That all comes from the awareness that neither victims nor heroes fall straight from heaven . Of course people have the freedom to make moral decisions. But we have to understand the structures within which they do so
This is an interesting and very important point. Motive, intention, and social conditions are imperative to understanding history and to avoid preventing past evils from occurring again. What would be the best way of evaluating the social structures and intentions?
There is no contesting their courage, but the only consequence of their actions was to console later generations of Germans that not everyone capitulated to Nazi terror .
I find it interesting that this statement demeans the effort that the White Roses took to stand up to the Nazis and makes light of their deaths significantly.
Further: if a text was in the canon, what did that mean about who read It, when, and why? What historical, political, or institutional forces might have pushed a text out of the canon at a later point in time?
Who should decide which works are imperative to study in German Cultural Studies for undergraduates, graduates, etc.?
One of the con-sequences of the substantial presence of those who, like myself, first came to German out of academic interest rather than "very specific personal motiva-~i?n," as Hinric_h S~eba points out, is that we are "not restricted by either a pos-1t1ve or a negative identification with German society" (146).
I found this point to be very interesting. One sees how many different views, voices, and backgrounds can enrich an area of study. I think this also relates back to class and "Plantation Memories", too, in that the author points out that Germans themselves play a pivotal role in the study, enforcing the notion that those that live the day-to-day in the area of study can shed the most light on their experience.
germane
germane: "relevant to a subject under consideration"