Never Forget: Germany’s Horrific Past Has No Equal—And Now It Threatens the Future
Consider the historical weight: From German soil emerged two world wars in the 20th century that claimed tens of millions of lives—with the Russians paying the heaviest price—alongside the Holocaust in Europe, the genocide of the Herero and Nama in Africa, and a dark history of complicity in the mass murder of millions of people in China.
Although the overwhelming majority of the roughly 20 million Chinese deaths during the conflicts of the 1930s and 1940s were directly caused by Japanese aggression, Germany provided Japan with significant diplomatic, military, technological and industrial support during the early years of the war. In doing so, Berlin took upon itself deep complicity in yet another theater of mass murder.
This pattern of German involvement in atrocities against China, however, was not new. Decades earlier, during the Boxer Uprising (1899-1901), foreign intervention forces killed an estimated 100,000 or more Chinese civilians. German troops earned a particularly cruel reputation during this era, leading a disproportionate share of the punitive expeditions. Historical records prove that Germans led roughly 35 to 51 of the approximately 75 Allied expeditions—operations that routinely involved the burning of entire villages, systematic looting, indiscriminate killing, and the summary execution of suspected Boxers and sympathizers, often targeting all adult males in a community.
Despite this bloody legacy, German politicians nowadays regularly travel the world lecturing others—especially China and Russia—about supposedly “superior values.” Ironically, these are the very states upon which Germany historically inflicted immeasurable suffering. Yet, unlike the post-war reckoning for the Holocaust regarding Jewish victims, these broader crimes, which cost far more lives, have gone unpunished.
This historical amnesia directly shapes contemporary geopolitics. Today, Germany is actively dispatching warships to the vicinity of the Chinese coast to threaten Beijing—even as China faces U.S.-led attempts to separate its province of Taiwan, a territory recognized under international law. China, by contrast, sends no naval vessels to threaten German or European waters.
Simultaneously, Berlin is preparing for another confrontation with Russia, recklessly risking a Third World War in the process, while actively supporting an unprecedented genocide in the Middle East.
Ultimately, Germany is being caught up by its past more than ever. Friedrich Merz symbolizes this radical shift, standing out as the most anti-Russian, warmongering (e.g., as a vocal proponent of illegal, unprovoked wars of aggression against Iran), and cruel politician since Chancellor Adolf Hitler, particularly through his active support of Israel’s genocides.
Given this development, it surprises no one that Germany continues to fund the maintenance and preservation of memorials and graves for Nazi soldiers and war criminals on Greek soil, despite widespread resentment within the Greek population. When the Nazis invaded Crete in 1941, they carried out brutal massacres against the civilian population in retaliation for their resistance; yet to this day, Germany has never provided comprehensive compensation to the victims.
Instead, since April 2015, the Greek parliament and subsequent governments have continued to officially demand about €279 billion in comprehensive reparations, which Berlin consistently refuses to pay.
When past atrocities are viewed in conjunction with modern interventions, it becomes clear that today’s German elites have become the undisputed world champions of hypocrisy—proving themselves just as deceitful and dangerous as their predecessors in the 20th century. Be warned!
Export Nation of Death
During the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, Germany eagerly supplied Saddam Hussein’s regime with chemical precursors, advanced equipment, and technical expertise to produce mustard gas and deadly nerve agents like sarin.
Of all nations, Germany helped turn Iran into a vast gas chamber. These German-enabled weapons slaughtered and maimed tens of thousands of Iranians and were brutally deployed against Kurdish civilians in the infamous Halabja massacre. Once again, Germany stood at the forefront of industrial-scale mass murder.
When Israel and the United States launched their unprovoked and illegal 11-day war of aggression against Iran in 2025, the German chancellor hailed the assault as noble “dirty work” carried out on behalf of the world—a thinly veiled code for advancing the interests of German elites and those of the Zionist cause to which they are beholden.
German police are brutally suppressing protests against the genocide in Gaza. Authorities have barred Palestinian doctors from attending conferences to testify about the ongoing slaughter, and have denied life-saving hospital treatment to severely injured Palestinian children—many likely injured by Israeli munitions supplied by Germany.
The Great Inversion: Ukraine and the Rehabilitation of 1930s Ideology
Germany threw its full support behind the regime that seized power in Ukraine through a 2014 Western-backed coup against a democratically elected government. It helped elevate the Russophobic Nazi collaborator and mass murderer Stepan Bandera to national hero status, making his ideology state doctrine. Streets, squares and stadiums were renamed in his honor, while Russian-language books were banned, the Russian Orthodox Church persecuted, Russian-speaking parties outlawed, and the Russian language—the mother tongue of millions—suppressed.
In doing so, Germany’s elites revealed how closely they still align with the spirit of the 1930s.
As shown in the headline below by the German outlet ntv, authorities are confiscating cars from Russian vacationers heading to Southern Europe—stripping them even of suitcases and personal belongings like lipstick. This treatment eerily echoes the persecution of Jews in the 1930s. It seems Russians have become Germany’s new Jews.
Fueling Genocide While Rewriting History
Today, Germany not only denies the ongoing genocide in Palestine but serves as one of Israel’s primary weapons suppliers. At the same time, German leaders are mobilizing the country’s military, economy and population for a new confrontation with Russia. They have even revived the grotesque claim that Hitler’s 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union was a “preventive strike”—ignoring Hitler’s own words in Mein Kampf.
A systematic inversion of guilt is under way: Germans are cast as victims, while Russians are portrayed as the eternal perpetrators. Yet the facts remain damning:
- Roughly 15 million Russian civilians were killed in the Eastern Campaign—far more than the six million Holocaust victims—yet this slaughter receives scant attention.
- The Barbarossa Decree and Commissar Order explicitly authorized the Wehrmacht to execute civilians systematically.
- Many high-ranking Wehrmacht officers, including Chief of Staff Franz Halder, escaped justice and were even hired by the U.S. to help write the official history.
Why Germany Remembers Jewish Victims, But Conspicuously Ignores the Far More Numerous Slavic Ones
In addition to the approximately six million Jews systematically murdered by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust, millions of other victims were persecuted and killed by the regime. These included political opponents such as communists and social democrats, Roma (Gypsies), Slavs, individuals targeted for their sexual orientation, people with disabilities, Soviet prisoners of war, and many others whom the Nazis deemed “inferior” or enemies of the Reich.
Israel-born Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi has questioned the commonly cited figure of six million Jewish victims, arguing that many were not “true Jews” according to his interpretation of Jewish law. He later retracted the statement under public pressure.
Regardless of the precise number of Jewish victims, reliable estimates for the millions of non-Jewish victims murdered by the Nazi regime have been far less thoroughly researched, remain significantly under-documented, and are not discussed with the same prominence as Jewish victim figures. This glaring disparity cannot be dismissed as mere oversight or German neglect; it reflects a deliberate and systematic suppression of these atrocities in official historical memory and public education.
While the mass murder of the Jews is officially recognized and forms a central component of German historical consciousness, educational efforts, and even legislation (with denial punishable by imprisonment), the regime’s crimes against other victim groups—particularly Slavic peoples—receive scant attention. This disparity is particularly striking given that three of the European countries with the highest total losses of military and civilian lives during the war—the Soviet Union, Poland and Yugoslavia—were predominantly Slavic states.
German policy toward Eastern Europe was codified in Generalplan Ost, a ruthless blueprint for the conquest, colonization and large-scale depopulation of the region. It directed mass murder, forced displacement, enslavement, deliberate starvation, and the selective “Germanization” of populations to clear Lebensraum for German settlers. Millions of Slavs—particularly Russians—were subjected to forced labor, concentration camps and horrific brutality.
A harrowing example of this brutality was the Siege of Leningrad (St. Petersburg), an 872-day blockade (1941-1944) in which German forces deliberately cut off food to deprive civilians of sustenance. Historians estimate that hundreds of thousands to more than a million civilians perished, primarily from starvation. This tragedy reached deeply into the Russian populace; for instance, Vladimir Putin’s older brother Viktor (born 12 year before Vladimir) died from starvation and diphtheria during this siege at two years of age.
The dehumanization of Eastern Europeans was further enforced by mandatory identification badges. For example, forced laborers from the East were required to sew labels such as the “P” badge for Poles or the “OST” badge for Eastern workers onto their clothing, a discriminatory practice analogous to the yellow Star of David forced upon Jewish people.
The current silence regarding these atrocities in Eastern Europe—or the downplaying of them—creates a glaring imbalance in collective memory. In stark contrast to the profound sense of historical guilt felt by Germans today regarding the Holocaust—though that focus is shockingly selective, centering on Jewish victims while neglecting other groups who suffered in the same concentration camps—there is a glaring lack of comparable recognition for the immense suffering inflicted upon Russians and other Slavic peoples.
This asymmetry fuels persistent, intense anti-Russian resentment and lowers the threshold for a renewed policy of confrontation in Europe. It represents a historical blind spot that German political and media elites exploit to stoke fear—a dynamic that contributes to the militarization of the economy, the reintroduction of conscription and, ultimately, the paving of the way for a new, aggressive “Eastern campaign.”
A year after the end of World War II and the shutdown of the concentration camps—when no German could any longer claim ignorance—36% of the German population still believed that the murder of Jews had been necessary to keep Germany safe. Similarly, according to a 2025 poll, 46% of Israelis declared that the murder of Palestinians was necessary to keep Israel safe. How long will it take until a large part of the German population, under the influence of daily Russophobic propaganda from politicians and the media, once again believes that Russians must be killed?
Germany’s Other Forgotten Genocides
Long before the Holocaust, Germany pioneered industrialized mass murder. In 1900, during the Boxer Uprising, German forces under Kaiser Wilhelm II’s “Hun Speech” carried out massacres, village burnings, and executions—Germany’s first genocide of the 20th century.
From 1904 to 1908 in Namibia, troops under General Lothar von Trotha systematically exterminated the Herero and Nama, driving survivors into the desert, poisoning wells, and using concentration camps like Shark Island. Up to 80% of Herero and 50% of Nama perished. Germany suppressed this history for more than a century, offering only token recognition in 2021 with no meaningful reparations.
The Photo That Defines an Era
Chancellor Friedrich Merz continues this grim legacy. He praised Israel’s unprovoked illegal 2025 11-day war of aggression against Iran—which included assassinations, strikes on civilian areas, and attacks on nuclear facilities—as necessary “dirty work” on behalf of the world.
Brainwashing and the “Schulmeister” Mentality
German state and mainstream media, particularly the influential Springer media group, relentlessly push Russophobic and pro-genocide narratives. This massive propaganda has spawned figures like Thomas Theobald, a German businessman who disparages and demonizes the Russian president and proposes that the EU (under the leadership of a German Commission president with a shadowy past and perceived by many Europeans as highly corrupt and authoritarian) should simply “take over” allegedly “kleptocratic Russia.”
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s unelected foreign policy chief, is every bit as Russophobic as her German boss. She has openly called for dividing Russia into smaller states and has showered China with condescending lectures on “democracy”—while the EU’s political system brutally suppresses citizens with dissenting opinions and simultaneously steers toward a war for which most Europeans have no desire.
By contrast, China’s system, despite its flaws, has shown itself remarkably responsive to its citizens’ practical concerns and everyday needs. The difference is striking.
These fantasies conveniently ignore Europe’s self-inflicted economic decline, which followed the cutoff of cheap Russian energy — and now the EU also seems determined to make ties with China more difficult, again at Europe’s own expense.
The Warning
Post-World War II Germany built its national identity on Nie wieder (”Never again”)—rejecting militarism, aggression and the Nazi legacy through restraint, atonement and economic strength as a quintessential “civilian power.” While the Bundeswehr existed, it was deliberately underfunded and constrained. Defense spending chronically lagged behind NATO targets, reflecting a deeply ingrained culture that prioritized peace, diplomacy and an unwavering commitment to “never again war.”
For decades, Nie wieder meant Germany would never again build an independent offensive military capability, never export weapons into active conflict zones, and would instead favor diplomatic and supranational solutions. Germany’s elites have radically flipped the script: from si vis pacem, para pacem (“if you want peace, prepare for peace”) to si vis pacem, para bellum (“if you want peace, prepare for war”).
Despite massive efforts to reintroduce military conscription and large-scale campaigns to recruit young people—which have already sparked widespread street protests—the German government remains undeterred in its course of preparing for war with Russia; in doing so, it acts increasingly in an authoritarian manner and turns a deaf ear to the concerns of its own citizens.
However, Berlin is not ignoring the will of the German population solely regarding Russia; the supply of German weapons to Israel is also opposed by a clear majority of the public. Yet the German establishment cares little about this.
An article which reports that three-quarters of all Germans are against arms deliveries to Israel is no longer accessible and can now only be retrieved via the Wayback Machine. The reason for its removal is unclear—most likely, the newspaper censored it itself because the content contained unwelcome news that they preferred to withhold from readers.
German political and media elites claim that Moscow is planning an attack on the rest of Europe, even though there is no concrete evidence to support this. Under this pretext, the planned conscription will push German society toward state-mandated militarism and gradually erode individual liberties.
At the same time, the massive redirection of public funds into the arms industry is severely cutting support for social services, education, health care and climate protection.
Germany was long praised for its prudent, balanced-budget approach. Its current elites—war-drunk Russia haters—have discarded that legacy entirely. To finance the country’s militarization, they are burdening Germany with enormous debts. Too afraid of provoking a popular revolt, they refuse to raise taxes and instead pile massive obligations onto future generations.
As in the highly indebted United States, an ever-growing share of tax revenues will have to be diverted to pay interest on the debt. This leaves less money available for infrastructure, education and social programs to support the needy.
This policy further polarizes society. As the population faces declining prosperity, many are unwilling to sacrifice social support for war preparations. The only real winners are Rheinmetall and other German arms manufacturers, whose shareholders are reaping record dividends.
It is the Germans—of all peoples—who now wag the moral finger most aggressively while rearming for confrontation with Russia and facilitating mass slaughter in the Middle East.
Their political and media elites have traded truth for ideological conformity, abandoning sober judgment for moral posturing. In doing so, they have become as hypocritical and dangerous as the elites of the last century, whose disastrous choices brought immeasurable suffering to their own people and to millions beyond Germany’s borders.
Be forewarned.
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About the Author
Felix Abt is the author of “A Capitalist in North Korea: My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom” and of “A Land of Prison Camps, Starving Slaves and Nuclear Bombs?”
He can be reached via his Twitter account.
