Description
Book SynopsisProvides the first comprehensive analysis of the history of returning German POWs after the Second World War, explored as a history of memory both during Germany's division and after unification. Millions of former German soldiers (known as Heimkehrer, literally "homecomers," or returnees) returned from captivity as prisoners of war at the end of the Second World War, an experience that had profound effects on German society and touched almost every German family. Based on extensive archival research and oral history interviews, this book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the history of the German returnees, explored as a historyof memory, both during Germany's division and after unification. At its core lies the question of how the experiences of war captivity were transformed into individual and collective memories. The book argues that memory of the experience of captivity and return is complex and multilayered and has been shaped by postwar political and social frameworks. Christiane Wienand is a historian and works in Heidelberg, Germany. She holds a PhD in Historyfrom University College London.
Trade ReviewThe book is worth reading for its analysis of the narratives [of prisoner-of-war returnees], which is on the whole quite successful. The service it provides is in its at least partial reconstruction . . . of the complex formation of memory. * FRANCA-RECENSIO *
Wienand argues that returnees constitute an ongoing and recurring issue, and aims to demonstrate that individual and collective memory intersect at multiple points and are in?uenced by concurrent interpretations of the past. . . . [H]er work deserves praise for providing extensive empirical evidence to support her argument. . . . She undertakes the daunting task of documenting how narratives by and about the returnees intersect at an individual, local, and national level, from the postwar era up until today. * MONATSHEFTE *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Writing the History of Returnees Depicting Returnees: Contested Mass-Media Representations in East and West Germany Negotiating Victim Status: The Presence of the Past in Compensation Debates Giving Meaning to the Past: Narratives of Transformation and Conversion Interacting with the Past: Memory Projects of Returnees Epilogue: Transmitting Memories-Shaping Postwar Presents Conclusions Notes Bibliography Index
