German History

Rudy Koshar’s column (Op-Ed Page, June 25) on the German attempt to understand, countered by their “overpowering desire to forget,” their Nazi past can be seen in terms of our own lost wars. Vietnam, of course, is already vague in the minds of the young, but how many remember that misnomer, the War of 1812--it lasted 2 1/2 years. Somehow, we remember our sailors kidnapped, but not the Britishers’ reasons; some naval success, but nothing of our failed land battles--the bulk of the war. So badly did President Madison manage the war, so bad were our generals, so indifferent were our soldiers, so weak any justification of our attempted land grab, that our memory of the event is in a state of permanent distortion.

Compared to the Nazi atrocity, the 1812 war is a comedy. Still, can there be any hope that in “a passage of time” the German remembrance will not be shaded by euphemism? Very little.

ISRAEL BARAN

Encino