Download or read book German Victimhood During World War Two A New Chapter in Germany s Coming to Terms with Its Past written by Christopher Reichow and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2014-05-13 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2013 in the subject History of Germany - National Socialism, World War II, grade: 1,0, Diplomatic Academy of Vienna - School of International Studies, language: English, abstract: The Second World War and its historical categorization remains a disputed topic within the German society. Still, the way of how Germans are rethinking their history is in a state of flux. While the question of collective and individual German guilt has attracted increased scientific and popular attention since the late 1960s, more precisely after the Eichmann and Auschwitz trials, German intellectuals and the German media have in recent years turned their attention, again, towards German suffering during the war. This can be seen as a recourse within a new framework. Already in the immediate postwar period, Germans depicted themselves as victims of the war and its settlement. The preferred self-image was that of being first a victim of Hitler’s and then of enemies hands. Once again, though very late, Germans today consider their own countrymen as victims. In movies and books, they depict themselves and their ancestors not only as villains, but also as people who endured air bombing, starvation, and expulsion. This revived way of storytelling began around the new millennium and focused espe-cially on Germany’s civilian population. An important stimulus for Germany’s coming to terms with its past, or Vergangenheitsbewältigung, was once again triggered by Günter Grass, born in 1927 in Danzig, one of the country’s most popular and successful authors. Already as a member of the famous Group 47, he had – inter alia – initiated a new concept to rejuvenate German literature, particularly with his book The Tin Drum. He also contested a denial of civic responsibility and guilt in past and present, which he saw occurring in the consumerist-driven Bonn Republic. His first two books written in the new millennium, the novel Crab-walk, published in 2002, and his autobiographic work Peeling the Onion, released in 2006, were widely analyzed and sparked off a heated debate on both German guilt and German suffering. By using both books as a case study, this essay examines the main issues that were addressed by Grass and points out today’s situation of German Vergangenheitsbewältigung.
Download or read book German Victimhood During World War Two A New Chapter in Germany s Coming to Terms with Its Past written by Christopher Reichow and published by . This book was released on 2014-05-19 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2013 in the subject History Europe - Germany - National Socialism, World War II, grade: 1,0, Diplomatic Academy of Vienna - School of International Studies, language: English, abstract: The Second World War and its historical categorization remains a disputed topic within the German society. Still, the way of how Germans are rethinking their history is in a state of flux. While the question of collective and individual German guilt has attracted increased scientific and popular attention since the late 1960s, more precisely after the Eichmann and Auschwitz trials, German intellectuals and the German media have in recent years turned their attention, again, towards German suffering during the war. This can be seen as a recourse within a new framework. Already in the immediate postwar period, Germans depicted themselves as victims of the war and its settlement. The preferred self-image was that of being first a victim of Hitler's and then of enemies hands. Once again, though very late, Germans today consider their own countrymen as victims. In movies and books, they depict themselves and their ancestors not only as villains, but also as people who endured air bombing, starvation, and expulsion. This revived way of storytelling began around the new millennium and focused espe-cially on Germany's civilian population. An important stimulus for Germany's coming to terms with its past, or Vergangenheitsbewaltigung, was once again triggered by Gunter Grass, born in 1927 in Danzig, one of the country's most popular and successful authors. Already as a member of the famous Group 47, he had - inter alia - initiated a new concept to rejuvenate German literature, particularly with his book The Tin Drum. He also contested a denial of civic responsibility and guilt in past and present, which he saw occurring in the consumerist-driven Bonn Republic. His first two books written in the new millennium, the novel Crab-walk, published in 2002, and his autobiograp
Download or read book The War in the Empty Air written by Dagmar Barnouw and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2005-10-11 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book will provoke intellectually, ideologically, and emotionally loaded responses in the U.S., Germany, and Israel. Barnouw's critique of the 'enduringly narrow post-Holocaust perspective on German guilt and the ensuing fixation on German remorse' questions taboos that the political and cultural elites in those three countries would rather leave alone.... [Barnouw] makes us understand why the maintenance of a privileged memory of the Nazi period and World War II may not survive much longer." -- Manfred Henningsen, University of Hawai'i In Germany, the reemergence of memories of wartime suffering is being met with intense public debate. In the United States, the recent translation and publication of Crabwalk by GÃ1⁄4nter Grass and The Natural History of Destruction by W. G. Sebald offer evidence that these submerged memories are surfacing. Taking account of these developments, Barnouw examines this debate about the validity and importance of German memories of war and the events that have occasioned it. Steering her path between the notions of "victim" and "perpetrator," Barnouw seeks a place where acknowledgment of both the horror of Auschwitz and the suffering of the non-Jewish Germans can, together, create a more complete historical remembrance for postwar generations.
Download or read book Medical Memories and Experiences in Postwar East Germany written by Markus Wahl and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-05-24 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book draws on the example of the major cities of Leipzig and Dresden to illustrate continuity and change in public health in the German Democratic Republic. Based on archival work, it will demonstrate how members of the medical profession successfully manipulated their pre-1945 past in order to continue practising, leading to persistence in the social conception of medicine and disease after Communism took hold. This was particularly evident in attitudes towards and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and the pathology of deviant behaviour among young people.
Download or read book Narratives of Trauma written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-06-29 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last decade German culture has been engaged in a re-examination of the traumatic events of the Second World War and their post-war legacy in the public and private sphere. This shift in German memory culture from a focus on responsibility for the Holocaust to a focus on wartime suffering has attracted a lot of critical attention over the past decade, in both Cultural and Literary Studies and History. This volume brings together British, German, Dutch and American scholars from the fields of Cultural Studies, History and Sociology to address the national and international significance of discourses of ‘German wartime suffering’ in post-war and contemporary Germany. The focus of this interdisciplinary volume is both on the historical roots of the ‘Germans as victims’ narratives and the forms of their continuing existence in contemporary public memory and culture. The first three sections of this volume explore the conditions of German victim discourses in a variety of media and public arenas from historiography, sociology, literature and film to monuments, civil defence bunkers and local public memory. The final section sets the contemporary re-articulation of German wartime suffering in an international context with respect to its reception and its reflection in both Western and Eastern Europe and Israel.
Download or read book Authenticity and Victimhood after the Second World War written by Randall Hansen and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2021-10-01 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Second World War was filled with many terrible crimes, such as genocide, forced migration and labour, human-made famine, forced sterilizations, and dispossession, that occurred on an unprecedented scale. Authenticity and Victimhood after the Second World War examines victim groups constructed in the twentieth century in the aftermath of these experiences. The collection explores the concept of authenticity through an examination of victims’ histories and the construction of victimhood in Europe and East Asia. Chapters consider how notions of historical authenticity influence the self-identification and public recognition of a given social group, the tensions arising from individual and group experiences of victimhood, and the resulting, sometimes divergent, interpretation of historical events. Drawing from case studies on topics including the Holocaust, the siege of Leningrad, American air raids on Japan, and forced migrations from Eastern Europe, Authenticity and Victimhood after the Second World War demonstrates the trend towards a victim-centred collective memory as well as the interplay of memory politics and public commemorative culture.
Download or read book Echoes of Trauma and Shame in German Families written by Lina Jakob and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How is it possible for people who were born in a time of relative peace and prosperity to suddenly discover war as a determining influence on their lives? For decades to speak openly of German suffering during World War II—to claim victimhood in a country that had victimized millions—was unthinkable. But in the past few years, growing numbers of Germans in their 40s and 50s calling themselves Kriegsenkel, or Grandchildren of the War, have begun to explore the fundamental impact of the war on their present lives and mental health. Their parents and grandparents experienced bombardment, death, forced displacement, and the shame of the Nazi war crimes. The Kriegsenkel feel their own psychological struggles—from depression, anxiety disorders, and burnout to broken marriages and career problems—are the direct consequences of unresolved war experiences passed down through their families. Drawing on interviews, participant observation, and a broad range of scholarship, Lina Jakob considers how the Kriegsenkel movement emerged at the nexus between public and familial silences about World War II, and critically discusses how this new collective identity is constructed and addressed within the framework of psychology and Western therapeutic culture.
Download or read book Ancient Greek Myth in World Fiction since 1989 written by Justine McConnell and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-06-02 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient Greek Myth in World Fiction since 1989 explores the diverse ways that contemporary world fiction has engaged with ancient Greek myth. Whether as a framing device, or a filter, or via resonances and parallels, Greek myth has proven fruitful for many writers of fiction since the end of the Cold War. This volume examines the varied ways that writers from around the world have turned to classical antiquity to articulate their own contemporary concerns. Featuring contributions by an international group of scholars from a number of disciplines, the volume offers a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary approach to contemporary literature from around the world. Analysing a range of significant authors and works, not usually brought together in one place, the book introduces readers to some less-familiar fiction, while demonstrating the central place that classical literature can claim in the global literary curriculum of the third millennium. The modern fiction covered is as varied as the acclaimed North American television series The Wire, contemporary Arab fiction, the Japanese novels of Haruki Murakami and the works of New Zealand's foremost Maori writer, Witi Ihimaera.
Download or read book Contemporary Germany and the Nazi Legacy written by C. Pearce and published by Springer. This book was released on 2007-11-09 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines a range of public debates on the Nazi legacy in Germany since Schröder's SDP-Green coalition came to power in 1998. A central theme is the 'dialectic of normality' whereby references to Nazi past impact upon present normality. The book is a valuable resource for students of contemporary German politics, history and culture.
Download or read book Resistance and Collaboration in Hitler s Empire written by Vesna Drapac and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-09-16 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new study provides a concise, accessible introduction to occupied Europe. It gives a clear overview of the history and historiography of resistance and collaboration. It explores how these terms cannot be examined separately, but are always entangled. Covering Europe from east to west, this book aims to explore the evolution of scholarly approaches to resistance and collaboration. Not limiting itself to any one area, it looks at armed struggle, daily life, complicity and rescue, the Catholic Church, and official and public memory since the end of the war.
Download or read book Opera After the Zero Hour written by Emily Richmond Pollock and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Opera After the Zero Hour' argues that newly composed opera in West Germany after World War II was a site for the renegotiation of musical traditions during an era in which tradition had become politically fraught.
Download or read book The Holocaust and Memory in the Global Age written by Daniel Levy and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Daniel Levy and Natan Sznaider examine the forms that collective memory take in the age of globalisation. They explore how the Holocaust has been remembered in Germany, Israel and the US over the past 50 years and demonstrate how this event has become detached from its precise context.
Download or read book Returning Memories written by Christiane Wienand and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2015 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides 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.
Download or read book The Second World War written by Teddy J. Uldricks and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-08-02 with total page 567 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The most devastating war in human history continues to generate substantial interest, and though much has been written on the subject, the history of the Second World War is still very much a work in progress. The availability of new sources and innovative approaches offer new perspectives on key turning points in the origins, course, and consequences of the conflict"--
Download or read book Victims and Perpetrators 1933 1945 written by Laurel Cohen-Pfister and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2012-03-12 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the politics of history and memory in Germany today through a review and analysis of seminal developments in the current discourse on 1933 – 1945. An interdisplicinary work, this book examines questions of representing the past from the perspective of literary studies, social psychology, film studies, history, and cultural studies. Themes include transgenerational memory and remembrance, the air war and German literature, commemoration and silences, transnational reconciliation, and historical consciousness in the German present. The collected essays make clear that as the current discourse contributes toward an historically informed, differentiated understanding of individuals’ roles in the Third Reich and World War Two, victim and perpetrator identities cannot be defined as exclusive from one another. The discourse emphasizes personal over collective experience and answers questions of responsibility and guilt on the individual level.
Download or read book Vergangenheitsbew ltigung in the Present written by Sophia Wiatrowski and published by . This book was released on 2024 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding one’s past can be difficult and can often bring complicated feelings and emotions when reliving such memories. In Germany this is referred to as Vergangenheitsbewältigung (Ver-gangen-heights-be-vait-igung) which means “coming to terms with the past.” The term Vergangenheitsbewältigung was created in Germany as a way to remember and educated those about the mistakes made during World War II (Rustchmann). Through analyzing the history of the term, the social understanding of the term, and my individual experiences when it comes to the topic it is understood how “coming to terms with the past” impacts people in the 21st century. In this analysis there will be historical context that explains why and how this term became so prevalent in German culture, especially how it has impacted various parts of German society, such as the arts. Then exploring how its continuity has impacted the generations that came after the events of World War II and how these three generations reflect when it comes to the past. Then by moving into my individual experiences, being in Germany as well as being a part of the fourth generation of German decedents. Through this creative work of analyzing historical significance, societal impact, personal experience, and my generational impact it is evident that Vergangenheitsbewältigung or “coming to terms with the past” impacts people differently.
Download or read book World War II in Contemporary German and Dutch Fiction written by Jan Lensen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-03-04 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World War II in Contemporary German and Dutch Fiction: The Generation of Meta-Memory offers a comparative study of the construction of World War II memory in contemporary German, Flemish, and Dutch literature. More specifically, it investigates in what ways the large temporal distance to the historical events has impacted how literary writers from these three literatures have negotiated its meaning and form during the last decades. To that end, this book offers analyses of nine novels that demonstrate a pronounced reflexivity on the conditions of contemporary remembering. Rather than a dig for historical truth or a struggle with historical trauma, these novels reflect on the transmission, the narrative shapes, the formation processes, and the functions of World War II memory today, while asserting a self-conscious and often irreverent approach toward established mnemonic routines, practices, and rules. As the analyses show, this approach is equally articulated through the novels’ poetics, which are marked by a large formal diversity and a playfulness that highlights mnemonic agency, a posttraumatic positioning, and the ascendency of the literary over the historiographical. Based on these findings, this book proposes the emergence of a new paradigm within the postwar cultural assessment of World War II: the generation of meta-memory.
