So many nice words make me blush.

Thanks to all who have posted. I have read the accounts of your own experiences with great interest.

Just a few responses:

Mick, I sat for more than two minutes with my finger on the submit button, still undecided.

Pat, I don't really know how the returning (or surviving) Jews felt. I never dared to ask the few German Jews I have met. Some did never come back, some said they would never come back but did come back many years later. Perhaps the story of Ignatz Bubis is an indication of the ambivalence of the German Jews' feelings towards Germany. Ignatz Bubis was probably the best know German Jew after the war, a very successful business man, a politician, and the chairman of the central committee of the German Jews. He was even asked to become German president but declined the offer as "too early for a Jew". He lived all his life in Germany (mostly Frankfurt) but when he died he was buried in Israel.

Paul, I have never met a young German denying the holocaust, so this species of German must be rare which makes me glad. The GDR was perhaps a bit like Austria. West-Germany was the sucessor to Nazi Germany and the socialist Germany was by definition free from any guilt. But they had a short (and harsh) denazification campaign after the war.

The Neonazis are much stronger in East Germany. One theory is that the GDR's way of treating the Nazi time has contributed to that. But there are probably better explanations: Up to 60% without work and with no hope of change are a breeding ground for extremists. If the conditions in East Germany were as good as they are in West Germany, the number of Neonazis might be considerably smaller. The most interesting theory I have read goes like this: the better qualified East Germans go West and, in particular, the young women leave. There are far too few young women in East Germany and so the chances for the young males there to find a family are low. Under these conditions young males group together in macho gangs and the Neonazis offer them the opportunity to feel good and strong. But it's a shame that they exist.

Wolfgang