"I fear we are forgetting lessons from that terrible history" Eva Ladipo... My family’s past, and Germany’s, weighs heavily upon me. And it’s why I feel so strongly about Gaza

"It is as if the war allows a long-suppressed view of the world to resurface in Germany, in which there are superior “western” cultures"

Illustration: Eleanor Shakespeare/The Guardian

I don’t usually talk about my great-uncle Walter. Gen Walter Warlimont, as my grandfather’s brother was formally known, was head of the national defence department in the high command of the Wehrmacht, the armed forces of Nazi Germany. Only two people were between him and the Führer in the chain of command. Walter worked so closely with Hitler that the failed assassination attempt in July 1944 injured his arm. The orders he signed during wartime – about who to shoot to kill, about how to treat prisoners – meant he had hundreds of thousands of lives on his conscience.

Not that Uncle Walter was the only one in the family who facilitated the Third Reich and the Holocaust. My paternal grandparents were very proud to have been among the very earliest members of Hitler’s party. My maternal grandfather – Walter’s brother – was the head of a factory in Vienna that made the guidance systems for the V2 rocket, a factory that was staffed by Russian and Ukrainian slave labourers.

I’ve never really felt a need to write about my family history before. But Walter’s life and crimes feel uncomfortably relevant right now. As I watch how the debate and discussion over the war in Gaza have played out in Germany, in the months since the horrific attacks of 7 October, I worry that even as we constantly invoke the Nazi past, we are forgetting some crucial lessons from our history.... READ MORE   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/19/family-past-germany-gaza

 Eva Ladipo is a German journalist and novelist based in London

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