The land of the murderers. Jewish survivors in post‐war Germany

Abstract

This article can be seen as a journey of self‐discovery. It describes and tries to analyse how the emotions and prejudices of a Scandinavian citizen of Jewish orgins toward post‐war Germany evolved during and after a cultural encounter with the land of the murderers. Its main thesis is that we should listen to how the new Germany is seen by those Jews who have decided to make Germany their home, as this might help us see some aspects of present‐day Germany which puts it in a somewhat different light from the outsider view. The lack of detailed knowledge of how the problem of living in the land of the murderers is coped with by Jewish survivors in Germany, relativizes some of our most dear prejudices and forces us to look upon in what respect post‐war Germany has changed, rather than constantly looking for evidence that Germany has remained the same.