Nazi Twilight

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Kurlander
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Post War ◽  
Self Immolation ◽  
Partisan Warfare

This chapter looks at the regime's increasingly desperate, if futile, investment in ‘miracle weapons’, partisan warfare, and cataclysmic ‘twilight’ imagery during the final years of the war, providing a fitting corollary to the disintegration of the Third Reich. During the final months of the war, when defeat appeared inevitable, many Nazis and millions of ordinary Germans wanted to believe that death was not permanent, that fantasy was reality, and that a ‘magical priest’ might rescue them from annihilation. In this way, the regime's fanciful invocation of miracle weapons, of partisan werewolves and vampires, and of ritual self-immolation, functioned as a form of therapy for Germans suffering through material and psychological distress. However, if twilight imagery helped Germans reconcile themselves to everyday violence, criminality, and loss, it also augured the disintegration of the Third Reich and Germany's post-war rebirth.

The Language of Ideology: Lingual Manipulation of Readers in German Literature of the Third Reich

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Michael Press
Keyword(s):  
German Literature ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
Critical Studies ◽  
The Third ◽  
Historical Argument ◽  
Underlying Basis ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Post War ◽  
German People

In recognizing more than just hyperbole in their critical studies of National Socialist language, post-war philologists Viktor Klemperer (1946) and Eugen Seidel (1961) credit persuasive words and syntax with the expansion of Hitler's ideology among the German people. This popular explanation is being revisited by contemporary philologists, however, as new historical argument holds the functioning of the Third Reich to be anything but monolithic. An emerging scholarly consensus on the presence of more chaos than coherence in Nazi discourse suggests a new imperative for research. After reviewing the foundational works of Mein Kampf (1925) and Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930), the author confirms Klemperer and Seidel’s claim for linguistic manipulation in the rise of the National Socialist Party. Most importantly, this article provides a detailed explanation of how party leaders employed rhetorical language to promote fascist ideology without an underlying basis of logical argumentation.

‘no human shape’: Unformed Life in The Unnamable

2020 ◽  
pp. 47-61
Author(s):  
Byron Heffer
Keyword(s):  
Disability Studies ◽  
Michel Foucault ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Closed Circuit ◽  
The Third ◽  
Aesthetic Form ◽  
Moral Critique ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Post War

This chapter argues that Beckett’s antipathy to normative ideas of bodily and aesthetic form derives from his resistance to the Nazi politics of art. It utilises theories from disability studies and the work of Michel Foucault and Roberto Esposito to reconsider Beckett’s post-war aesthetic of deformation, framing it as a response to the inextricable connection between biopolitics and aesthetic form in the Third Reich. It offers a reading of The Unnamable that deviates from critical accounts that cast Beckett’s text as a redemptive moral critique of Nazi biopolitics. Beckett denies the reassuring conflation of degenerate artistry with passive, nonviolent exposure to Nazi violence. The degenerate artist, as figured in The Unnamable, is both victim and perpetrator in a closed circuit of biopolitical violence and aesthetic (de)formation.

Epilogue

2021 ◽  
pp. 394-419
Author(s):  
Helen Roche
Keyword(s):  
Federal Republic ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Exact Nature ◽  
Specific Identification ◽  
The Third ◽  
Memory Culture ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Post War

This chapter investigates the fates of NPEA staff and pupils after the end of the Third Reich. It begins with an account of how the schools’ former adherents fared under Allied denazification processes, and the ways in which these shaped later exculpatory narratives regarding the Napolas’ exact nature and relationship with the Nazi regime. It then describes the formation of the NPEA old boys’ networks (Traditionsgemeinschaften), and the various stages in the development of Napola memory culture, considering how successful the ‘Napolaner’ may have been in creating a unique strand of collective memory all their own, defined by their own specific identification as a ‘community of experience’. It also analyses former pupils’ reactions to the appearance of books, films, and TV programmes dealing with the NPEA in the post-war and post-Wall media landscape, including the psycho-historical study Das Erbe der Napola (1996), and Dennis Gansel’s film Napola: Elite für den Führer / Napola: Before the Fall (2005). The chapter concludes by siting these findings within the context of relevant literature on Allied denazification policy, veterans’ organizations in the Federal Republic, and post-war German memory.

The Sources of Hitler's Power

1942 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 379-408
Author(s):  
Waldemar Gurian
Keyword(s):  
Third Reich ◽  
General Interest ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Post War ◽  
German People

Are the Germans really behind the Nazi Government? Despite— or because of?—the steadily rising flood of books dealing with the Third Reich this question is answered in most different ways. There is no agreement concerning the relations between the German people and the National Socialist regime. But one's attitude towards the conduct of the war and the post-war problems is, to a large extent, determined by the opinion that one holds about these relations. Therefore, some remarks about the different answers which are given to the question: What are the sources of Hitler's power in Germany? may be of general interest.

Tailoring Truth

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-36
Author(s):  
Mikkel Dack
Keyword(s):  
Third Reich ◽  
Nazi Regime ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
Family Stories ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
The Third ◽  
Personal Histories ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Post War ◽  
Insight Into

As part of the post-war denazification campaign, as many as 20 million Germans were screened for employment by Allied armies. Applicants were ordered to fill out political questionnaires (Fragebögen) and allowed to justify their membership in Nazi organizations in appended statements. This mandatory act of self-reflection has led to the accumulation of a massive archival repository, likely the largest collection of autobiographical writings about the Third Reich. This article interprets individual and family stories recorded in denazification documents and provides insight into how Germans chose to remember and internalize the National Socialist years. The Fragebögen allowed and even encouraged millions of respondents to rewrite their personal histories and to construct whitewashed identities and accompanying narratives to secure employment. Germans embraced the unique opportunity to cast themselves as resisters and victims of the Nazi regime. These identities remained with them after the dissolution of the denazification project and were carried forward into the post-occupation period.

Forschungen Zur Judenfrage: A Notorious Journal and Some of its Contributors

2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 395-415
Author(s):  
Reinhard Markner
Keyword(s):  
Third Reich ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Jewish Question ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Many

AbstractAmong the many publishing ventures of the “Reichsinstitut für die Geschichte des neuen Deutschlands,” the journal Forschungen zur Judenfrage (1936–1944) has gained most notoriety. In its nine volumes, various aspects of the “Jewish question,” ranging from the Jews in antiquity to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, were dealt with from a strictly National Socialist point of view. The ambitious project proved to be a failure even before the Third Reich collapsed. While some of the journal's contributors managed to pursue their academic careers in post-war West Germany, its founder, Walter Frank, committed suicide in 1945.

scholarly journals ‘IN PURSUIT OF THE NAZI MIND?’ THE DEPLOYMENT OF PSYCHOANALYSIS IN THE ALLIED STRUGGLE AGAINST GERMANY

2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Pick
Keyword(s):  
Third Reich ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Nazi Party ◽  
Military Intelligence ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Post War

This paper discusses how psychoanalytic ideas were brought to bear in the Allied struggle against the Third Reich and explores some of the claims that were made about this endeavour. It shows how a variety of studies of Fascist psychopathology, centred on the concept of superego, were mobilized in military intelligence, post-war planning and policy recommendations for ‘denazification’. Freud's ideas were sometimes championed by particular army doctors and government planners; at other times they were combined with, or displaced by, competing, psychiatric and psychological forms of treatment and diverse studies of the Fascist ‘personality’. This is illustrated through a discussion of the treatment and interpretation of the deputy leader of the Nazi Party, Rudolf Hess, after his arrival in Britain in 1941.

scholarly journals Rząd Polski na Wychodźstwie wobec zbrodni niemieckich w Polsce, 1939–1943. Uwagi do problemu

2015 ◽  
pp. 104-123
Author(s):  
Wanda Jarząbek
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Criminal Policy ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
World War ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Post War ◽  
Polish Government

The policy of the Polish government in exile during World War II has been the subject of numerous studies, but it still seems reasonable to trace their relation to crimes committed on Polish soil. The aim of this article is not to present the whole problem, but just outline the attitude towards German crimes. It must be remembered that the Polish government was also confronted with the occupation policy of the Soviet Union and the crimes committed in Volhynia and Galicia by Ukrainian nationalists. The final caesura of the article is the President’s decree of on punishment for war crimes released on March 30, 1943.The Polish government was of the opinion that the crimes should be punished primarily on the level of individuals who committed them, but the consequence of the criminal policy of the Third Reich should be the adoption of such a post-war policy against Germany that would guarantee compensation for victim countries, including compensation for material damage, and lead to a change in the German mentality, which was blamed partly responsible for the policy of the Third Reich. Such an attitude was shared by the anti-Hitler coalition countries.On the practical level, the Polish government’s policy had several stages. Initially, they collected information, tried to make it public and sough the cooperation of other countries. Despite numerous doubts were reported, they decided to amend the Polish criminal law to allow punishing war criminals more proportionally, as they thought, to the committed acts. The government’s activity probably influenced the attitude of the Allies, although it is difficult to accurately recognize and describe this issue. As a result of the situation after World War II, the new Polish authorities pursued a policy of punishing the guilty. Due to the international situation, i.e. the growing conflict between the coalition partners, many criminals escaped  punishment.

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