But now that Americans no longer feel compelled to play down their ethnic origins, active interest in Germany and the German language has stared to make a comeback.

I don’t share Jerry’s sense of Germany’s history as part of a “plan”, but even as a kid, I was fascinated by the German language, history and culture.

And even though we certainly knew that the Germans were the bad guys, they were such awesomely cool bad guys, with the neatest taks and most stylish uniforms. And when we played soldiers, I always let the Germans beat the British before the American soldiers arrived to save the day.

Still, I find it paradoxical that the one period in Germany history that the Americans are most familiar with is the one that the Germans themselves know the least about.

And welcome to America!

Two weeks ago, my cousin visited me, having recently returned from a long visit to Germany. He spends about six months in the U.S. and six months with his girlfriend in Germany. He is a little anti-American and has the Euro viewpoint of everything American is wrong. On this visit he berated the bombing of Dresden and said that his German friends were totally disgusted with the “murder” of German civilians by Americans in WWII.

The “murder” of civilians began during the Battle of Britain which occured between July 10, 1940 and October 31, 1940. Hitler had initiated a campaign to eliminate British airpower in order to begin an invasion of England. This was a very successful campaign and by the middle of August, 1940, most of the British Air Defense System was destroyed and most of the RAF airfields were useless. A few more weeks of German attacks would have finished off Britain’s air defense and allowed an invasion by the German army.

On the night of August 24, 1940, a Luftwaffe bomber lost it’s way and inadvertently bombed the center of London. In retaliation, Churchill ordered the bombing of Berlin on the following night of August 25. Very little damage occurred, and Churchill ordered two additional attacks for August 28 and August 30th. Some damage occurred during these attacks, and a few civilians were killed.

Hermann Goring had assured Hitler and the German people that no one would ever be able to bomb Germany, and these attacks had shocked the Berliners. Berlin had never been bombed before and the Spanish and Polish campaigns had convinced Germans that their military was indestructible. In a furious speech on September 4, 1940, Hitler shouted that he would raze Britian’s cities to the ground. On September 7, 1940 and for fifty-seven consecutive days, the Luftwaffe bombed London. The appalling death and destruction had a single golden advantage, it gave the Royal Air Force time to repair it’s air defences and repair it’s airfields. Fighter Command was back in business and went on to destroy the German air attacks. The invasion of England was called off, and Germany went on to invade Russia, leading to it’s ultimate loss of the war.

The bombing of Dresden was the culimation of mass bombing of most of Britain’s and Germany’s cities. 713 British Avro Lancasters bombed Dresden on the evening of February 13,1945 followed in the next two days by 311 B17s of the USAAF. Dresden had only been attacked once before in a minor raid in October, 1944.

In Germany today, most young Germans still deny Germany’s role in creating the largest conflict the world has ever seen and the holocaust that killed millions. They deeply resent the U.S. and the British for fighting back.

The world now faces another enemy very similar to Hitler. Radical Islam has similar goals of killing innocents simply because they are “different”. We must unite to face this threat.

I wondered back then, where is the optimism, where is the “We’re all playing at the top of our form and I really think we can whoop these muthas clear back to Rio!!!”?

(btw, Brazil won)