The good thing though was that I never forgot my reply and that it is still something I stand by, something I can hold on to. And thank God I did not realize the queer notion that might have been implied at the time, like I might be the one to defend or even represent something so terrible.
It was back in 1987 and I was an exchange student in Texas. I had been up for almost 24 hours and was already beyond tired, when I was confronted by the thing I had been dreading. Almost the first thing my host parents told me was that according to them Hitler hadn't been that bad and that they'd rather had that the Americans would have fought Stalin instead. Now, shortly before I had learned about the Nazis' totalitarian grip of every aspect of life, especially on education. How they would immediately start to impliment their ideology in the minds of the young.
And this is and was my reply to not only my host parents, but in a way to the American people:
I would like to thank you and the American people. I'm so grateful that you've risked and sacrificed the lives of your sons and daughters to free Germany of this terrible ideology. I do not believe that we, Germans, could have done this ourselves. And I'm taking this very personally for I'm sure I would not have existed if it had prevailed. I do not mean this in a physical way but I fear that I would not have been the person I am. The Nazis presented you with this one choice either they would kill you or you had to succumb to their ideology. Since I do not consider myself to be brave or courageous I suppose I would have succumbed. I would not have been what I consider to be myself. So for my freedom and my being I have to thank you.
They never bothered to address this issue again.
Only later I learned about this movie but somehow Anton Walbrook, who allegedly wrote this speech himself, hits a similar point.
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