Should we forgive, and if we forgive, does that equate to forgetting?
Until only a few days ago, Allianz, a German insurance company, and the largest international insurance and financial services organization in the world, was engaged in talks with the New York Jets and Giants of the NFL for naming rights of the new Meadowlands stadium. Talks ended on Friday due to a large public outcry when many discovered Allianz had insured facilities at Auschwitz and other concentration camps six decades ago. How this can infuriate so many is both credible and warranted. However, a change in perspective can alter this argument. Looking from the outside in, Nazi Germany was run by horrific leaders and the events that took place throughout the entire Holocaust were brutal, inhumane, and shall never be repeated, to say the least. However, from a German standpoint (and not in favor of the Nazi Party), Allianz does not look as bad as projected to be. In World War II, Allianz was put into a situation that many other German people and business were faced with: join the Third Reich and the Nazi Party, or be killed by the Nazi Party. It was a kill or get killed nation in Germany, and while there were gentiles, most Germans were forced into joining the Nazi Party and being a part of the regime. As far as Allianz was concerned, they were the largest insurance company in all of Germany at the time. Had they wanted to keep their lives, let alone maintain their business, the leaders of Allianz were almost literally forced at gunpoint to provide insurance for the Nazi camps and headquarters. While the decision is controversial, what other alternatives could this company possibly have? Had they not provided the insurance to the Nazi Party, they could have had their buildings bombed, their offices destroyed, their homes burnt to pieces, and their families murdered. This wasn’t by any stretch a normal time in history, especially in Nazi Germany. It is referred to as Nazi Germany because...