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“W.G. Sebald: Requiem for Germany”

Hitchens’ review of On the Natural History of Destruction, by W.G. Sebald. Sebold’s book looks at the conundrum of Germans who understand that “obviously understood that their late Führer…brought this devastation on them” and the feeling that they were treated badly as well (Dresden fire bombing, rape of civilians by invading Soviet troops, etc.).

Dresden after the bombing:

Hitchens has some criticism of Sebald’s approach but ultimately concludes that they (Germans)  “…do not want their country to humiliate or murder others, and neither do they wish their country to be humiliated or destroyed…Germany suffered both those disgraces to the fullest possible extent, and Sebald registers that contradiction to the limit of his ability.”

New learning: Interesting irony, “Indeed, it is possible to imagine that if anti-Jewish paranoia had not deprived the Third Reich of so many gifted physicists, the unthinkable might have occurred.”

New word: extirpation = root out and destroy completely