How have Germany following defeat in WWII and the U.S. south after losing the Civil War taught succeeding generations and commemorated their involvement in perpetrating the atrocities they instigated?The two tragic wars were perpetrated and rationalized on the socially constructed notion of race and racial superiority. They were also tied to issues of economics and land acquisition or maintenance. But some time has passed, and no single strategy has remained fully consistent in time and place to prevent similar conflicts from recurring. Nonetheless, were witnessing certain trends while addressing this important question. Related Why do most of Washington DCs monuments celebrate war? Its about time we honor the peacemakers. After Germanys unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945, the immediate aftermath of Germanys total and humiliating defeat became apparent in the terms set by the Potsdam Conference (July 17 to August 2, 1945). The victorious allies divided Germany into four military zones of occupation: the Soviet Union in the east, the U.S. in the south, Britain in the northwest, and France in the southwest, until the final reunification of the country following the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1991 and the demise of Soviet Union one month later. Dive deeper every day Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues Subscribe to our Newsletter today A national constitution serving as the law of the land held together the laws of the unified BRD (German:BundesrepublikDeutschland; English: FRG/FederalRepublic ofGermany), comprising 16 partially sovereign states.From its inception, the BRD has mandated a denazification campaign to eliminate the promotion, production, and nostalgia of a bygone era of German shame, humiliation, and regret.Except for extreme right-wing candidates for elective office, none mimic or paraphrase a motto of Making Germany Great Again, which would be understood immediately as a not-so-subtle return to the divisive and murderous racism of the past. The German constitution outlaws the former Nazi swastika and other remnants as symbols of anti-constitutional organizations. The government also bans their sales and display. Also banned in public are the Nazi salute and statements such as Heil Hitler.Posting pictures with swastikas or Nazi slogans is also illegal on social media. Violators risk prison sentences. The German criminal codegrants exceptions when used for civil education, countering anti-constitutional activities, art and science, research and education, the coverage of historic and current events, or similar purposes.In addition, private citizens may own Nazi memorabilia if only a very limited number of people view them. Displaying a Nazi swastika flag in a window, for example, is generally not protected under this exemption. No monuments celebrating, honoring, or commemorating the racism and unmitigated horrors of Nazi leaders, military personnel, or other perpetrators have been erected in Germany. On May 8 each year, many Germans celebrate Liberation Dayfromthe Nazi regime.Nowhere throughout Germany will one find the equivalent of Adolf Hitler High School, Hermann Gring Military College, Joachim von Ribbentrop School of Diplomacy, Heinrich Himmler Federal Building of Law Enforcement, Reinhard Heydrich University for Multicultural Studies, Kurt Gruber Elementary School, Adolf Eichmann Bridge, Otto Dietrich Central Post Office, Rudolph Hss Medical Center, Joseph Goebbels School of Education, or Leni Riefenstahl School of Film Studies at Martin Bormann University.Instead, for educational purposes, the government supports teaching German students, age appropriately, of Nazi atrocities, war crimes, and Nazi philosophical foundations. Collections exposing war crimes perpetrated by the Wehrmacht (Nazi Germanys unified armed forces), such as the Wehrmacht Exhibit, have traveled throughout Germany. Young people have access to historical exhibits, theater and art productions, and an endless array of books all intended to expose the truth about the brutalities propagated by the Nazi regime.German students read Jewish authors such as Thomas Mann, Hannah Arendt, Kurt Weill, Anne Frank, Elie Wiesel, and others. They watch documentaries and dramatizations, like the celebrated TV miniseries Generation War, portraying young people caught up in the brutalities of war.Students travel to former concentration camps to learn firsthand the loss of all human and civil rights, the enslavement and murder of Jews, homosexuals, Roma, Jehovahs Witnesses, people with disabilities, communists, the so-called work shy vagrants (unemployed and homeless people), and others.Such visits differ significantly from many of the school field trips organized for U.S. students in reminiscence of the glory days of antebellum southern plantations.Though no memorials stand to honor any former Nazis, theGerman Parliamentvoted to dedicate 4.5 acres to a Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (also known as the Holocaust Memorial), plus several smaller monuments located throughout Germany. A beautiful and extensive Jewish Museum has been erected in Berlin, close to the Holocaust Memorial.German schools do not deeply examine the actualmilitary eventsof the war. since to emphasize the war itself may incite positive attitudes of Nazi territorial expansionism. Resistance to Nazism in Germany and throughout its occupied territories is taught widely, and resistors are touted as heroes. The U.S. still reveres its traitorous, slave-owning ConfederatesIn my hometown of South Hadley, Massachusetts, a clear example can be witnessed of the vastly different frame of reference that we in New England reflect on the U.S. Civil War from those in the former Confederate states. If one places in the mind the Civil War monument erected on our town Common next to one in a Southern state, this is what one will see: South Hadley, MassachusettsA high and tall, stepped concrete andgranitepedestal dedicated in 1896 (some 31 years following the war) to the 224 local citizen soldiers. Atop the pedestal stands a Union soldier looking outward into the distance holding a rifle perpendicular to the ground. On the granite pedestal is inscribed: This monument is erected to commemorate the loyalty and patriotism of our citizen soldiers who fought for liberty and the Union in the great rebellion of 1861-1865.Many monuments and commemorations on the Union side term the Civil War the Great Rebellion or Southern Rebellion, while the states of the former Confederacy call it the War of Northern Aggression. Montgomery, AlabamaJefferson Davis was inaugurated as the President of the Confederacy on February 18, 1861 on the steps of the State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama.A giantmonumentstanding 88 feet high dedicated in 1898, the Alabama Confederate Monument stands on Montgomerys Capitol Hill to commemorate 122,000 Alabamians who fought in the Confederacy during the Civil War. It was erected by the Historical and Monumental Association of Alabama & Ladies Memorial Association of Alabama.Atop the high granite column stands a bronze statue of a woman representing Patriotism holding a furled flag in her left hand and a sword in her right. Down at the base stands four pedestals on top of each standing granite statuary with bronze relief representing an officer of the four branches of the Confederate military.The monument displays these inscriptions (italics added): North Side/Navy: The seamen of Confederate fame startled the wondering world: for braver fight was never fought, andfairer flagwas never furled.West Side/Cavalry: The knightliest of theknightly racewho since the days of old, have kept the lamp of chivalry alight in the hearts of gold.South Side/Infantry: Fames temple boasts no higher name, no king is grander on his throne: No glory shines with brighter gleam, the name of Patriot stands alone.East Side/Artillery: When this historic shaft shall crumbling lie in ages hence, in womans heart will be, a folded flag, a thrilling page unrolled, a deathless song of Southern chivalry.TheSouthern Poverty Law Centerfound in its updated 2016 report that 114 Confederate symbols have been taken down since the Charlottesville neo-Nazi white supremacist march and murder. However, currently a total of 1,503 Confederate-related symbols remain standing across the United States, including:718 monuments and statues, nearly 300 of which are in Georgia, Virginia, or North Carolina;109 public schools named for Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, or other notable Confederates;80 counties and cities named for Confederates;9 official Confederate holidays in six states; and10 U.S. military bases named for Confederates. Since the brutal killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, an unarmed Black man and the worldwide demonstrations demanding an end to police practices and policies inordinately symbolically and literally crushing the necks of people of color we seem to have entered a watershed moment bringing us to a point of finally owning up to our collective legacy of racism in the United States and elsewhere.Under increasingly intensive pressure, South Carolina led the way in 2015 by removing the Confederate flag from the State House grounds where it had hung since 1962. Other cities slowly (and often reluctantly) followed suit. Mississippi has recently become the final state to ban the Confederate symbol from its state flag.Those on the other side of the issue who demand retaining these monuments and symbols argue tradition since they say these as part of their heritage, and they represent an era of American history. The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote, Critics may say removing a flag or monument, renaming a military base or school, or ending a state holiday is tantamount to erasing history.In fact, across the country, Confederate flag supporters have held more than 350 rallies since the Charleston attack.These emblems and personalities do, in fact, represent an era of American history, an era of war fighting for the right to continue the enslavement of other human beings, one in which many Southerners believed they had the God given right to torture, work to death, separate families, rape, and otherwise abuse others for their own economic, social, and cultural benefit.Most certainly, these monuments and symbols represent tradition, but a tradition worth remembering only as one of the leading shameful eras in our national story, and not as one to romanticize or admire. These symbols actually inspire people to violence while for many others, they bring to the surface a legacy of oppression and pain.Under the guise of preserving tradition, proponents of keeping Confederate symbolism fail to realize that most of the monuments were erected well after the Civil War toward the end of the 19th and into the 20th-century. Southerners imposed these monuments primarily as a weapon of intimidation against Black people in the Jim Crow South, during what has come to be known as the Redemption Period.The so-called redeemers included a coalition of the southern faction of the Bourbon Democrats, a very conservative and pro-business arm of the Democratic Party whose stated goal of redemption was to rid the South of liberal Republicans, northern carpetbaggers, and scalawags (poorer non-slaveholding whites).Germany, though, offers a good model to place the past into a truer and proper perspective.Germany initiated its denazification campaign. It is long overdue for the U.S. to initiate its deconfederization campaign.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.