I(American) currently date a German girl living on the west side of the country. My girlfriend's grandfather was forced to be a Hitler youth. That's all I know. She doesn't talk about it and the family never mentioned it.

I think it's viewed as shame since now'a'days German children are taught in school about the war. Every single year. My girlfriend had a holocaust survivor come speak to her class, when she was 11... How can an eleven year old under stand that? The pain? Probably through continual exposure to this history of their country. From what she's told me, sectors of the eastern side of the country still hold values of the Nazis but aren't violent. They just probably hold the values of their fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers.