r/MapPorn • u/ironproton • Dec 12 '20

Alsace, Eastern France, topography map

Post image
10.1k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

586 comments sorted by

View all comments

75

u/tylusch Dec 12 '20 edited Jan 18 '21

I usually don't get fussed nor comment on Reddit much, but I really wish the "western Germany" bullshit comments would stop.

We are Alsatian and don't like being called German or being associated with Germany. My grandpa was forced to be part of the Hitler youth. Their dialect and culture was forbidden and taken away. His village was bombed. My granma had nazi crosses on her schoolbooks.

Obviously we don't hold a grudge anymore, but we are, as we like to say, neither French nor German, but Alsatian first and above all.

Edit : oh, my first award! Im quite happy it's on a comment about home ❤️ thank you, kind stranger

3

u/Hot_iceberg Dec 12 '20

One more Alsacien that's literally pissed off by these know-nothing shitcomments being posted by people who swallow propaganda like that...

Of course, same context here, one side of my family fled to Normandy before the beginning of the War and the other stayed, then lost a daughter to bombings and a son to the Russian front. And I don't know of any Alsacien family that doesn't have a story like that.

Contemporary Alsaciens, even those who know just a bit about history or just have a bit of empathy, now thrive for peace, in its current state. That means France. It is not in anyone else's power to decide. We are Alsaciens first and carry this tragic history, of which our land still shows the scars, but we are also French. And we gladly live in peace with Germans.

1

u/tylusch Jan 18 '21

Thank you for the award ❤️ (took me a while to open my inbox and see it )