well on the one hand, there are things that make the holocaust stand out, even beyond sheer numbers. but i dont want to go into those.

then theres that the holocaust is more recent history. sure, you could cite dafur in sudan as much more recent, but the thing with the holocaust is that obvioulsy after ww2, the world undivided attention was on europe. whereas nobody seemed or seems to care much about darfur, not that im advocating that this is in any way right, and not that i can honestly claim myself to be much better.

and i think a lot of making the holocaust somehow worse has to do with being able to live with being proud in one's own country (bringing us nicely back to patriotism :D). I think there is a perception that to admit that one's own country has done such unbelievable things would be somehow accepting that one's country is bad. As a German, and a proud German at that, I can say that there is more to be proud of in most countries than a small, albeit terrible period of history can erase. To me it is important firstly to look at history before the holocaust, and I find many things I can be proud of there. But much more importantly, I can look at history after the holocaust and I can honestly say I am proud with what Germany has become. We (as a country and a people) have our faults, quite a few even, and there is much that still needs to be done. But I think we have put behind us the terror of half a century, and can truly move on, certainly never to forget what happened, in fact to encourage remembrance at every opportunity, but to continue to strive to become a nation kids can be proud of in future.

Quote Originally Posted by Privateerkev
I found it interesting to hear your point of view with regards to being German. Germany has indeed been discouraged from being "nationalistic" which is ironic because they didn't exactly invent genocide. Genocide has been perpetrated by many countries including my own. But so many people treat the holocaust as somehow "worse" than your "run of the mill" genocide. So the idea that German nationalism is somehow more dangerous than other nationalisms has always bugged me.

And deguerra, I have found that many people find themselves more conservative than me. I have learned to just roll with it.