University of Sussex
Browse

File(s) not publicly available

Relegating Nazism to the past: expression of German guilt in 1945 and beyond

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 23:47 authored by Raphael Gross
This article builds on a research thesis that confronting moral feelings is essential to an understanding of the catastrophic political success of Nazism in Germany and the way Germany developed after its defeat in 1945. This research into a ‘moral history’ of Nazi Germany and its postwar echoes is carried out through an interdisciplinary approach that, in essence, combines historical with philosophical analysis. In the immediate postwar period, Germany continued to be stamped by discussions centred on moral guilt arising from its Nazi past and from the Holocaust in particular. The article analyses the different ways this guilt was discussed in 1945 and how these discussions echoed what can be described as a form of Nazi morality. The article uses three main sources to explore these issues: first, the writings and interrogations with the Nazi lawyer and Governor-General of Nazi-occupied Poland, Hans Frank; second, the memoirs of Hitler's secretary Traudl Junge; and third, the essay The Question of German Guilt by Karl Jaspers.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

German History

ISSN

0266-3554

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Issue

2

Volume

25

Page range

219-238

Pages

10.0

Department affiliated with

  • History Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC