Beer, Memory, and the ‘New German War Machine’ |
I was flipping through the January, 2026 edition of The Atlantic when I came across the headline: “The New German War Machine”. As the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, that title caught more than just my eye. It pulled me back to a moment I hadn’t thought about for a while.
As part of my role at the Blue Flag international air force exercise in 2021, I frequently moved between the hangars of the participating air forces. By far, the friendliest and most inviting space belonged to the Germans. Their hangar was designed so that soldiers could easily switch between work and downtime. There was a large Oktoberfest-feeling hangout area with a huge kitchen and fun bar games. It was almost as if they were trying to compensate for something.
They had even brought their own beer. They called it “Simcha Pils,” and labeled each bottle with Luftwaffe and Israeli Air Force symbols. Joint flags hung on the walls, the soldiers were warm and genuinely curious to get to know us beyond the professional setting, and everything about the space signaled camaraderie. It was just easy to talk to each other. And yet, the underlying tension was unmistakable, and certain details made me uneasy.........