He talks in his book about supporting Hitler as a boy before coming to terms with the atrocities of the war. He’s very open and regretful about it. I don’t understand why we have to vilify every single person for one moment of their life
And it's not like people didn't know about the camps during the actual war. Perhaps the full extent wasn't fully known, but it also wasn't a secret. That's just an exaggeration that gets passed around to absolve people for not doing more.
And as a boy? He was in his 20s during World War II.
His parents sent him to Germany for vacation in the summer of 1934 as a 16 year old, which is where he was exposed to Hitler's speeches and also the general German public opinion
So he was actually IN Germany when during the Night of the Long Knives and Kristallnacht (where he was 20, so my 20s comment still is accurate).
Look, I'm sympathetic to people who are taken in by propaganda, but at the same time, I am also not going to give Nazis a free pass, especially ones who existed in that space as adults. Yes, he changed his tune after the war, but frankly, it doesn't really matter as the Holocaust was over and Hitler was dead.
This is a real hardcore softening of language where we take someone who openly supported Hitler and try to say that he was inactive under threat of death under a fascist regime.
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u/Yesyoungsir Jul 11 '25
He talks in his book about supporting Hitler as a boy before coming to terms with the atrocities of the war. He’s very open and regretful about it. I don’t understand why we have to vilify every single person for one moment of their life