An addition to the last post

I was thinking more about what took place in the conversation between the German assistant, myself and the other teachers. And, it was fascinating to me because it seemed that was really going on was family stories intersecting in unique way and revoloving around a famous historical event. One of the teachers was Jewish. She said that it was always difficult for her to look at older German people because she was always asking heself, "what were they doing when the Nazi's killed off my people and my family?" She said this to the German assistant, which I was quite surprised, but the German assistant responded well and told the story she did about how it was that her family was involved with the Nazis. She didn't deny that there was involvement but she gave a fuller picture of her grand father's family's perspective. It was not denial or ignoring, but telling the full story. Although I was not able to share this with the other teachers, due to lack of time, but even my family intersected here as well. My grandfather served in WWII and went to the Normandy beaches. He helped set France free from German rule. The other French teachers could understand how important of an event that certainly was. It was curious that there were 4 of us standing there telling our family's stories and each one had a different familial involvement with one monumental historical event. That sort of interaction doesn't happen everyday, and it was a special moment for me and the rest of us.