Reunification of Germany

Reinhardt Rummel (“The Lessons of Evil Are Not Forgotten,” Commentary, Oct. 3) was born in 1944, at the end of World War II, and like many American baby boomers, thinks that history began with his birth. Don’t try to tell us that the Germans learn from the results of their mistakes. If that were true there would have been no Hitler, no World War II and no need for millions of lost lives in Europe in the ‘30s and ‘40s.

Let’s not conveniently forget that Germany was in tatters as an aftermath of World War I and Germans chose to follow Hitler because he told them what they wanted to hear, that it wasn’t their fault. Hitler was no more anti-Semitic than any other German, or European, as far as that goes. The German people needed a scapegoat and the Jews were handy.

We have done what we feel is morally right in allowing the reunification, but we are wary. Only time will tell if the taking on of their 17 million poor and technically backward fellows will or will not send Germany back to dreams of vengeance, and the world back to chaos.

The generation after World War I didn’t learn from that mistake. We can only hope that Rummel’s generation and the one that follows will be different.

DIANE SILVER

Arleta