I couldn't believe my ears .....

Tricia said she used to dislike or mistrust Germans but has now changed her mind.

I accept that and on behalf of the very nice Germans I know I am delighted! (even on behalf of the less nice ones, because nobody is perfect!)
But the expression of disliking a nation based on historical events before we were born was still something which surprises me.
I did not mean to imply that I think you ARE prejudiced TriciaF and apologise if it looked like that.
I hope now that you might be able to meet some nice Germans or visit that beautiful country to reaffirm your revised opinion.

loopylou I think we all have relatives whose views we disagree with. I think one of the problems is that as they age people's views tend to move to the right, so those who had right wing views anyway can sometimes tumble over into more bigotry and racism.I think all you can do is to make it absolutely clear that you disagree with them and then change the subject. It would be nice to think that if you presented all the arguments well you could change their views but experience says that won't happen. I don't think it is always entirely their fault, there is a lot of propaganda out there in the form of 'factual' programmes that provides 'information' to reinforce their opinions.

As a new employee of Manchester City Council in the 1980s, I was obliged to attend an anti-racism course. The definition of racism we were given was 'power+prejudice'. I have mulled this over many times in the past 30 years and can see a lot of holes in it, though it may have been more relevant then. It comes down the the question, 'What is at the root of prejudice?' Not sure I can answer that but perhaps some of you can have a go.

Thank you everyone! My attempts to change the subject at the time were what led to the being told I was ignorant and stupid!

Unfortunately she's been ignoring/snubbing me and DH ever since, including putting the phone down when I called, so looks like we might be persona non grata ?

Very sad but her choice. She fell out with her twin sister years ago. Perhaps this was going to be inevitable at some point.....

Alea - I was 3 when the war began, my Dad was away for 4 years, and we heard terrible reports about what was going on. In my imagination I used to think, could they do the same to him?
I only mentioned it to illustrate one way in which prejudice can be formed, and how it's possible to change through education. I don't think it helps to deny it, it just ferments internally.
And I don't believe many people who say they're not or have never been racist.
We get it in France very often, the french don't like the english. But they don't mind the scots for some reason?

And apology not needed but accepted Alea - hope I haven't dug the hole even deeper!

Historically France had closer links with Scotland than with England. I think that's all that is about.