Ghosts of Germany's past

KATJA HOYER is impressed by a study of a nation's attempts to grapple with the crimes it perpetrated during the Second World War

- KATJA HOYER

“Free Palestine from German guilt,” have rung the chants at many of Berlin’s demonstrations since the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war. Meanwhile, chancellor Olaf Scholz insists that “Germany’s history and the responsibility arising from the Holocaust made it Germany’s perpetual duty to stand up for the existence and security of Israel.” The conflict in the Middle East has cut deep into the soul of a country that is still trying to come to terms with itself.

Nearly eight decades have passed since the end of the Second World War, humanity’s most devastating military conflict. Under its guise, Nazi Germany murdered 6 million Jews, 3 million Soviet prisoners of war, 8 million non-Jewish civilians, nearly half a million Roma and Sinti, and hundreds of thousands of others it considered undesirable.