made them "real" Nazis. While there were a few Nazi members "redeeming" themselves (Schindler, for example), most were just filthy Nazis - being a nazi for the career's sake doesn't make it less filthy.
It is an old battle between the left/right camps in Germany. The dispute started with the RW Chancellor Adenauer allowing the nazi Globke in his cabinet. To this day, the CDU (not the CSU) and the FDP have to distance themselves from their Nazi past.


I do not believe that former nazi members from the foreign service should receive full honors. Especially not if that honors are denied to former east German diplomats.

[Xithras]

6. But it often wasn't just about "advancing your career".

Again, I'll cite teachers because I am one and can sympathize with their plight.

When the brownshirts walked onto a campus to make the teachers register as Nazi's, it wasn't a simple matter of losing your job if you refused. By refusing, you became an identified enemy of the state and could be imprisoned, tortured, or even killed. I've read of many cases of teachers who did indeed refuse to join the party at first, but who gave in and swore allegience after being picked up and threatened, beaten, and questioned for days on end about their opposition to the Nazi party (If you refused them, their reasoning was that you must be an enemy sympathizer). Most gave in and swore allegience just to put it to an end...it was little more than a signature and a few meaningless words to them. Those that stood on their morals and continued to refuse simply disappeared. After the war ended it was discovered that most went to the concentration camps with the other "dissidents and undesireables".

You want me to condemn someone because they didn't want to die? I don't think so. I'll reserve my hatred for the SS and the Nazi politico's who made the system function.

[Kellanved]

7. I don't think so

Yes, people were coerced to join organizations affiliated with the Nazis, and people were drafted into the SS.
The diplomats in question however, include war criminals. Also, it seems that they helped other Nazi party members after the war.

And I have to renew my point: if a former Nazi membership is no problem, then why is a former GDR SED membership?