Language:
English
Year of publication:
1990
Titel der Quelle:
Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
5,3 (1990) 261-273
Keywords:
Schumacher, Kurt,
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
War crime trials
;
War crime trials
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Abstract:
Examines the actions and attitude of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and its leader Kurt Schumacher in regard to two basic issues in the postwar period: denazification and war crimes trials. In 1945-46 the party was in favor of these two measures. But the German populace was angered by a denazification which appeared to punish low-ranking former Nazis more severely than high-ranking officials, and only 10% of Germans in the American zone approved of war crimes trials in 1952. The SPD, wishing to attract the popular vote, criticized the policies of the Allies and Adenauer's Christian Democratic Union. The SPD, along with the rest of the German population, shared a desire to forget the immediate past as soon as possible, rejecting the concept of collective guilt. The conciliatory tendency does not seem to have gotten the SPD more voter support, but it contributed to suppression of the debate that would have forced the Germans to confront the full extent of Nazi crimes.
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