I have read your account and explanation with great interest, Wolfgang, and I am fascinated to see the many ways that the language expresses the attitudes of the people at various stages. I have long thought so, but your examples help me to understand even more.

It is interesting that what I remember of school and 'images' of what the war was about generally dealt more with Japan than Germany, since it was Pearl Harbor that really got us into the war, and it was 'easier' to have negative feelings about people who didn't look so much like us.

   You mention 'Persilschein'....and I suspect that we found it easy to 'help' wash the remaining Germans clean...after all, it was just Hitler and the major Nazis who were really the problem...right? In fact, it has just been the last 7-8 years that we have seen quite a few television documentaries about the war that dwelt on the Nazis (instead of just battles) and on the Holocaust. Sadly, I look at newsreels of thousands of cheering people, giving the Nazi salute and marching for the 'glory' of Hitler & the Fatherland, and I suspect that no amount of laundry soap would have cleansed many of them. It is VERY difficult to comprehend why the Nazi ideals were not seen for what they were by more people......but it is easy to see why it was so little mentioned in the 50s and 60s.

Again....thank you for the thoughtful and insightful look at that society from the inside. I would like to see an entire book on the subject.