No, they don't Aug. 26, 2006

One of the things I wanted answering during the summer in going to Germany for the World Cup was, (as well as are we the best fans or the best team) how could Germany fall under Hitler’s spell ? On Channel 4 last night was a documentary about the Nuremberg Trials, centered around Hitler’s Number 2 Goerring. So persuasive was Goerring’s manner that, whilst in captivity, awaiting trial and then execution, he managed to charm the American guards into giving him things. Indeed the cyanide that escaped him from the gallows. Bizarrely the American soldiers kept asking for all the Nazi war criminals autographs. Goerring, for his further part, kept maintaining that Germans “would think of us as heroes in 50 years and appreciate what we were trying to do”.

No, they don’t.