General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: When will Congress enact anti-Nazi laws similar to Germany's Strafgesetzbuch section 86a? [View all]marybourg
(12,626 posts)Germany was defeated in war; a war caused by Germany's actions.
After the war there was a period of occupation by Allied forces, and war crimes trials which went on for several years and ended in execution for some. Germany underwent the process of "de-nazification" under the occupation, wherein all the symbols and speech of the LOSING SIDE in the war were banned.
This was a sort of symbolic punishment for Germany's institutions, in lieu of the kind of punishment usually meted out to countries that lose a war. We didn't take their treasure, we didn't take their women and children, we didn't force them to speak English. They were forced to pay reparations to certain countries and people and to give up the use of their wartime symbols.
After the Allied occupation ended, Germany decided that its history demanded the keeping in place of the ban on the symbols of the party that caused Germany's slide into terror and war. That was Germany's call. Our history doesn't demand such abridgment of our right to free speech.