Product Description

What has Germany made of its Nazi past? This book explores the legacy of the Nazi regime, exposing the workings of past beliefs and political interests and how differently the two Germanys have recalled the crimes of Nazism, from the anti-Nazi emigration of the 1930s through the establishment of a day of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism in 1996. The author asks why would German politicians raise the spectre of the Holocaust at all, in view of the considerable depth of support its instigators and their agenda had found in Nazi Germany. Why did the public memory of Nazi anti-Jewish persecution and the Holocaust emerge, if selectively, in West Germany, yet was repressed and marginalized in "anti-fascist" East Germany? The book aims to answer this question and more, revealing the relationship between how the crimes of Nazism were publicly recalled and how East and West Germany separately evolved a Communist dictatorship and a liberal democracy. The author uses private and public papers and statements of key German figures to explore the subject and to place it within its historical context and the ideologies and experiences of pre-1945 German and European history to the Cold War.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #486008 in Books
• Published on: 1999-03-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 560 pages

Customer Reviews

Interesting Read
Jeffrey Herf provides us with a world class scholarly work on the way in which the FRG and GDR came to terms with their Nazi past. Interesting and thought-provoking, the book is divided (like Germany from 1945-1990) into East and West, with each section runing chronologically. Unlike many academic history books, it is very easy and enjoyable to read. I have found it to be a very useful text detailing an area which many general books on German history pay only lip service to.