Survey: Germans Annoyed About Holocaust Guilt.

By Reuters

Almost 70 percent of Germans said they were annoyed at being held responsible for the Holocaust and many believe Jews use Germany's Nazi past to their advantage, a major German university survey showed on Thursday.

The survey by Bielefeld University showed 69.9

percent were irritated at still being held responsible today for crimes against Jews. A quarter of 3,000 people surveyed also agreed with the statement: "Many Jews try to use Germany's Third Reich past to their advantage and want to make Germans pay for it". A further 30 percent said there was "some truth" to the statement.

Some 60 years after the end of World War Two, Germany is still haunted by guilt and it has spent decades debating how to atone for the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis. Endorsing the survey, German parliamentary president Wolfgang Thierse said he understood why so many wanted to shed the guilt for what happened before they were born. He said the survey did not prove there is widespread anti-Jewish sentiment.

"It's a surprising figure at first. But when you think about the thought process behind it, it is understandable," he said. "The people alive now are not the perpetrators." There was a new distinction between guilt and a responsibility to stop history repeating itself, he said.