Another story out of Germany of a woman doing what she can to confront the past

Nazi family history put to good use by Inge Franken

Inge Franken is a sprightly 70-year-old who lives in an apartment on two floors in Berlin. She has a task, a mission. She tours schools educating children about her - and their - country's dark history.

She shows the class a photograph of two young boys - they can barely be 10 - who pose in Nazi regalia, and she seeks reaction. One has his chest puffed out in pride, the other seems reluctant and shame-faced. It is for today's children to decide which they would rather be.

If the school visit goes well, she says, a child will say that he or she is going home to ask the parents and grandparents what happened in the war in their family. It makes Inge feel that she has set people thinking and asking.

She was spurred to this mission by her own past, a past hidden in a suitcase - and her mother's mind.

Inge Franken, having made a painful discovery about her own father, has confronted the silence many of her generation and those after have had from their parents and grandparents about the war. By doing so, she not only helps bring the truth to light, but also teaches the young how ordinary people got caught up in the Nazi war machine. It can be very painful to discover someone in your family participated in horrific things. On the other hand, it causes people to really think and may prevent something similar from happening again. If only she could send her message worldwide, one on one.