9 Hours of Precious Moment

Last week, when i was in my way back to the college, i had an opportunities to sit beside of a German guy. He was heading a same route as me, from Kota Bharu Kelantan to Kuantan Pahang. Our bus started to leave Kota Bharu at 3 PM but along the way, i just remain silent because i was still afraid to start a conversation because i never had a chance to talk with foreigner before. Same goes as him, i thought maybe he had a thought that i will not be able to understand if he talk to me. So both of us remain silent until I decided to break the silent by asking where he was heading to. I was so glad because he was so friendly with me and his name is Garry. Since he is a Germany, i tried to ask him about Adolf Hitler because who might know it might be useful for this blog and luckily he was willingly to share his view about Hitler. So here is what he told me.

You know, this is one of the most often asked questions here. You could have asked any German about their opinion. The irony is, now the Germans know more about this topic than most other countries.

We have talked about this in school since the 5th grade and let me tell you, in school it is the most important theme. We have talked about in Religion, Deutsch, English, History, Politics and Biology. We have discussed it and talked about it and read books, watched movies and many more. Most of people that I have met here feel guilty and know they have to take care so it will never happen again. Nobody denies it happened here, in comparison to Russia.

Truth is I as surprised at how openly people admitted that they were very wrong. In Russia where I used to live there was a higher level of antisemitism and Holocaust-denial. At least here nobody denies it happened.

My teachers and everyone I have ever met are very much aware at how wrong they were and constantly tell their children, teenagers or pupils that they should be careful and never let that happen in the future.

Garry even ask for forgiveness from me for what Hitler had done to the world. I my self realised that Hitler is an evil dictator but i respect and was pretty impressed with Garry attitude. He think that as one of German citizen, he also feel very guilty for what Hitler had done. I am pretty sure that nobody want this tragedy to happen again. Everything in the past should become an important lesson for all of us in order to avoid the same tragedy in the future.