hiver

The Holocaust wasn't a uniquely bad genocide, it was a uniquely sensationalized genocide. The way it's covered gives people the false impression that such affairs aren't sadly par for the course in history, as well as subliminally conditioning people to generally see certain groups as evil, and others as victims that must be protected. In the American context, violent suppression of German identity and the stoking of anti-German sentiment had been going on since WWI. France was even more rabidly anti-German in this timeframe, ethnically cleansed Alsace-Lorraine of Germans, and also committed war crimes against Germany during the Occupation of the Ruhr, which could have been much worse if the move wasn't so popular amongst France's allies. During and after WW2, massive ethnic cleansing of Germans took place everywhere east of Germany's present borders, with those who refused to leave being sent to Siberia/etc. The Nazis were probably totally right about Polish mistreatment of German minorities in the 1930s, even though it's largely dismissed as a fabrication to justify war today.

I've done the same I was taking courses at uni but they're really strict with attendance policy dropping grades and I already had trouble regulating a sleep schedule when depression and anxiety issues made it so much more difficult. Now I'm just learning online with duolingo and French friends at my own pace and it feels a lot better not to associate a language with that kind of stress. If I become fluent this way, my university can accredit me with a really cheap test too.