Lilwing, yes totally credible honey! My husbands office is FULL of things related to General Forrest and down on. Were going to see his grandpa next month so I will hear ALL kinds of stuff. Chris has a great picture of him, and something he wrote from the war which are in nice frames in our hallway. So I told him I wanted to get things from MY grandpa and put it next to him, he laughed. (like not next to my grandpa)

Yes we do have documentation on both sides of our families of whom we came from. Ive tried going back further with granparents, but my grandma was adopted so we dont know of her real parents.

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everything happens for a reason...

Any destruction to their reputation after WWI and WWII was well-deserved (and not misunderstood) in my opinion, and I'd gladly drain every single drop of German blood in my body if I could. They were the aggressors, not the victims.

The fact that nazis walk among us is to be pitied, not accepted.

It's good you wish to help restore their reputation, as I think the older generations have left the younger, guiltless generation a terrible burden to bear, but I don't think saying they were "misunderstood" will help you in that regard.

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all cultures had their bad sides too. my ancestors did some pretty disgusting things too.

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a wise man isn't always saved by his wisdom. just like a stupid man does not always do stupid things.

Having just been there, I think the Germans have displayed a great deal of courage in facing up to their past. In Berlin it almost seemed like self-flagellation at times. In fact despite their reputation as being rather dour, I liked the Germans a lot.

And Lilwing Vashti is right. Claiming the Germans have been "misunderstood" won't do them any favours. Most Germans wouldn't appreciate you saying that at all.

My brother was stationed there for several years. In fact, he was there (eyewitness) when the Berlin wall came down. He loved it there.

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Yeah Berlin was my favourite city in Europe. There is an incredible energy there. An energy that has almost nothing to do with the mighty dollar. I didn't see one person in a business suit the whole time I was there. It's laid back but there's incredibly high unemployment so everyone has plenty of time to party and do other things. A lot of it gets chanelled into art and music. Their unemployment benefits are so good that you can still have a decent standard of living without working. And Berlin is cheap. I bought a bottle of red wine for €1.50! And it was nice wine! That's an extreme example, but it really is an incredibly affordable place to visit compared with the rest of Europe.

Everyone seems to have German in em'.

The reason I don't really care (it can be interesting, though, so maybe I care in that sense) is because it's not *my* history in the literal sense. My history began on May 18, 1989 when I was born. The things my ancestors did doesn't haven't any bearing on my environmental upbringing. The way it matters is because their actions caused me to be born, and that's pretty much it

Lol dude why would you want to restore Germany's pride? You're an American citizen! If German citizens want to do that then great. My dad is from Italy and couldn't give a shit about pride for the nation of Italy, he knows we live in a vastly better country than Italy

Yeah WWII makes you wonder though, how can an entire country buy into such bullshit. But then again I'd be pretty pissed if I was living in Germany after WWI too and want to kick the Allies ass all over the place for being such dicks. Guess the scapegoating and being united in hate just helped with this

Probably because the US has more than half the number of Germans there are in Germany, lol

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"I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul"

Ancestry is interesting, but I avoid allowing it to define me.

~Sphinx

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You don't need eyes to see, you need vision. ~Faithless, Reverence.

That's wrong Vash. It gets me that people seem to think that every German living in Germany at the time of the wars supported the Nazis. They didn't. Don't forget that you could get executed for opposing the gov't at that time. My family were German, and so while living in Canada they were treated badly because even though my grandfather fought for Canada in the war and took a bullet for it, they still called him a Nazi sympathizer. Such bullshit. I'm proud of my German heritage, regardless of the war.

It's kind of like you Americans that opposed the invasion of Iraq. Don't you just f*cking hate it when people paint your whole nation with the brush of being bloodthirsty morons?

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Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. - Mohandas Gandhi

Thanks for saying that bluesummer. I didn't know quite how to put it, and I couldn't have said it any better.

I am also proud of my German heritage. Also my Native American heritage!

No one has any reason to be ashamed to be of any background/culture. Every single group of people on this earth has it's good and bad points. I actually called my ex's Grandmother ignorant in front of the whole family when she told me that my family was a bunch of Nazi sympathizers JUST BECAUSE we were German.

Be proud of who you are, but respect other people's culture as well.

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Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. - Mohandas Gandhi

On one side of the family, there's very little known about who came from where. German and Hungarian, I think, with a lot of Scottish. The other side has been thoroughly researched for hundreds of years back by my grandmother. She has a walk-in closet full of all of this family stuff. It's all Irish, Scottish, and Viking. Yes, I said Viking.

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I think all women really want is to be proven wrong about men.

Oooh, viking. Something kind of hot and primal about that.

What were those hot female viking-gods called? Valkyries? You could get one of those horn hats and play Valkyrie for your man.

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Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. - Mohandas Gandhi

Yup. All I need is a fur bikini and I'm ready to go all Wagner on his ass.

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I think all women really want is to be proven wrong about men.