In their equally readable book, “Myth of the Eastern Front”, Ronald Smelser and Edward J.Davies II write on page 2, “After all, if the Germans were not only to be our friends, but also ourarmed allies, it was important to erase at least some aspects of the recent war from publicmemory and to revise the terms of discussions.”In short, general reader or serious buff, each of us must read, become informed, and decidewhether to forgive and forget, forgive and remember, or just forgive, adding “oh, to hell with it. . .” Thank God, my decisions regarding Leni Riefenstahl, Hanna Reitsch, Colonel Count ClausSchenk von Stauffenberg, every single member of the German resistance movements,especially the White Rose, formed in Munich in 1942, and the July 20, 1944, assassination
plotters in Berlin. Such true heroes are easily identified. But others . . .?
