# Do Jews hold grudge against Germans? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 18, 2012, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668 "2012-07-18T22:43:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![markdash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@markdash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdash)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668/21 "2012-07-19T17:45:49Z")
I don’t self-identify as Jewish, but my paternal great-grandparents were killed at Maly Trostenets, and my paternal grandfather spent some time in a concentration camp before being released (he was US born but grew up in Vienna). That said, I don’t have a personal grudge against Germans. I drive an Audi and have no compunction about talking to Germans or buying German products. I guess I don’t see the point of holding a country or people accountable for something they had no part in. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668/22 "2012-07-19T18:09:11Z")
> [@Plan\_B](#): > > I’m not Jewish but a lot of my closer friends and co-workers have been. At least one of them finds the idea of compensation pretty awful. In his case his mother survived through dumb luck and charity and several older siblings and her parents were killed. This was a very gifted family intellectually and the loss is immeasurable. He’s never asked for or received any compensation and he prefers to just earn his own money, which he does, quite well. My mother tells the story of my grandfather, who was mad enough to spit when he found out that a cousin of his had used the “compensation” money to buy a TV. He said it was “blood money,” and gave it to charity. ---
**Author:** ![RetroVertigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@RetroVertigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RetroVertigo)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668/23 "2012-07-19T20:01:38Z")
I root against their soccer team. ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668/24 "2012-07-19T20:44:57Z")
My grandmother certainly didn’t like Germans, or anything german really. She lost relatives in the camps, so its understandable. My mother is anti-german in the abstract knee-jerk sense, although when challenged, she’ll freely admit that it isn’t based on anything other than what her mother told her, and will admit that its ridiculous. Out of all the European countries I’ve visited (and I’ve visited lots), Germany is my favorite. I frankly LOVE germany. Its a great place. Friendly people, beautiful countryside, the BEER; I’ve abstractly occasionally thought about moving there. And I love german products, very high quality. To answer the OP, I think its generational. The older the jew, the more likely they are to dislike Germany/Germans. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668/25 "2012-07-19T20:51:40Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > Mr. Neville’s grandfather, who died last year, wouldn’t buy a German car. He fought the Germans in WWII. His wife still gets compensation from the German government for her time in a concentration camp. The car thing is as far as his dislike of Germans and Germany went, as far as I know, though. > > Mr. Neville doesn’t want to travel to Germany. He didn’t seem to care much when I rented a car and got a VW Jetta, but it might be a different story if I were to want to buy a German car. I worked with guys who fought in the Pacific who died at a ripe old age still hating the Japanese. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668/26 "2012-07-19T20:54:13Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > In an interview, someone once asked Hitler who he was most afraid of and his answer was “Berliners.” Because they were made with lard and he was a vegetarian :ba dump bump ssss: ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668/27 "2012-07-19T21:44:39Z")
> [@grude](#): > > This could be what is known as a joke though. My German buddy Chris’ father [who was Hitler Youth] joked about my WW2 vintage slog-through-Germany father[13th Armored] that he promised not to shoot him if they meet if my father would promise not to shoot at him 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Intelligently\_Designed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intelligently_designed/32/20957_2.png) [@Intelligently\_Designed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intelligently_Designed)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668/28 "2012-07-19T21:53:16Z")
A very interesting look at this issue: [Evan Kaufmann](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/sports/a-jewish-american-hockey-player-at-historys-indelible-crossroad.html?pagewanted=all) is an American-born Jewish hockey player who has chosen to play for Germany. ---
**Author:** ![Imago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668/29 "2012-07-19T23:13:26Z")
One of my closest friends all through school, born in 1992, was the daughter of a Jewish lit professor and German piano teacher. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668/30 "2012-07-19T23:22:45Z")
I don’t blame people for atrocities committed before they were born. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668/31 "2012-07-19T23:29:43Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > His wife still gets compensation from the German government for her time in a concentration camp. You get compensation for that ? My non Jewish dad was in a German concentration camp. I wonder if his estate is owed any compensation money ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668/32 "2012-07-19T23:52:57Z")
My mother, uncle and grandparents were Japanese POW’s for pretty much the entire war. They were in Indonesia at the time & my grandfather was in the Dutch army there. He was captured in action & spent the war working on the [Thai-Burma Railway](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma_Railway) and then helped with the graves registraton teams recovering/identifying bodies, so he had little love for the Japanese. My mother, uncle & grandmother were in a civilian camp on Java and had it pretty bad as well. We have one family heirloom from then, a lace Christening gown that my grandmother was able to hide from the guards for the duration. My oldest son was baptised in it a few years ago. 🙂 They don’t have a lot of time for the Japanese either. They held different kinds of grudges. My grandfather hated the soldiers who were guarding them but was OK with the rest of Japan, while my mother had more of a general dislike of the Japanese from the wartime generation and was somewhat biased people born after the war, she has moved past that in the last 15 years. She wouldn’t travel to Japan with my father a few years ago when she had the chance though. After the war they returned to Holland and eventually came to Australia because they didn’t like the place after the Nazi’s had gotten through with it. Which is why my grandparents _really_ hated the Nazi’s even thought they never encountered them. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668/33 "2012-07-19T23:56:54Z")
I know more than one person who would never buy a German car, including me, and more than a few, including me, who relish making fun of Germans. So, yeah. No shit a lot of Jews don’t like those crypto-Nazi motherfuckers. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668/34 "2012-07-19T23:59:27Z")
I really hate questions like this and I wish people would stop separating ‘Jew’ from ‘insert nationality here’. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668/35 "2012-07-20T00:06:38Z")
> [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](#): > > You get compensation for that ? My non Jewish dad was in a German concentration camp. I wonder if his estate is owed any compensation money I know she does get compensation money of some sort from the German government. I’m not sure why, though I do know she was in a camp. I’m also not sure what will happen with it when she dies. > [@Loach](#): > > I worked with guys who fought in the Pacific who died at a ripe old age still hating the Japanese. My grandfather fought in the Pacific. He died in 1990, and I don’t think he liked the Japanese very much until the day he died. I’m kind of surprised he doesn’t haunt me now for driving a Honda Civic. It’s greatly to his credit that he was able to make an exception in the case of my aunt and cousins (one of his sons was in the military, was stationed in Japan, and married a Japanese woman). From what I heard from the family, this was a very difficult adjustment for him to make. But make it he did. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668/36 "2012-07-20T00:18:07Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > However, I do know that my aunt, who actually is a Holocaust survivor (she was in Bergen-Belsen, among other places) will not buy German products if she can help it. My paternal grandfather felt that way. He was a veteran who entered Auschwitz after it was liberated and I know he wouldn’t buy German cars. ---
**Author:** ![gvozd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gvozd/32/7301_2.png) [@gvozd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gvozd)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668/37 "2012-07-20T00:37:24Z")
> [@Farmer\_Jane](#): > > I really hate questions like this and I wish people would stop separating ‘Jew’ from ‘insert nationality here’. Hate leads to the dark side. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668/38 "2012-07-20T00:44:00Z")
I don’t know what you’re on about, Farmer Janet, but the people I’m talking about identify as Jews – I know they’re probably white or whatever, but that’s their family and their culture. What’s the problem? Me, I’m not culturally Jewish but I still have the idea. What are you on about, man? ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668/39 "2012-07-20T00:49:35Z")
Well, I’m a plain ol’ white-ass Gentile-American, and I kind of hold a grudge against Germany. Hearing German spoken gives me the shivers. I think every German alive today should thank their lucky stars that their country isn’t a steaming crater. So I guess some people are just grudge holders, is what I’m saying. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668/40 "2012-07-20T00:58:49Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I’ll assume the thing about compensation comes from ignorance. The idea that Germany has somehow compensated the Jewish people for attempted extermination would not go over well with any Jews I know. West Germany (and I think Germany since reunification) gave Israel some monetary and military aid, for what it’s worth. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-jews-hold-grudge-against-germans/628668.md?page=3)