Quote:
Originally Posted by generalderpanzertruppen
I often wonder when I'm watching our own Anzac day marches through the streets of cities and towns in Australia, why, after all these decades, German vets can't have a similar thing. I guess you probably couldn't have Waffen-SS units marching, or Polizei units, too many bad memories. However, I don't see why regualar Heer, Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine units couldn't march.
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Veterans of those organizations probably "could" march but certainly in the first decades after the war it was not done most likely out of shame and for political reasons. Since the end of war is now more than 60 years ago, there are few left able to march, much less to organize such events. Add to that the political backlash it would cause (right or wrong) and these old men would probably just rather stay home.
Organized memorials for war dead at cemetaries and churches are another thing. Even losers in war should honor their war dead. Most on both sides were innocent conscriptees, and even volunteers are more often motivated by patriotism than by ideology. We in the US honor our dead from Vietnam, a war that we lost, and those veterans march on our national holidays.