Description
Book SynopsisGermans often claim that ''we have learned the lessons of our history.'' But what, precisely, are the lessons they have drawn from their Nazi-era past? What experiences from that time continue to hold significant meaning for Germans today, and how have those experiences shaped postwar German cultural identity? Though Germans have come to recognize the evils of Nazism, for them, its primary evil derived from the war it unleashed and the hardships, death, and destruction that the war wrought on the Germans themselves, and less from the losses and suffering it caused others. Recent public discussion about the Allied bombing campaign against Germany, the expulsion of Germans from Eastern Europe, and other German experiences during and following the Second World War have revealed what some see as an emerging tendency among Germans to perceive themselves as much the victims of wartime acts as other peoples. Through a survey of postwar literature, film, and other popular media, as well as pu
Table of Contents1 Table of Contents Chapter 2 Introduction Chapter 3 1. Digging in the Gardens of Carthage Chapter 4 2. Memorial Chapter 5 3. Sarcophagi of Memory Chapter 6 4. A Season of Memory Chapter 7 Epilogue: The Future of the Past 8 Bibliography 9 Index 10 About the Author
