Epilogue

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Heins
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Private Life ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Sexual Morality ◽  
World War ◽  
The Third ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Third Reich

This concluding chapter reflects on the development of German melodrama in the aftermath of World War II. It traces a sense of disillusionment with the Nazi “deployment of sexuality” in films and how it had prepared the ground for the renewed postwar cultivation of domesticity and feminine nurturance in West Germany. The return to private life and to puritanical mores in the postwar era was partly a response to the attack on “bourgeois” sexual morality that had been carried out by the mass culture of the Third Reich. Turning against nudity and licentiousness in the early 1950s could be represented and understood as a turn against Nazism. Thus, this “reprivatization” and newly conservative culture left its mark on West German melodramas of the 1950s.

The Endkrieg and the Last of the Napolas

2021 ◽  
pp. 358-393
Author(s):  
Helen Roche
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
West Germany ◽  
World War ◽  
Total War ◽  
The Third ◽  
Red Army ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Third Reich

For pupils at the Napolas, the last few months of World War II heralded an inexorable transition from ‘total war’ to total chaos. Boys as young as 15 or 16 were called up into the armed forces, and many of the schools had to be evacuated wholesale in the face of the advancing Allied armies. This chapter explores the experiences of pupils from a range of different Napolas throughout the Third Reich, as Germany’s territories shrank around them. Some boys were forced to fight their ‘liberators’ to the last, having been drafted into makeshift units of the SS, the Wehrmacht, or the Volkssturm; others fought on willingly even after the armistice, unable to believe that the regime to which they had given their all had collapsed into utter ruin. Many were merely concerned to reunite themselves with their families, even if they were unsure whether any of their relatives remained alive, or if their homes would still be standing. Yet others simply wished to flee and avoid internment at all costs, once they knew that the war was truly lost. In this chapter, the last days of four different groups of NPEA are charted: Stuhm, Köslin, and Rügen, which had most to fear from the encroaching Red Army; Rottweil and Reichenau in south-west Germany, which fell into French hands; Göttweig, Traiskirchen, and Wien-Theresianum in Austria; and Berlin-Spandau and Potsdam, whose pupils were caught up in a series of desperate last stands as Hitler’s capital was finally reduced to rubble.

A war hero or a Hitler soldier?

2019 ◽  
pp. 50-57
Author(s):  
Pavel Gotovetsky
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
National Committee ◽  
World War ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World ◽  
The Third Reich

The article is devoted to the biography of General Pavlo Shandruk, an Ukrainian officer who served as a Polish contract officer in the interwar period and at the beginning of the World War II, and in 1945 became the organizer and commander of the Ukrainian National Army fighting alongside the Third Reich in the last months of the war. The author focuses on the symbolic event of 1961, which was the decoration of General Shandruk with the highest Polish (émigré) military decoration – the Virtuti Militari order, for his heroic military service in 1939. By describing the controversy and emotions among Poles and Ukrainians, which accompanied the award of the former Hitler's soldier, the author tries to answer the question of how the General Shandruk’s activities should be assessed in the perspective of the uneasy Twentieth-Century Polish-Ukrainian relations. Keywords: Pavlo Shandruk, Władysław Anders, Virtuti Militari, Ukrainian National Army, Ukrainian National Committee, contract officer.

In Search of a Father

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus J. Arnold ◽  
Eve M. Duffy
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
General Question ◽  
World War ◽  
Adolf Hitler ◽  
The Third ◽  
Personal Level ◽  
The Third Reich

In this introductory chapter, the author narrates how he searched for his missing father, Konrad Jarausch, who had died in the USSR in January 1942. After providing a background on Jarausch's nationalism and involvement in Protestant pedagogy, the chapter discusses his experiences during World War II. It then explains how Jarausch grew increasingly critical of the Nazis after witnessing the mass deaths of Russian prisoners of war. It also considers how the author, and his family, tried to keep the memory of his father alive. The author concludes by reflecting on his father's troubled legacy and how his search for his father poses the general question of complicity with Nazism and the Third Reich on a more personal level, asking why a decent and educated Protestant would follow Adolf Hitler and support the war until he himself, his family, and the country were swallowed up by it.

scholarly journals The repositories of the Prussian State Library collection in Lower Silesia during the World War II

1970 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 271-283
Author(s):  
Jarosław Robert Kudelski
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
World War ◽  
Medieval Manuscripts ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
State Library ◽  
Lower Silesia

German cultural institutions had been conducting preparations to secure their collections in the event of a war since mid-1930s. The Prussian State Library, the holdings of which included the most precious German manuscripts and prints, was one of those institutions. Air attacks carried out on the capital of the Third Reich triggered the decision to evacuate the collection to Thüringen, Brandenburg, Pomerania and Lower Silesia. Largest deposits had been located in the latter. The unique heritage items stored there included medieval manuscripts, prayer books, music autographs and newspaper yearbooks as well as letters and private documents of many prominent representatives of German culture and art. Those items were evacuated, among other places, to Fürstenstein (Książ) Gießmannsdorf (Gościszów), Gröditzburg (Grodziec), Grüssau (Krzeszów), Fischbach (Karpniki) and Hirschberg (Jelenia Góra). The evacuation was conducted in cooperation with the heritage conservator for Lower Silesia, professor Günther Grundmann. With his assistance, in the course of a few years, a unique collection was created in Lower Silesia. Towards the end of the war the collection was deprived of proper care, as the authorities lacked resources to secure it. This resulted in the destruction of some items during military actions. The remaining parts of the collection had been taken over by Polish officials and were transferred to library collections in Krakow, Warszawa, Olsztyn, Toruń, Lublin and Łódź.

scholarly journals A Post-World War II Tragedy: The Expulsion of Ethnic Germans From Poland and Czechoslovakia, 1945-49

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica Lamontagne
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Jewish People ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
World War ◽  
East And West Germany ◽  
Ethnic Germans ◽  
East And West ◽  
The Third Reich

Through a comparative approach, this essay examines the cruel and inhumane way in which ethnic Germans were expelled from Poland and the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia in the years immediately following the end of World War II. It compares the nature of the expulsions in Poland and Czechoslovakia and how this negatively impacted the two countries in the aftermath of the expulsions. In Czechoslovakia especially, the nature of the expulsions of ethnic Germans greatly resembled Nazi policy toward Jewish people during the Third Reich. This essay also briefly examines the integration of ethnic German refugees from Poland and Czechoslovakia into both East and West Germany. As a result of ideological differences in East and West Germany, expellees had very different experiences upon resettlement, depending on where they arrived in Germany. The purpose of this essay is to break through the common misconception that most, or all, Germans at the end of World War II were criminals. Many ethnic Germans expelled from Poland and Czechoslovakia saw themselves as Poles or Czechoslovaks, and did not associate themselves with Nazi Germany. 

Domestic Constraints on West German Ostpolitik: The Role of the Expellee Organizations in the Adenauer Era

1998 ◽  
Vol 31 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 31-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pertti Ahonen
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
World War ◽  
East European ◽  
Domestic Constraints ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
General Studies

TheOstpolitik of the early Federal Republic presents a puzzle: why did West Germany—a country that consistently denounced the brutal Eastern policies of the Third Reich and sought to present itself as a new, peace-loving entity—refuse to normalize its relations with most East European countries until the early 1970s? The existing literature has explained Bonn's behavior primarily with reference to foreign policy calculations, such as the need to isolate the GDR and its satellite allies and to avoid granting unilateral concessions to the Soviet bloc. Although such Staatsräson considerations were very significant for the Federal Republic's policymakers, they do not tell the whole story. Movement on Eastern policy was also significantly hindered by domestic factors, the most important of which was the influence of the Vertriebenenverbände—the pressure organizations purporting to represent the millions of Germans expelled from Eastern Europe in the aftermath of World War II. The role of these organizations has typically received passing reference in general studies of Ostpolitik, but the specialized literature on the topic has remained weak.

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.

scholarly journals „Noc kryształowa” z 9/10 listopada 1938 roku i „ostateczne rozwiązanie kwestii żydowskiej” na Śląsku Opolskim w latach II wojny światowej

2009 ◽  
pp. 103-113
Author(s):  
Andrzej Hanich
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
Main Body ◽  
World War ◽  
Catholic Clergy ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Third Reich

The article describes the situation of the Jewish Judaic community in Opole Silesia under the Third Reich. It shows also its territorial distribution during the inter-war period. The main body of the article consists of a description of the events in Opole Silesia during so called Crystal Night on 9/10th November 1938, both as far as that action itself is concerned and in terms of the reaction to it. In the section dealing with the later years of World War II, the author points out the difficulties, faced by the Catholic clergy in providing assistance to the Jews, as well as indicates the fate met by the Jews from other parts of Europe whom the war years took to the concentration camps on the soil of Opole Silesia.

scholarly journals Die nationalsozialistischen Propagandatexte in Bezug auf den Distrikt Lublin 1939–1944

2019 ◽  
Vol 144 ◽  
pp. 51-63
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Wójcik
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
World War ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Third Reich

Der Artikel soll einen kurzen Überblick über die Entstehung und Verbreitung der Propagandatexte im Distrikt Lublin geben. Das Textkorpus besteht aus den Texten über den Distrikt Lublin mit der damals größten Anzahl der verlegten Exemplare. Die damals von deutschen Journalisten, Archivaren, Historikern und Volkskundlern verfassten Texte waren vor allem als Propagandamittel für den Gebrauch der im Distrikt Lublin eingesetzten Deutschen, die über den ganzen Distrikt verstreut waren, gedacht. Zahlreiche Autoren haben sowohl gegenwärtige als auch geschichtliche Themenbereiche ins Auge gefasst. Mit Rücksicht auf den geplanten Weitergang des sog. Nationalsozialistischen Aufbaus wurden verschiedene Themenbereiche aufgeworfen. Das Ziel, der von den NS-Forschern „produzierten“ Texte über den Distrikt Lublin war vor allem die Festigung des deutschen Volkstums auf den besetzten Gebieten.National Socialist propaganda texts in relation to the Lublin district 1939–1944Propaganda texts published in the period of World War II by German journalists, historians and cultural analysts first of all consist of propaganda materials dedicated to Germans and Volksdeutsche scattered around the entire district. The corpus consists of texts about the Lublin district with the largest number of copies published at the time. The propaganda texts created in those times also aroused interest in the problems of Germans and Volksdeutsche from the General Governorate in the Third Reich. In relation to the National Socialist plan of “Aufbauarbeit” the texts addressed numerous topics which required scientific research of the district’s area and a statistical analysis. The aim of these texts “produced” by National Socialist researchers concerning the Lublin district was primarily to strengthen Germanness in the occupied areas.

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