Only late in 1999 did the French government pass laws that would return confiscated Jewish property to the children and grandchildren of the original owners. The guilt of being traitors to French civilization was hidden so deep within their collective unconscious for decades that France officially insisted there was no stolen property to return. Few of the European aristocrats and their police enforcers were like the brave people of Denmark and Bulgaria who held steady to their values to battle the Germans. The Danish and the Bulgarian police were the only European cops who collectively chose to support their own people rather than betray them. They organized the resistance underground, saving virtually all Danish and Bulgarian Jews and freezing in place two Wermacht heavy weapons infantry divisions needed badly by the Germans in Normandy on D-Day. It is quite likely that those twenty-five thousand additional troops on the bluffs over Omaha Beach would have swept the D-Day invasion force of Britons and Americans into the sea and left Europe under the conqueror 's heel.
In other words --
While all humans are genetically and emotionally tempted to be selfish and narcissistic enough to cause conflicts and wars, if we live with ethical virtues and spiritual values, of the kind that Moses, Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed taught, if we lay aside our contrived self-deceptions, we can live far more peacefully within ourselves and among others. We can enjoy meaningful activities in places of the heart where we belong with the people with whom we share love and acceptance.
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