Rachel Lee wrote:

>Yesterday, here in Los Angeles, the tragic events at the Jewish Day Camp
>haunted me all day.  I was sitting in a restaurant (where I dine regularly)
>reading "Twilight of the Wagners." There is a photo of Hitler on the cover
>of the book standing with Wolfgang and Wieland.  A waiter I know came up to
>me and said, " I knew you were German, but I didn't know you were a Nazi as
>well." This for just reading a book with Hitler's photo on it!
>
>Wagner is a trigger, like a confederate flag is to African-Americans.  Must
>I feel ashamed, (collective guilt?) for listening to Wagner? For READING a
>book with AH's photo on it? All day yesterday, I felt ashamed to be German.
>Why? Have we overdone the guilt thing? Have I been reading too much
>Gottfried Wagner?

So far as I'm concerned, nobody need be ashamed for being German or for
liking Wagner.  So far as being German is concerned, nobody need be ashamed
for something s/he hasn't done or been an accessory to.  Most of the guilty
Germans are probably dead by now anyway.

And being suspected of being a Nazi for reading a book, even, as *Twilight
of the Wagners* isn't, a book espousing Nazi principles doesn't make you a
Nazi, as you might have explained to your critical waiter (who apparently
at least knew enough to be anti-Nazi).

So far as liking Wagner is concerned, you might meet with well-meant
disagreement about your like, even on nonmusical ideological grounds,
but that by itself is no cause for shame.

Walter Meyer