They are assuming responsibility for activities that they didn't participate in. Their ancestors were responsible for those actions, not the descendants. Furthermore, activities like these are nor unique to Germans or even Nazis. Other conquerors have been equivalent or surpassing in their destructiveness.
Vicious predatory murderers abound in the human species. That silly old Frank fart acts as if he single handedly must absolve his family of their guilt.
"They are assuming responsibility for activities that they didn't participate in. Their ancestors were responsible for those actions, not the descendants."
chops,
i haven't seen the entire film yet but the two i saw at the beginning were only great nieces. i have the sense that they enjoy being filmed despite claiming they're not direct descendants.
how would their lives have been changed if their great uncles hadn't been involved? they didn't even live in the same period their great uncles did.
What about family pride? Also a mistake? Family is actually the one group that we really are a part of
shareI think the Rainer Hoess story was the best example. I see it similar to survivor's guilt, where a person feels guilty for surviving a situation while others did not. In this case, it's their family line surviving while others did not due to the actions of their father or grandfather (the two great-nieces were more about having the family name and history tied to them than it was about guilt).
share@Chops-4
The fact is, any actions their ancestors committed still weighs heavily on them---especially since the descendants of the people the Nazis committed their atrocities on are still very much a part of the society they're in. Nothing "silly" about having to deal with the horrible things their Nazi ancestors did.