No country is without sin. And nobody has a clean slate. There are a lot of unpalatable secrets lurking in any country’s history and present. Even though it might be uncomfortable dragging them into the spotlight, acknowledging these less-than-savory facts is the first step to solving the issues in the first place.
The redditors living in Europe opened up about the dark facts about their home countries in a brutally honest thread over on r/AskEurope. These facts might not be for everyone, so fair warning, some of the things you might read are darker than dark.
If you’d like to share some lesser-known dark secrets about your home country, Pandas, you can do so in the comment section once you’re done reading this list.
This post may include affiliate links.
Spain.
During the Francoist regime, many single mothers were told their newborn children were dead. They weren’t allowed to see the corpse, and the baby, which wasn’t dead, was given to a married couple. Many years later, the graves of many of these supposedly dead babies were found to be empty. This was done with the absolute cooperation of the Catholic church.
Not just given. SOLD BY CATHOLIC CURCH. They took about 50.000 babies in less then 3 decades and made BILLIONS !!
England. I don’t know how unknown this is but Alan Turing who helped to break Nazis’ enigma code was arrested for being gay and was chemically castrated by the government he helped years ago. He was banned from GCHQ and the US which greatly effected his career. He killed himself in 1954.
This is a well known fact. They even made a movie about it starring Benedict Counterstrike
In Italy a r*pist could marry his victim to avoid any legal persecution (this practice was called "matrimonio riparatore"). The women were pressed to accept the marriage to avoid social shame. Franca Viola, in 1948, was the first woman to refuse to marry her r*pist, but this practice was abolished by law only in 1981.
User u/AkruX explained that they were inspired to create the thread on r/AskEurope after learning that their home country, the Czech Republic (aka Czechia), was at one point ranked the third-worst slavery haven in the entirety of Europe. They were completely shocked by this.
Very recently, Bored Panda spoke to Brooke Burris, who chairs the Tri-County Human Trafficking Task Force in the Charleston area in South Carolina. She went into detail with us about human trafficking. It’s a deep-seated problem that is global, not located in just any one or two countries.
According to Brooke, people care about fighting against human trafficking more when they realize that it’s a local problem.
Sweden used to treat Sami natives in northen Sweden as second class citizens for the longest time and we barely learn about it in school. As late as the 70s Sami children were still forcefully taken from their Sami parents and adopted by Swedish parents to ”make them Swedish”
Norway. How terrible we have suppressed the Sami people and how we forcefully assimilated them in order to “fit in” with the “Norwegian culture”. And how the racism against them still exist very much to this day. They are still treated horrible by Norwegians and we are barely learned anything about their history in our schools.
Poland is ranked as the most homophobic country in the EU
"The U.S. Dept. of State has recognized that trafficking is a global problem, solved on the local level through a multidisciplinary response. The more local one's focus on the nature and prevalence of the issue, the better and truer understanding one will have as to both (1) the scale of trafficking and (2) how they specifically can take ownership of the problem and become a part of the solution,” she explained.
The expert noted that human trafficking is a far broader and more complex problem than it’s presented in movies.
"Kidnapping and using physical force/coercion is only one means by which a trafficker can control a victim," she said.
NOBODY answered from the USA!? SO MANY...but I've always thought that how the land was taken from the original inhabitants one of the worst things this 'land of the free' has done.
The massacres, the forced relocations, the infecting with smallpox, the loss of their identity as independent peoples...the list just goes on.
Continued up until taking Hawaii away from the ruling monarchy in the 1800's.
No one haven't because it is such a recent and new nation there aren't much in the end. (Not saying there isn't at all, but their history is still quite short, and nothing they did hasn't been done before by others.)
Or done by thos eothers before the US existed as its own country :-( Everyone forgets the French, English, Dutch and Spanish (whoops, and Portuguese) did so much, way before 1776. It's frightening what colonizers did in the Americas. The ruthlessness...
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As a US citizen with Native American ancestors believe me, we are not okay with any of this. We are still fighting to get some of our original lands back to this day. If you can prove 10% Native American ancestry you can receive some benefits but it’s hard to do.
My ancestry is merely 7% Native American, and I fully support all moves to restore what *can* be restored, tho' I get zero from it.
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I agree that these are all bad, but the question was in r/askEurope. Of course nobody answered from the USA
No, because we're busy working on new and interesting ways to set our country back at least 100 years in terms of rights of women and people of color. We don't have time to get all historical. Stay tuned for the turning back the calendar to 1695 as we make women get papers travel saying they aren't pregnant. I wish I was kidding.
That's third, at best fourth wave feminisim ideology. Any feminisim sprotting from the U.S. must recognize the genocide of the original community and current native rights. If you're interested in learning, you can look in to MMIW (Murdered Missing Indigenous Community) or Two Spirt movements. You're welcome to support our movements but please do not deny the current work of the native community
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Up until the 1800s? What about the federal government stealing native land for oil pipelines in North Dakota? That's still going on.
And the fact that the U.S. still has colonies... in 2022. Trump's response to the hurricane in Puerto Rico was appalling.
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Get angry that the red states putting out textbooks lying about how the native Americans really were super happy to be relocated from green livable lands to dead deserts and have cut out the massacres completely.
Oh, and don't forget the same textbooks claim slaves happily joined the Confederate States of America's armies.!
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I'm from Hawaii, not a native mind you. I was born at an army hospital due to my father being stationed there. I have always thought how terrible it was that the US took Hawaii away from its people. Just because it was a strategic place for our ships. They never asked for that. The US should be ashamed of itself.
Look, no offense or anything, but usually countries don't ask before they take land. Hawaiians still live in Hawaii, but it now belongs to the US.
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what about Japanese concentration camps. or mostly erasing the natives language and culture by forcing their children to boarding schools, you know like in Canada. CIA interfering with democratic elect governments throughout central and south America....there is list
You're a complete and total idiot. The Japanese were not in concentration camps. They were placed in interment camps, because of the threat that they could be working with Japan. They weren't put in gas chambers, or ovens, or starved.
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No matter what the post is about in regards to america, someone always starts talking about Trump. For him or against him, he's not even if office anymore. Give it a rest.
Load More Replies... As someone who fought to get Indian mascots removed from sports for OVER 30 YEARS and it’s just been done in the past five, I could tell you absolute horror stories about my family on the Trail of Tears.
@ZAPanda, do you have *any* idea how many languages that is, or that many of the languages are forever lost, no speakers left? Do you have any idea how to suddenly make everyone give back two continents? And they're called reservations. Or "the rez", as we say. My great-greats' tribe is gone; survivors were thrown in with other tribes form th eregion, regardless of actual affiliations or language or so forth. And in many cases, nobody speaks the language. Nor has for about 100 years. And some tribes would consider it insulting to have the languages taught in schools attended by anyone but tribe members. It's variable across both Americas. It's easy to say "Demand!" from a distance, but when you live with the people, are friends with them, talk to them, you realize it's not some monolithic identity. In any given state, you might have four or five or zero indigenous languages! Which do you choose to fund?.... Yeah... It's discussed a lot, but making it work? Not so simple.
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Racism is still going strong in the US. People aren't born racist they are taught.
As a proud Native American from the Choctaw tribe, I thank you kindly for your wonderful words.
before i went to the u.s., i thought it was the land of celebrities and reality tv, obviously i was wrong
Also 8 k er visits and we don't actually elect our president. Roll back on womens rights . Many states a rapist can get parental rights. Child marriages are not outlawed in most states with parental permission. Gun deaths at school and on the road
1893 to be honest about Hawaii. Before that the white businessman forced king Kalakaua to sign the bayonet constitution, making the king a puppet and the white businessman in charge. They also wanted the US to get rid of tariffs on the exports, so they quietly reached out to the US government to declare Hawaii a territory. It's quite messed up and they wonder why we hate the United States in Hawaii over this, at leastthe local Hawaiian people do. Our home was stolen!!
More of an isolated incident here in the US but the Osage murders were pretty freaking heinous. A whole tribe of people almost entirely wiped out, murdered, so that whites could claim their oil rights. There's a great book (and soon to be released movie) called Killers of the Flower Moon that goes into this incident in detail and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in this tragedy.
American here. Yes, too many to count. However, the link was for facts that people don't know. I think everyone in the world but the majority of Americans know what our country has done. We have our heads in the sand and our news puts rose colored glasses on what we do abroad. I only learned a lot of what was done when I starting back packing around the world. Was shocked to read some children's history books from other countries.
It continued well past the annexation of Hawaii, and native Americans are still far behind in almost every quality-of-life measure.
We really effed over Hawaii. They were a sovereign nation but we needed their islands as a stop along the way to Asia. We rewarded their hospitality by annexing them and deposing their leadership.
and Arizon, New Mexico, Florida, California, Texas, LA, Nevada, etc.
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My country has so many things wrong with it, it's embarrassing
Luckily many of these things have started being taught to students like myself, so I’d say we’re making some progress (I also live in a very, teach all the history, county and my school is very deep diving into history)
I don't know why you're being downvoted. It's important to learn honest history, and I'm glad your school is teaching more of it. When you graduate, I'm sure you will continue to learn things not taught in your school. Even schools that try to be open wind up censoring some of the more shameful and overtly cruel parts of history. (I'm happy to share some examples if you want, but also, it's okay not to be exposed to the worst of humanity as a teenager. If you let your imagination wander, you can probably imagine some of it.)
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These were never things that "not many people know". 'Most everyone knows about it. The only people that tried to play it down were Americans.
Have you seen American school books? Believe me, the genocide was well hidden. A lot of cities had laws outlawing natives practicing their culture publicly until the 1980's... so yea wounds are fresh
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Forced sterilizations, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. Btw: Forced sterilizations were still happening in southern states as late as the early 2000s with no accountability. Doctors were performing unnecessary C-Sections on pregnant women, then giving them tubal ligations without ever saying a word or charting the procedures. These are the same southern states that are currently attempting to make abortions illegal.
It's an holocaust of it's own. Luckily the nazis didn't succed with the final goals of their genocide. The US did.
By the way American has done this to a lot of people first it was native Americans than it was African Americans than it was people that came from Italy and other countries than it was the Chinese and Japanese and Germans during world war 1 and 2. We are the worst place for this. I know there where times in history where we did to each other. There are probably some things you know they hide.
American been good for that but a lot of people through history have done it to in different countries it all about power. It is sad indeed. So mean native American indigenous people where whipped from this earth it was wrong. My mother was 1/2 native American. When I think about it makes me sad all the movies don't do it justice. It just so sad.
That is because there is so much. You know most Americans don't even understand the volume of disgust that comes from our own. The government tells us that it's everyone else who is terrorizing the world. When In fact we are the worst. They tell us Muslims are evil when in fact they are not. They tell us that all middle eastern people are womanizers and it goes on and on and people go along with what ever they tell us instead of educating themselves. Our history books tell us complete lies. They tell us Christopher Columbus was a hero and celebrate him when infact he was not at all a hero. There is some beautiful things we have here and I am grateful for many things but it's all a smoke screen.
Everyone in the world already knows what atrocious dumbasses we are - this thread is about "little known" facts.
No one answered because alot of us acknowledge it openly. My school textbooks taught alot of that when I was growing up (some they didn't... like how we stole Hawaii)
Those are all really well known things, though.I thought this thread was supposed to be about things most people don't know about. Here's a few off the top of my head that people can Google if they like: The Wilmington Coup, Mexican school segregation, The Ludlow Massacre, Blair Mountain. I was going to add the Tulsa massacre, but that one has gotten more press lately since its centennial was last year, but before that I don't thin many Americans had heard of it.
Another one of the worst things a lot of people seem to forget is that the USA granted immunity to the people involved with the experiments in Unit 731, in return for the results of the expirments performed there... which if you ask me, is just horrific. :/
Google the trail of tears if y'all don't know what's up. Also, look into Andrew Jackson's past.... that man WAS the devil.
We do that in America. We see it, want it, take it. We have a lot to be ashamed of.
Colonization is just how the world works .. it sucks yes but America is not unique in this .. there is not a single piece of land on this planet that hasn’t been taken over by colonization at some point ( outside of maybe like the North Pole lol ) Also the small pox thing is a bit of a myth .. germ theory took a shockingly loooong time to become valid
I just recently watched “Te Ata” on Netflix and I didn’t even know that as late as the early 1900s indigenous people were still being banned from performing any religious ceremonies or making/selling native wares, even on land they owned. Any cultural practices were made illegal in many states. It made me think how a lot of European settlers came here to escape religious persecution and even added freedom of religion to the constitution, yet they robbed indigenous people of their religions for centuries. The atrocities natives experienced are beyond horrific and inhumane - it was genocide on every level.
As far as I know, the U.S. is the only nation that has not issued a public apology for what was done to the indigenous people. The last 2 were Canada and Australia.
The request was for something that others didn’t know about your country, not what bad things has your country done. If people don’t know about the things you mentioned, they either haven’t been paying attention or they are refusing to acknowledge reality.
American propaganda is heavy in public school text books, so I'd so no, unfortunetly this is not common knowledge
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While the US has committed countless cruelties in its 250 years, most of that first part was done by European invaders before the US existed. It is estimated that disease introduced through the arrival of Spanish, French, Portuguese, and British colonies had wiped out 90% of the indigenous population in the Americas within 150 years of Columbus' arrival. As for the rest, despite attempts by conservatives to eliminate educating the future generations about it, it's not much of a secret that my country has committed some horrible things and continues to do so.
As a native person, nah, the USA is very much responsible for the genocide and the continued erasure of the native community. MMIW, pipelines, the fact that you probably haven't heard of two-spirit, etc.
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The list is too long for USA and everyone knows most of it. At least what's been revealed, would like to know what hasn't....
It shouldn't take this much scrolling to see something from the USA; overall, it's a pretty f*cked up country.
It should when this thread is based on a European reddit thread. Shouldn't even be in here at all.
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Okay, but I don't think the smallpox thing was intentional, also, wasn't that before the U.S.A. became a country? Anyhow, I think that not a lot of people commented because a LOT of people already know. We've done quite a bit.
Sorry, the “smallpox thing” was absolutely by intent. Once the invaders realized Native Americans had no protection against smallpox (wouldn’t have been understood as a virus at the time but they sure as heck understood that indigenous peoples died most of the time) they were deliberately given blankets that had previously been used to cover people suffering from smallpox. An early and shaming example of biological warfare.
Load More Replies... I love my USA. We have many faults, but we are a pretty great country.
I'm not an expert but smallpox and VD were probably unintentional due to immune systems not being exposed prior to the intro of such diseases by the invaders.
I figured everyone just knows how horrible our country is. We as a nation are a horrible people, from when we first got here and raped the land and people to today.
Australia. Basically everything to do with the First Nations/Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Mostly the stolen generations but there was a whole lot more f*cked up sh*t.
The stories about stolen generations is so terribly sad and heartbreaking. Children ripped away from their mothers arms to be brought up by others (whites). This has caused so much damage it's indescribable. https://www.commonground.org.au/learn/the-stolen-generations#:~:text=The%20Stolen%20Generations%20refers%20to,through%20a%20policy%20of%20assimilation.
Turkey. There is overwhelming violence against women in Turkey. And the first thing [anyone] asks: well, what was she wearing?, what is she doing there this late?
"In fact, according to a report of prosecuted sex trafficking cases in the U.S., 59% of coercive tactics used by traffickers were non-physical, compared to 41% of tactics involving physical coercion. Further, transportation is merely one type of action used by a trafficker,” Brooke told us.
Though it’s unlikely that human trafficking will be fully rooted out globally or in any particular country, it is vital to limit its scope.
“Until the Lord comes, I think evil will always exist in our world. Therefore, if I'm honest, I don't think we will be able to eradicate human trafficking entirely," Brooke said that it’s important to keep fighting injustice, but it’s equally vital to be realistic about the scope of the problem.
Spain is only second to Cambodia for missing persons cases that were never resolved.
There is a government run online search tool for finding mass graves.
France. Forced sterilization of intellectually disabled people was a very common thing until the early 2000s. There's now a law requiring consent since 2001, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn forced sterilization still happens.
Actually I heard of this happening in Lithuania to this day. The reason why? Because when a mentally disabled person lives in a mixed-sexes institution, it's impossible to keep them away and romance does happen more often than you think. (I don't know what happens to same sex institution). Unfortunately people there often don't realise they should use birth control ( because of their permeant mental conditions). The person is unable to care for their child so the baby would end up in an orphanage which would hurt both: parents and the child. I know it's a controversial topic and it's hard to decide what is right or wrong here.
Portugal has massive problem with domestic violence (including femicide and child abuse). Strict catholic patriarchy was THE rule until 1974, so it's still hanging around in older generations and trickling down on their descendants. And most offenders get off with a slap on the wrist because we still have courts full of old ass judges.
I think many people, that don't live in german-speaking countries, don't know that Austria was a fascist dictatorship for 4 years before the Anschluss
they surrendered without firing one shot in 1938 and embraced the Nazis...after the war they considered themself as the first victims of Nazi Germany....
Huge collaboration of Dutch people during WW2 , snitching where people were hiding. Supporting the Nazis, joining the forces.
The Dutch railway company (NS) transported Jews, Sinti and Roma to Germany.
Royal Dutch Shell reported their jewish employees to the Nazis to be deported.
All occupied countries had an element of collaboration, collaborators were mostly looking out for themselves although there was a lot of score settling too, people are people the world over.
Netherlands. In 1620, the Dutch East India Company committed genocide on the people on the Indonesian Banda Islands, under the flag of the Dutch fleet. Murdered 95% of the population as punishment. Their crime? Selling nutmeg to the Portuguese and the English.
I don't even like nutmeg that much. Their population still isn't at the level it was before the genocide.
In Ireland we were under such control of the Catholic church until 2000s. Our constitution was drawn up with their approval and still says that women have a role in the home. Anyway the control of the church meant that the church got away with shielding and transferring paedophile priests ( well known). The not so well known was the following three things outside Ireland are:
Mother and baby homes - This was where unwed mothers were brought. They were a shamed, has their children taken away. The children either died or were adopted illegally to Irish and American families. They also burned their records and one in Tuam Co Galway dumped the bodies of many children who died in a septic tank (tank where sewage is stored from houses not connected to the main sewage system).
Magdalene Laundries - this was where runways and some troubles were brought. They were slaves in a laundry and received nothing and were treated terribly and the religious orders made money off the backs of this slavery. The last one wasn't closed till the 90s which is messed up.
Also corporal punishment in schools until the late 60s early 70s especially in industrial schools (some of which were for troubled boys and the abuse there was messed up.
So yes we have a dark past. Now it makes sense why there are few young Catholics in Ireland. We don't mention it much but we know and it makes me ashamed and I'm 25.
In my school we had a "priest" who had been moved for "accusations". And was moved from our school for a similar thing. But he was badly beaten, as he was coming out of the church one night. The story was that he was mugged and the contributions were stolen but we all thought if was for other reasons. This was late 80s as things were starting to change. The catholic church was losing support fast by then as the stories were coming out. Father Ted had a big effect on breaking the spell the church held over the country.
Germany. Female genital mutilation in Germany. It makes me incredibly angry as it is an more or less unpunished crime for decades now and nothing is done really.
Every few years, when sombody decides to report about it measures are announced, but nothing will be really done.
This is because the immigrants from certain countries mutilate their young girls mostly when on holiday... Unfortunately it's hard to prove and control. I think it would help if the women were better educated and taught about the consequences (bodily harm and legal). Some mothers don't want this for their daughters but are pressured by relatives... It's terribly sad.
Russia. Most Russians actually support their government and especially Putin
The regional languages in France were progressively replaced by French from 1789. Only a few are still remaining (mostly those who aren't understandable by a French speaker, like Breton, Basque, Corsican, Alsatian, Francoprovençal etc.) but apparently more than 90% of our regional languages are now dead. You only find them in regional accents.
Georgia. State of LGBT rights. They are non-existent, you can easily get killed by religious people and nobody will give a sh*t.
France. I'd say war against colonised Algeria. It is really a shameful thing involving war crimes, torture, ... A lot of veterans won't talk about it because of how ashamed they feel.
Look it up.
Lithuania often ranks among the top countries by suicide rates. It's like ~1/4000 lithunians is gonna kill themselves.
Population as of 2020 was 2.795 million according to google, so that's nearly 700 lives voluntarily lost.
United Kingdom.
King Edward VIII was a Nazi sympathiser; he and his wife visited Germany in the 30s to have dinner with Hitler and inspect SS troops.
In the 60s, he is believed to have said to a friend: "I never thought Hitler was such a bad chap."
Romania. A few years back there was a scandal of a pediatric doctor that did extremely painful medical experiments on children he was supposed to be treating, such as putting a metal rod near their backs and putting screws into their spines to "fix" scoliosis or something similar with bones he considered weren't growing properly. He mostly targeted poor families, or families with kids with weird conditions because he figured they wouldn't be able to or have the power to question his practices.
Also the fact that it's been revealed several orphanages drug the kids there and tie them to their beds to keep them compliant.
I've also read a religious article of an "exorcism" that was performed on a little kid they called posessed because "he would suddenly go very still and start shaking violently" (to anyone with a brain it's obvious he was just seizing). Instead of following the procedure for a seizure, which is making sure he isn't in danger of hurting himself by bashing his head or something, they rushed him to a church and placed him on the floor there (and it wasn't a soft floor by any means).
Or the fact that we've had gay people thrown in prison for being gay several years after communism fell (I think either late 90's or even early 00's).
Or, not that sinister but just plain stupid and more recent: the church brought "moase" (aka remains of "saints") during the current pandemic and hundreds of people just lined up to kiss them, all on the same spot too :) (it's a /s smile, don't get me wrong).
According to the Romanian Orthodox Church, epilepsy is considered a demonic possession and depression is a sign of lack of faith.
Switzerland.
"Verdingkinder" basically orphans used as slavelabor. They were often mistreated.
There is a movie about it if anyone is intrested
In Ireland homosexuality was only decriminalised in 1993, after a 16 year legal battle which ended up in the European Court of Human Rights in 1988 (it took 5 years to implement the courts ruling).
I guess colonization is a dark time for many countries, in Denmark is was no different, but often you talk about the islands is the Caribbean or Africa, but the treatment of Greenlandic people has been absolutely horrible in Denmark.
They have been treated 2. rank citizens, and everything was dictated from Denmark and they had little to no say in it. Still I have heard that higher education in Greenland is taught in Danish not Greenlandic, but they might have changed that?
Turkey. The years 1980-1983 were very dark years for Turkey - a paranoid nationalist military junta coupled with guerilla warfare in the countryside and massive political repression. Add torture in military prisons, kangaroo courts, and state-funded assassinations to that.
Pardon my French, but the bastard who caused all that died before his jail sentence was approved.
Greece. We are the only country in EU where the Sharia law is still legal.
I'm not saying this is not true, as I do not know the facts but this really sounds like b.s. Sharia law is not even 100% practiced in most majority Islamic countries. The far right in the UK makes the same claims over here and what it actually amounts to is Islamic courts of arbitration dealing with Muslims weddings, which are not recognised by UK law on account of a marriage being between 2 people over here, not 1 man and 4 women.
Italy, as many by now know, is a f****d up burocratical nightmare.
Until 1981 there was a law called "Delitto D'Onore" (= Crime in name of someones honor) that stated that people found guilty of kiling someone to maintain the familys reputation would be given a lesser conviction than someone found guilty for the same crime but for other reasons.
If a woman was found committing adultery, it was "legal" to kill her (and her lover in some instances). Of course no one batted an eye when the cheater was the husband. It was extended to families too, the brother or the father could kill a sister/daughter they found out she had an unwedded sexual relationship (EVEN IF SHE WAS SINGLE).
The most (yeah, even more) messed up part was that until 1930 (yeah they realised this was not a top notch idea earlier but still) the husband could kill the children if he knew they weren't his. (there was a weird legal part where they could be killed only if they were less than 5 days old or wasn't registred by the state Register... like AH WELL THAT MAKES IT REASONABLE)
I repeat, the law for Honors Killing was in place until 1981!!
And some people still act as if it was reasonable. No wonders we struggle to eradicate what we call "femminicidio" (=femalemurder, is a term used for the death of women that could be prevented if laws against abuse in marriages/relationship was taken seriously and action taken promptly) to this day.
I never knew this was a thing in Italy. Middle East and south east Asia, yes. Italy...no.
I don't know if it's not known but Italy passed racial laws during WWII.
More recent: the "trattativa stato mafia" aka "state-mafia negotiations" in 1993 and 1994.
Essentially it was a secret negotiation between very high government figures and Sicilian Mafia chiefs, at the end of the "massacre season" in which Mafia carried out literal terrorist attacks, since there was a very strong battle against them carried out by the Palermo group (pool di Palermo).
The prosecutors Falcone and Borsellino died at the end of the massacre season, after they hit hard the Sicilians with the Maxiprocesso (aka Mega-Trial)
The story of Falcone and Borsellino is super famous in Italy, and incredibly tragic. They were heroes who fought at risk of their own lives to take down systemic corruption in the government and to eradicate the Sicilian Mafia. The mafia blew up an entire f-king bridge to get Falcone and killed his wife and bodyguards too. Borsellino was assassinated two months later. He kept fighting even after his friend had died and he knew they were out to get him too. I can't imagine living like that and still trying to take down the mafia. They achieved a lot but it's never enough. Even now there is mafia roots in the Italian government. People say Berlusconi has ties to it and a lot of right-wing government. Surprise surprise. It's a big dirty secret even now.
Canada- same colonization rape and pillaging of the natives as most places colonized by the British. Compounded with the forcibly removing native children from their families and putting them into horrifically abusive residential schools (the last of which only closed in the 1990s) and which in the last few years mass unmarked graves have been rediscovered. The loss of languages, the alcoholism, the ‘choose to be status or not’ b******t that gives rights in exchange for culture loss. Canada is seen as a peace touting loving country but it has an awful recent history. And that’s only their treatment of the indigenous. Each ethnic minority has a history of racism and ‘other’ treatment regardless of when in history they/their family immigrated.
As a native, I have to say that yes, many, many natives have been treated horribly by the church but I think it's important to know that not all of them were. My great grand-mother was placed in a residential school and I was told that she said the nuns were nice and fair to all the children (they were never beaten). They ate well, learned and played. As for the unmarked graves, there's no proof that the children were murdered. The "schools" started in the 1800's, and they could have passed away from diseases (the Spanish flu for example). In addition, many of them had cemeteries but they were unregistered. I do hope the parents were contacted, there's no record if they were or not. All the natives I know, feel like this.
In Crete most if not all people have at least one kind of gun in their house (anything from a hunting rifle to the latest fully automatic rifle) and some time ago (maybe even now I have no idea) the rest are Vendettas where families (by families I mean a group of people that have the same surname) would go into all out war between each other for any kind of reason
I'm from Crete but I Grew up in Attica and my family used to be in a Vendetta when someone was operating my Great Grandfathers excavator and he rolled over and died and his family blamed my great grandpa and I don't know how that ended
Northern Marianas. After WW2, the islands was occupied and controlled by the US government. Our culture and language is dying. We’ve been whitewashed and just accepted that after the older generation dies the language and cultural practices will die with them.
Romania.
In the early 70s, our fabulous dictator banned abortions because he wanted a baby boom. For Romanian women. Gypsy women were allowed to get abortions. Some doctors would recommend gypsy women to get abortions even if they were not necessary. Secrete police/party members would actually be in for some gynecological exams and make recommendations.
Finland had concentration camps after the Finnish civil war, holding some 80000 "reds"
Australia. Our attitude to asylum seekers who arrive by boat is really heartless. Automatically they are sent to immigration detention for indefinite periods of time and treated like criminals. It is a cruel, inhuman system and the immigration system has very poor accountability.
You need to be aware of the unreported people that it affects. Example 1: A good friend of mine from Indonesia applied for residential status in 1996. He was already legally in Australia and wanted to settle here. He was granted his visa which allowed him to apply for his wife to join him. During this process his wife found that she was pregnant. ( I really hope that I don't have to explain how his wife fell pregnant & birthed their child). Her visa was granted but guess what? The date that she was meant to fly to Australia to begin their new life here kept getting delayed, time after time. This continued for 5 years. This meant that my friend did not see his daughter until she was 4 years old. Do you know why his wife's visa kept getting delayed? Because of "queue jumpers"-read "illegal immigrants". So the people who do the right thing, go through the proper channels, are persecuted via delay after delay to cater for queue jumpers. This is why the crackdown on illegal immigrants began
Belgium. Colonised the Congo and exterminated about 11 million Africans. King Leopold II took the Congo as his personal estate. Villagers were herded into barns and a grenade thrown in. Children who didn't produce enough rubber had their hands amputated by soldiers. Belgium has MUCH to answer for. TAKE DOWN LEOPOLD'S STATUES AND PAY REPARATIONS !!!
I only recently learned about the horrors perpetrated by Belgium. The documentary "Exterminate All the Brutes"--explains how colonialism and genocide work....we've got to stop this.
South Africa had a inter-tribal genocide between 1815 and 1840 resulting in the death of between 1 - 2 million people.
The genocide, called the Mfecane, or the crushing in Zulu, was perpitrated by Shaka Zulu, and the Zulus, as he was establishing his kingdom. This lead to the depopulation of the interior which created room for the white boer settlers (voortrekkers) to move in and settle the area from 1836, basically uncontested in unclaimed territories.
Denmark. How horribly we treated Germans after WW2. This is a subject we aren't being taught about in school since we trying to let it slide past as something that happened but doesn't happen anymore (which is true though).
Well, interwar Poland had a prison, or concentration camp, for political opponets, 3,000 imprisoned, 7-15 died
Spain. How we left behind West Sahara and Equatorial Guinea people in the 70s, who spoke Spanish and held Spanish IDs at the time. I’m not very familiar with the root causes and would like to read more about it though. Political turmoil caused by the imminent Franco’s death played a major role though.
It became a tradition among some people here to bring in West Sahara children over for summer holidays every year.
Interesting fact: there are some cities still held by spain in north africa: Spanish North Africa, five small areas, in special relationship with the Spanish government, on and off the Mediterranean coast of Morocco. They are Alhucemas, Ceuta, the Chafarinas Islands, Melilla (qq. v.), and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, with a combined area of about 12 square miles (31 square km).
During wwII Sweden helped the Nazis by letting German soldiers and weapons be transported by train back and forth through Sweden to then occupied Norway.
Though you are factually right, I must remind you that Sweden is a neutral country, like Swiss. Neutrality doesn't means "no implication"; it means "equal treatment of belligerents". Neutral countries are allowed to commerce with anyone, let a foreign nation cross etc. Please do not forget that Sweden took Jew refugees, military and financially helped Finland. That kind of hate mostly come from Norwegians who didn't get much help from Sweden, but from the UK.
Bulgaria. The mass exodus of Turks. In an attempt for our government to "unite" the nation in 1984 they forced all Bulgarian Turks (total about 10% of Bulgarian population) to change their names to Bulgarian-sounding one, they forbid traditional clothing and public muslim rituals. Imagine your government forcing you to change your own name you've had all your life. Of course, as a direct result many Bulgarian Turks left en masse - about 300 000 (out of 800 000) left for Turkey. Maybe half of them returned later but those are impossible to estimate correctly. It was a human rights and a demographic catastrophe.
Britain "ended the slave trade" by paying off all the slave owners - the amount of money that cost was only fully paid off in the last couple of decades.
And that money in all likelihood funded the industrial revolution. Our infrastructure and privilege is in no doubt built on the back of slaves. That said, agreeing to pay out to slave owners undoubtedly sped up the abolition of slavery. It was a decision based on practicalities. It's worth noting that by that point there were very ordinary people in Britain who invested a tiny bit of money they had in a part share of a slave, so some of these recipients of the pay out were just bog standard lower middle class citizens.
Some families are so poor in central Portugal that the husband often takes his wife out and leaves her on the road so she can prostitute herself for the day and then picks her up in the evening. Hp+e fully by that stage they have enough for them to buy something to eat
Portuguese here, that is not true, it may happen, but not definitly a thing
Well talking about slavery, Denmark was the 7th largest slavery(supporting??) country. I believe it was mainly export, but still we contributed enough to land ourselves a spot, as nr 7. But we don't really have dark secrets, as a country. Just like Germany with WW2, we make sure to educate the young people, about all the good and all the bad we've done(Im part of that youth). But like either the slavery part, or being at fault for making the majority of Greenland's older generation alcoholics. It's a couple of years ago, but if anyone from Greenland could tell me how they are coming along with their alcoholism, that would be great
There is general compulsion for military service for all adult males defined in Constitution of Finland. Military service period is 165 to 347 days depending on rank and duties but it can be replaced with civilian service which is always 12 months. If you refuse to perform either military or civilian service you will face a penalty in prison although nowadays it's usually replaced with house arrest. Amnesty classifies "total objectors" as prisoners of conscience.
South Africa. I am not a Boer (Dutch descendant). And the Boers stole our indigenous land (Along with the British) by means of colonial violence and brainwashing with the Missionaries and their "christianity". That is well-known. However, what is less-well known, is that the British instituted concentration camps against the Boers in the 1800s. It wasn't Hitler that started that. It was the British.
Most of the peopl in the romanian parliment are stupid,or corrupt.usually both
I don't know how well known the recent Windrush scandal is outside of the UK, but this was the first time I felt an actual burning shame for being British. After the second world war we *begged* people from the Caribbean, especially Jamaica, that were part of the Empire, to come over to the UK and fill all the many vacancies we needed, from bus drivers to nurses. They were told that they were legally British citizens and that as such they didn't need to have passports to live in Britain. The famous ship that brought in a large group was called the Windrush. Then a handful of years ago the government decided that the descendants of the Windrush generation needed to prove their right to remain or else they'd be deported. After all Jamaica is a separate country, right? Some people actually did get deported. They were dumped in a country that they had no more connection to than I do, with no job, no friends, and no family that they knew of. Absolutely disgraceful and shameful.
I saw at my dining table with a friend that was thanking God that her grandmother was a bit paranoid and had arranged documents for that side of the family, even though everyone told her she was wasting her time and not to bother.
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In Saudi Arabia, the treatment of foreign workers (especially those from south Asia) is inhuman and degrading. It is common for people to be cursed, shouted at and even physically beaten for almost no reason at all.
As shared by experienced victim of racism, the racism towards east Asians and Africans are worst . Tbh Arabs can be more racist than whites
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Europe is an incredibly diverse place. Unfortunately, most (if not all) countries are named after the ethnic majority of the given country and most (if not all) treat their indigenous minorities like garbage. This is rarely if ever discussed because most discussions about racism revolve around the black-white divide. People can't seem to wrap their heads around the idea that white people can be victims of systemic oppression from other whites.
I was told in the UK to avoid speaking Polish in some areas, and my in-laws do not view me as "really white" b/c my mother is Polish. So, yeah. I can grasp that.
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NZ: until the 1990s it was illegal to speak Maori (one of our official languages) in prison. Note: due to inherent racism in the legal and justice system, Maori people are imprisoned at a much higher rate than their representation in the general population.
How about The Norwegian child protection service Barnevernet? Children of expats are MASSIVELY kidnapped from their families (on false pretenses of abuse) and placed in Norwegian families, scattered around foster care/houses. And it is reality today, not some ghost from the past. How much longer it will be going on? Among population of 5 mln, Barnevernet has 400 offices across all Norway, billions and billions of dollars are being put into this. Pure child trafficking. Disgusting!
I’m sorry, what? Where on earth did this information come from? It wouldn’t be a part of the massive hate attack on child protection services that has plagued parts of scandinavia for a while now, perhaps? Norway isn’t trafficking any damned children, stop it.
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Why is Canada not on this list?! The atrocities committed against Indigenous people that continues to this day. So far, only 10 residential schools have been searched and the number of unmarked Indigenous children's graves are up to 10,028! There was more than 130 "schools" in Canada. There is also the high rate of Indigenous women and girls who go missing or murdered, and rcmp don't do a GD thing. Then there is the lack of clean water to more than 70 Indigenous reservations. Access to clean drinking water is a BASIC HUMAN RIGHT, not a privilege. But out PM is out in the world, committing 100's of millions to Ukraine in light of their crisis (don't get me wrong, I support the effort.) Our government needs to fix our own problems and start rectifying these issues.
Germany has not one but two genocides on their record. The shoa is the better know one, but during colonialism germans killed around 60.000 of the 80.000 Herero and Nama in "German South West Africa".
I am gay and it's even difficult where I live.to the extent that when,,,hum how to put this a block of flats got bought and repopulated with polish people i had to move. Never had a problem with muslim people or some very fundamental Christians, but these people. And from personal experience i know that some sell children into prostitution blue curtains if you want a boy pink for girls yellow for both. There was a job i poland once. It was one of the reasons i stayed in the closet for so long.and a government is not going to change their mind .
Human greed and desire for power and wealth has resulted in our species committing the most heinous acts imaginable. I sometimes think we'd be better off going back to a system of small communities running themselves, led by people trusted by the townsfolk and a limit to how many people can be part of a community.
Another one no one mentioned about the US is that we made Hawaii a state by manipulating them in the worst way possible. They slowly brought in Americans to buy land and the king, whose name I can't remember, was so oblivious while the Americans whispered ideas to him, telling him that only land owners should vote for rules and when somebody finally decided that they should vote on whether or not Hawaii should join the US, the majority of land owners were American so of course they voted that they should join. All because they wanted to make sugar from the sugar cane that growed there. Not only was this low of America, it was illegal.
because most people in West aren't that interested in Asian history.. and they generally love Japan. Someone literally told me, a Korean living in NZ, "Koreans should just get over what Japan did and move on. I love Japan, it's a cool country" Imagine telling a Jewish person to get over what Nazi Germany did to them.. sigh.
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The Highland Clearances in the highlands of Scotland seems not to have been spoken about, unless I've missed that post. Clan Chieftains took those living on their lands and turned them in slave labour, then brought in sheep for the Chieftains to use and exploit the local workforce, rendering the sheep more profitable than their own people. Many Scottish families living on or near the West Coast of Scotland were 'invited' to a meeting place where the Chieftain and his Sheriff Officers would explain matters in more detail. When they left the building, they saw their homes and crofts on fire and were told that ships were waiting for them to take them to the New World, America or Canada, the only possessions they had were what they were carrying that day. Further inland, crofts were confiscated, the local population starved to the point that they had no option to leave and be 'escorted' by Sheriff Officers to waiting ships in other countries. The UK government backed this 100%.
in Colombia members of the military had poor or mentally impaired civilians, mostly poor farmers and homeless people, lured to remote parts of the country with offers of work, killed them, and presented them to authorities as members of guerilla/terrorist groups FARC and ELN killed in battle, in an effort to inflate body counts and receive promotions or other benefits. This happened during the presidency of Alvaro Uribe and was brushed off by the government as part of the armed conflict between the government and guerilla groups FARC and ELN. They have found huge mass graves full of these people all over the country. Also many mayors and members of congress who spoke up about this were assassinated or died under "mysterious circumstances". You can google "false positives Colombia" if you'd like to learn more about this.
Germany: 1) Until 1997 it was legally okay if a man raped his wife because they were married and it was considered to be her marital duty. 2) Until 2000 it was legally okay for parents to physically "punish" children. Since then it is forbidden, though some people still do it (though then child protective services come into play and have various ways to help children and their families). I think 2) is really nasty because even before 2000 it was forbidden and likely punishable to do physically assault and harm another adult - but harming your child was considered okay.
The " Guerra cristera" in Mexico. The government banned all religions and they killed priests and people who defended their religion. It lasted 3 years in the 1920s.
We’re known for being a polite and simple country but Canada has a pretty dark history. Residential schools and the “Indian act” are prime examples of how my countrys government treated Indigenous peoples. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools. Over 4,118 Indigenous children were killed there, often buried alive :[ “The Indian Act attempted to generalize a vast and varied population of people and assimilate them into non-Indigenous society. It forbade First Nations peoples and communities from expressing their identities through governance and culture” - The Canadian Encyclopedia
Spain while it says on paper that it is one of the most accepting countries, it has alot of homophobia as well , something that has become worse, the hate speeches and crimes have been increasing lately, the romani are treated like second class citizens as well, racism, xenophobia etc
I talked about this with my students. Is there a country which does not have a dark past? We came up with Iceland. (Not sure if it is true though - I don't know enough about its history...)
So a lot of countries are (rightfully) criticized for "helping the nazis" but there's no mention of Germany itself in that context? I think if you ask me about a European country with a dark past, Germany would spring to mind first. 😉
The original post was "dark facts about your country that not many people know about".... Think Nazi Germany is fairly well-known.
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I don't know how well known the recent Windrush scandal is outside of the UK, but this was the first time I felt an actual burning shame for being British. After the second world war we *begged* people from the Caribbean, especially Jamaica, that were part of the Empire, to come over to the UK and fill all the many vacancies we needed, from bus drivers to nurses. They were told that they were legally British citizens and that as such they didn't need to have passports to live in Britain. The famous ship that brought in a large group was called the Windrush. Then a handful of years ago the government decided that the descendants of the Windrush generation needed to prove their right to remain or else they'd be deported. After all Jamaica is a separate country, right? Some people actually did get deported. They were dumped in a country that they had no more connection to than I do, with no job, no friends, and no family that they knew of. Absolutely disgraceful and shameful.
I saw at my dining table with a friend that was thanking God that her grandmother was a bit paranoid and had arranged documents for that side of the family, even though everyone told her she was wasting her time and not to bother.
Load More Replies... In Saudi Arabia, the treatment of foreign workers (especially those from south Asia) is inhuman and degrading. It is common for people to be cursed, shouted at and even physically beaten for almost no reason at all.
As shared by experienced victim of racism, the racism towards east Asians and Africans are worst . Tbh Arabs can be more racist than whites
Load More Replies... Europe is an incredibly diverse place. Unfortunately, most (if not all) countries are named after the ethnic majority of the given country and most (if not all) treat their indigenous minorities like garbage. This is rarely if ever discussed because most discussions about racism revolve around the black-white divide. People can't seem to wrap their heads around the idea that white people can be victims of systemic oppression from other whites.
I was told in the UK to avoid speaking Polish in some areas, and my in-laws do not view me as "really white" b/c my mother is Polish. So, yeah. I can grasp that.
Load More Replies... NZ: until the 1990s it was illegal to speak Maori (one of our official languages) in prison. Note: due to inherent racism in the legal and justice system, Maori people are imprisoned at a much higher rate than their representation in the general population.
How about The Norwegian child protection service Barnevernet? Children of expats are MASSIVELY kidnapped from their families (on false pretenses of abuse) and placed in Norwegian families, scattered around foster care/houses. And it is reality today, not some ghost from the past. How much longer it will be going on? Among population of 5 mln, Barnevernet has 400 offices across all Norway, billions and billions of dollars are being put into this. Pure child trafficking. Disgusting!
I’m sorry, what? Where on earth did this information come from? It wouldn’t be a part of the massive hate attack on child protection services that has plagued parts of scandinavia for a while now, perhaps? Norway isn’t trafficking any damned children, stop it.
Load More Replies... Why is Canada not on this list?! The atrocities committed against Indigenous people that continues to this day. So far, only 10 residential schools have been searched and the number of unmarked Indigenous children's graves are up to 10,028! There was more than 130 "schools" in Canada. There is also the high rate of Indigenous women and girls who go missing or murdered, and rcmp don't do a GD thing. Then there is the lack of clean water to more than 70 Indigenous reservations. Access to clean drinking water is a BASIC HUMAN RIGHT, not a privilege. But out PM is out in the world, committing 100's of millions to Ukraine in light of their crisis (don't get me wrong, I support the effort.) Our government needs to fix our own problems and start rectifying these issues.
Germany has not one but two genocides on their record. The shoa is the better know one, but during colonialism germans killed around 60.000 of the 80.000 Herero and Nama in "German South West Africa".
I am gay and it's even difficult where I live.to the extent that when,,,hum how to put this a block of flats got bought and repopulated with polish people i had to move. Never had a problem with muslim people or some very fundamental Christians, but these people. And from personal experience i know that some sell children into prostitution blue curtains if you want a boy pink for girls yellow for both. There was a job i poland once. It was one of the reasons i stayed in the closet for so long.and a government is not going to change their mind .
Human greed and desire for power and wealth has resulted in our species committing the most heinous acts imaginable. I sometimes think we'd be better off going back to a system of small communities running themselves, led by people trusted by the townsfolk and a limit to how many people can be part of a community.
Another one no one mentioned about the US is that we made Hawaii a state by manipulating them in the worst way possible. They slowly brought in Americans to buy land and the king, whose name I can't remember, was so oblivious while the Americans whispered ideas to him, telling him that only land owners should vote for rules and when somebody finally decided that they should vote on whether or not Hawaii should join the US, the majority of land owners were American so of course they voted that they should join. All because they wanted to make sugar from the sugar cane that growed there. Not only was this low of America, it was illegal.
because most people in West aren't that interested in Asian history.. and they generally love Japan. Someone literally told me, a Korean living in NZ, "Koreans should just get over what Japan did and move on. I love Japan, it's a cool country" Imagine telling a Jewish person to get over what Nazi Germany did to them.. sigh.
Load More Replies... The Highland Clearances in the highlands of Scotland seems not to have been spoken about, unless I've missed that post. Clan Chieftains took those living on their lands and turned them in slave labour, then brought in sheep for the Chieftains to use and exploit the local workforce, rendering the sheep more profitable than their own people. Many Scottish families living on or near the West Coast of Scotland were 'invited' to a meeting place where the Chieftain and his Sheriff Officers would explain matters in more detail. When they left the building, they saw their homes and crofts on fire and were told that ships were waiting for them to take them to the New World, America or Canada, the only possessions they had were what they were carrying that day. Further inland, crofts were confiscated, the local population starved to the point that they had no option to leave and be 'escorted' by Sheriff Officers to waiting ships in other countries. The UK government backed this 100%.
in Colombia members of the military had poor or mentally impaired civilians, mostly poor farmers and homeless people, lured to remote parts of the country with offers of work, killed them, and presented them to authorities as members of guerilla/terrorist groups FARC and ELN killed in battle, in an effort to inflate body counts and receive promotions or other benefits. This happened during the presidency of Alvaro Uribe and was brushed off by the government as part of the armed conflict between the government and guerilla groups FARC and ELN. They have found huge mass graves full of these people all over the country. Also many mayors and members of congress who spoke up about this were assassinated or died under "mysterious circumstances". You can google "false positives Colombia" if you'd like to learn more about this.
Germany: 1) Until 1997 it was legally okay if a man raped his wife because they were married and it was considered to be her marital duty. 2) Until 2000 it was legally okay for parents to physically "punish" children. Since then it is forbidden, though some people still do it (though then child protective services come into play and have various ways to help children and their families). I think 2) is really nasty because even before 2000 it was forbidden and likely punishable to do physically assault and harm another adult - but harming your child was considered okay.
The " Guerra cristera" in Mexico. The government banned all religions and they killed priests and people who defended their religion. It lasted 3 years in the 1920s.
We’re known for being a polite and simple country but Canada has a pretty dark history. Residential schools and the “Indian act” are prime examples of how my countrys government treated Indigenous peoples. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools. Over 4,118 Indigenous children were killed there, often buried alive :[ “The Indian Act attempted to generalize a vast and varied population of people and assimilate them into non-Indigenous society. It forbade First Nations peoples and communities from expressing their identities through governance and culture” - The Canadian Encyclopedia
Spain while it says on paper that it is one of the most accepting countries, it has alot of homophobia as well , something that has become worse, the hate speeches and crimes have been increasing lately, the romani are treated like second class citizens as well, racism, xenophobia etc
I talked about this with my students. Is there a country which does not have a dark past? We came up with Iceland. (Not sure if it is true though - I don't know enough about its history...)
So a lot of countries are (rightfully) criticized for "helping the nazis" but there's no mention of Germany itself in that context? I think if you ask me about a European country with a dark past, Germany would spring to mind first. 😉
The original post was "dark facts about your country that not many people know about".... Think Nazi Germany is fairly well-known.
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