-- Berlin (dpa) -- The success of a British television programme in which celebrities investigate their ancestry has prompted a German broadcaster to copy the concept, but what do the celebs say if their ancestors turn out to have been Nazis?While researching my own family history, I discovered my great-grandmother had a thing for sailors and coal miners. It made her, in my eyes anyway, more interesting, more human.
You can choose to bury facts about your ancestors, or you can try to understand their choices.
So far, family history has yet to catch on as a mass pastime in Germany. Its upswing under the Nazis, when people had to prove non- Jewish pedigrees, has given genealogy a bad name in Germany, many practitioners admit.Making stuff up... or burying all the nasty bits means you're only fooling yourself.
Just like in the big, bad real world.
Technorati Tags: genealogy, family history, revisionism
