Language:
English
Year of publication:
2001
Titel der Quelle:
German Studies Review
Angaben zur Quelle:
24,3 (2001) 513-532
Keywords:
Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste
;
Sozialistische Jugend Deutschlands, Die Falken
;
Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Christianity and other religions Judaism 1945-
;
History
;
Judaism Relations 1945-
;
Christianity
Abstract:
In the late 1950s-60s, two West German leftist youth organizations, the Sozialistische Jugend (or Falken) and the Protestant group Aktion Sühnezeichen, initiated a series of trips to the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp and staged commemorative ceremonies there. Besides the goal of expressing repentance for Germany's crimes and the break with the past, these ceremonies were also aimed at a reconciliation with Poland and the Polish people, and at condemnation of current West German politics. Characteristically, both groups neglected to specify in their narratives the crimes against Jews committed there. This was partly due to the fact that the Auschwitz site was a memorial to Polish victimization (where Jewish victimization was marginalized) and that the organizations did not want to endanger a fragile cooperation with Polish authorities. The commemoration was also determined by the antifascist discourse of the West German Left, which tended to marginalize Nazi racism and genocide.
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