I recently watched a momentous vintage movie and was struck by its dialogue that reminded me of what’s happening in Gaza (and elsewhere). I offer what I feel are the most relevant verbatim dialogue extracts in the hope that a peaceful and just solution to the conflict arrives sooner than later…

They became subject to what was necessary
for the protection of the country.

without any trial whatsoever…
and put into concentration camps.
…by which hundreds of persons were arrested
and placed in concentration camps.

There was a motto at Buchen:
“Break the body…
“break the spirit…
“break the heart.

But one can’t live with hate, I know that.
We have to forget, if we are to go on living

I feel ashamed that such things
could have taken place in my country.

Is it trying to prove
that the German people as a whole…
were responsible for these events?
Or that they were even aware of them?

The truth is…
that these brutalities were brought about
by the few extremists.

Do you want the Americans
to stay here forever? Do you want that?
I could show you a picture
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Thousands and thousands
of burned bodies.
Women and children.
Is that their superior morality?

one must understand the period
in which it happened.
There was a fever over the land.
A fever of disgrace, of indignity, of hunger.
We had a democracy, yes.
But it was torn by elements within.
Above all, there was fear:
Fear of today, fear of tomorrow…
fear of our neighbors…
and fear of ourselves.

It was the old story of the sacrificial lamb.
What about those of us who knew better?
We who knew the words were lies,
and worse than lies?
Why did we sit silent?
Why did we take part?
Because we loved our country.

What difference does it make
if a few racial minorities lose their rights?

And then, one day, we looked around…
and found that we were
in an even more terrible danger.

Where were we when our neighbours
were being dragged out…
in the middle of the night to Dachau?
Where were we when every village
in Germany has a railroad terminal…
where cattle cars were filled with children…
being carried off to their extermination?
Where were we
when they cried out in the night to us?
Were we deaf? Dumb? Blind?