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Notes
1 Jeffrey Herf, Divided Memory: The Nazi Past in the Two Germanys (Cambridge, MA, 1997).
2 On this see Harold Marcuse, Legacies of Dachau: The Uses and Abuses of a Concentration Camp, 1933–2001 (New York, 2001); and Robert G. Moeller, War Stories: The Search for a Usable Past in the Federal Republic of Germany (Berkeley, CA, 2001).
3 The literature on this subject is extensive. See Herf, Divided Memory; Norbert Frei, Vergangenheitspolitik: Die Anfänge der Bundesrepublik und die NS-Vergangenheit (Munich, 1996); Thomas Alan Schwartz, America's Germany: John J. McCloy and the Federal Republic of Germany (Cambridge, MA, 1991); Ulrich Brochhagen, Nach Nürnberg: Vergangenheitsbewältigung und Westintegration in der Ära Adenauer (Hamburg, 1994).
4 The German historian Norbert Frei examines the history of premature amnesty and cynical pleas for “forgiveness” in the early years of the Federal Republic in his Vergangenheitspolitik. During the Nuremberg era (1945–49), the Allies convicted 80 percent of the approximately 6,000 persons convicted of crimes in the Nazi era in the Western zones and then in the Federal Republic. As figures for prosecutions in the Eastern zones and East Germany included political opponents of the regime who were denounced as “fascists,” the figures for East Germany remain to be firmly established. On this see Herf, Divided Memory.
5 Peter Steinbach, Nationalsozialistische Gewaltverbrechen: Die Diskussion in der deutschen Öffentlichkeit nach 1945 (West Berlin, 1981), p. 74.
6 Deutscher Bundestag, Zur Verjährung nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen: Dokumentation der parlamentarischen Bewältigung des Problems 1960–1979 (hereafter Zur Verjährung nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen) (Bonn, 1980), Part 1, p. 110.
7 Albrecht Götz, Bilanz der Verfolgung von NS-Straftaten (Cologne, 1986), p. 149; also see Adalbert Rückerl, Die Strafverfolgung von NS-Verbrechen: 1945–1978 (Heidelberg-Karlsruhe, 1979). From 8 May 1945 to the mid-1980s, Allied and then West German courts accused 90,921 persons of participating in war crimes or crimes against humanity. Of this number 6,479 persons were convicted; 12 were executed; 160 were sentenced to life in prison; 6,192 received extended prison terms; 114 paid fines; 1 youth received a warning; and 83,140 cases were closed without convictions due to findings of innocence, non-opening of the proceedings by the court, or death of the accused. Of these 6,479 convictions, over 80 percent (5,487) were handed down by Western occupying powers between 1945 and 1951. The 1,819 convictions in 1948 constituted the high point of the postwar judicial proceedings. Also see Steinbach, Nationalsozialistische Gewaltverbrechen, pp. 51–3.
8 Zur Verjährung nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen, Part 1, pp. 109–10.
9 On the use of Nazi war crimes charges to convict political opponents see Michael Klonovsky and Jan von Flocken, Stalins Lager in Deutschland (Munich, 1993).
10 Figures from Zur Verjährung nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen, Part 1, pp. 103–4.
11 “Antrag der Fraktion der SPD,” in Zur Verjährung nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen, Part 1, pp. 10–13.
12 Götz, Bilanz der Verfolgung, p. 143.
13 “Die Debatte im Plenum,” 24 May 1960, in Zur Verjährung nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen, Part 1, pp. 15–47.
14 See Verhandlungen des deutschen Bundestages 4. Wahlperiode, Stenographische Bericht Band 58, Sitzung 178–186, 25 March 1965, pp. 8788–90. Also see Karl Jaspers, “Für Völkermord gibt es keine Verjährung,” reprinted in idem, Wohin Treibt die Bundesrepublik ([1966]; Munich, 1988).
15 Steinbach, Nationalsozialistische Gewaltverbrechen, pp. 75–7.
16 Cited in Götz, Bilanz der Verfolgung, p. 144.
17 Verhandlungen des deutschen Bundestages 4. Wahlperiode, Band 58, Sitzung 178–186, 25 March 1965, pp. 8788–90.
18 Horst Ehmke, in Zur Verjährung nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen, Part 2, pp. 381–90. Also see “Dr. Ehmke,” in Verhandlungen des deutschen Bundestages 5. Wahlperiode (1965) Band 70, Sitzung 230–247, 11 June 1969, pp. 13053–8.
19 “Bundesgesetzblatt,” in Zur Verjährung nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen, Part 2, pp. 436–7; Götz, Bilanz der Verfolgung, p. 144.
20 “Frau Dr. Däubler-Gmelin,” in Verhandlungen des deutschen Bundestages 6. Wahlperiode (1976) 163–175 Sitzung,166 Sitzung, 3 July 1979, pp. 13239–43.
21 “Frau Dr. Hamm-Brucher,” in Verhandlungen des deutschen Bundestages 6. Wahlperiode (1976) 163–175 Sitzung,166 Sitzung, 3 July 1979, pp. 13282–4.
22 “Frau Dr. Hamm-Brucher,” in Verhandlungen des deutschen Bundestages 6. Wahlperiode (1976) 163–175 Sitzung,166 Sitzung, 3 July 1979, pp. 13292–4. Also see Jeffrey Herf, “The “Holocaust” Reception in West Germany: Right, Center, and Left,” in Anson Rabinbach and Jack Zipes (eds.), Germans and Jews since the Holocaust: The Changing Situation in West Germany (New York, 1986), p. 226; Steinbach, Nationalsozialististiche Gewaltverbrechen, pp. 64–7; and Zur Verjährung nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen, Pts. 2 and 3.
23 Götz, Bilanz der Verfolgung, p. 149.
24 Willy Brandt, In Exile: Essays, Reflections, Letters 1933–1947, trans. R. W. Last (London, 1971).
25 See Willy Brandt, Friedenspolitik in Europa, 3rd edn. (Frankfurt/Main, 1971).
26 See Willy Brandt, Friedenspolitik in Europa, 3rd edn. (Frankfurt/Main, 1971), p. 37. See Timothy Garton Ash, In Europe's Name: Germany and the Divided Continent (New York: Vintage, 1994).
27 Willy Brandt, Friedenspolitik in Europa, p. 148.
28 Willy Brandt, Friedenspolitik in Europa, pp. 34–5.
29 See Willy Brandt, Erinnerungen (Frankfurt/Main, 1989), pp. 213–15.
30 Ostpolitik, not the Middle East, was the focus of Brandt's diplomacy. Nevertheless, his sympathies with Israel, and its Labor Party, were strong. He was the first West German Chancellor to visit Israel while in office. On this see Rolf Vogel (ed.), Der deutsch-israelische Dialog, Part 1, Politik, Vol. 1 (Munich, 1987), pp. 349–81, and 458–75.
31 Otto Grotewohl to Gamel Abdel Nasser, 24 June 1957, Stiftung Archiv der Parteien und Massenorganizationen der DDR im Bundesarchiv (hereafter SAPMO-BA), ZPA NL Otto Grotewohl 90/497, pp. 70–71. Also see Grotewohl's letter to Nasser of 24 October 1958, in which he praised the “anti-imperialist liberation struggle of the Arab peoples,” in Der deutsch-israelische Dialog, Part 1, Politik, Vol. 1 (Munich, 1987), p. 87.
32 “Glückwunschtelegramm des Ministerpräsidenten Otto Grotewohl an den Präsidenten der Vereinigten Arabischen Republik, Gamal Abdel Nasser, anlässlich des Nationalfeiertages am 23. Juli 1958,” in Dokumente der Aussenpolitik der Regierung der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, 1949–1986 (hereafter DARDDR), Band VI 1958 ([East] Berlin, 1959), pp. 481–2.
33 “Erklärung des Ministerpräsident der DDR, Otto Grotewohl über seinen Besuch in der Vereinigten Arabischen Republik,” SAPMO-BA, ZPA NL Otto Grotewohl 90/491, pp. 408–9.
34 See Inge Deutschkron, Israel und die Deutschen: Das Schwierige Verhältnis (Cologne, 1991), pp. 287–314; and Vogel (ed.), Der deutsch-israelische Dialog, pp. 253–305.
35 Walter Ulbricht, “Interview der VAR Zeitung ‘Al Ahram’,” 23 February 1965, in DARDDR Band XIII ([East] Berlin, 1969), pp. 847–8.
36 Walter Ulbricht and Gamel Abdel Nasser, “Gemeinsame Erklärung,” 1 March 1965 (Cairo) in DARDDR Band XIII ([East] Berlin, 1969), p. 855.
37 “Abkommen zwischen der Regierung der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik und der Regierung der Vereinigten Arabischen Republik über kulturelle und wissenschaftliche Zusammenarbeit vom 1. März 1965,” in DARDDR Band XIII ([East] Berlin, 1969), pp. 858–63.
38 Walter Ulbricht, “Rundfunk- und Fernsehinterview … mit Gerhart Eisler,” 7 March 1965 (East Berlin), in DARDDR Band XIII ([East] Berlin, 1969), pp. 872–3.
39 Walter Ulbricht, “Kommunique über die 16. Sitzung des Staatsrates der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik am 12. März 1965,” in DARDDR Band XIII ([East] Berlin, 1969), p. 881.
40 Walter Ulbricht, The Two German States and the Aggression in the Near East (Dresden, 1967). Also see Walter Ulbricht, “Rede … im Leipzig am 15. Juni 1967 zu Fragen der Lage im Nahen Osten und zur westdeutsche Expansionspolitik im Rahmen der USA-Globalstrategie,” in DARDDR Band XV ([East] Berlin, 1971), pp. 515–38. Also see “Interview mit dem Minister für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten der Deutschen Demokratisiche Republik, Otto Winzer, nach seiner Rückkehr von der Aussenministerkonferenz europäischer sozialistischer Staaten in Warschau am 21. Dezember 1967,” in DARDDR Band XV 2. Halbband ([East] Berlin, 1970), pp. 570–71.
41 “Erklärung eines Sprechers des Ministeriums für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik vom 11. November 1967 zur Reise des früheren westdeutschen Bundeskanzlers Ludwig Erhard nach Israel,” DARDDR Band XV 2. Halbband, p. 566. Also see Halbband 1 for 1967 for East German statements on the Six Day War. The use of words such as “conspiracy” to describe Western support for Israel may have been on the mind of the historian Walter Laqueur when he observed that East German anti-Israeli denunciations made Moscow's Pravda seem “moderate and statesmanlike.” Cited in Peter Dittmar, “DDR und Israel” (II), Deutschland Archiv, Vol. 10, No. 8 (August 1977), p. 850.
42 On this see Karen Hartewig, “Jüdische Kommunisten in der DDR und ihr Verhältnis zu Israel,” in Wolfang Schwanitz (ed.), Jenseits der Legende: Araber, Juden, Deutsche (Berlin, 1994), pp. 130–36; and Helmut Eschwege, Fremd unter Meinesgleichen: Erinnerung eines dresdener Juden (Berlin, 1991).
43 Albert Norden to Werner Lamberz, 9 June 1967, in SAPMO-BA, ZPA NL Walter Ulbricht 182/1339; cited by Hartewig, “Jüdische Kommunisten,” pp. 218–19.
44 See Dittmar, “DDR und Israel” (II), pp. 849–61. One of the leading figures of East German foreign policy in these years was Herman Axen (1916–92). Axen, who had been interned in Vernet, then Buchenwald and Auschwitz, was editor-in-chief of Neues Deutschland (1956–66), a member of the SED Politiburo from 1970, and from 1966 Secretary in the Central Committee responsible for International Affairs. See “Herman Axen,” in Jochen Cerny (ed.), Wer war Wer — in der DDR (Berlin, 1992), pp. 19–20. Also see Herman Axen, Starker Sozialismus — sicherer Frieden: Ausgewählte Reden und Aufsätze ([East] Berlin, 1981); idem, Kampf um den Frieden — Schlüsselfrage der Gegenwart: Ausgewählte Reden und Aufsätze ([East] Berlin, 1986).
45 The many joint communiqués, reports of press conferences in East Berlin and Arab capitals, and official government statements are published in the annual documents of the foreign policy of the German Democratic Republic (DARDDR) for the years from 1971 to the mid-1980s. Also see “Erich Honnecker,” in Cerny (ed.), Wer war Wer, pp. 201–2.
46 Peter Florin, “Rede in der Nahostdebatte des Sicherheitsrates der Vereinten Nationen,” in DARDDR Band XXIV 2. Halbband 1976 ([East] Berlin, 1980), pp. 908–11.
47 See Peter Florin's representative contributions to debate on “the Palestine question” at the United Nations on 4 November 1975, in DARDDR Band XXIII 2. Halbband ([East] Berlin, 1979), pp. 1037–40.
48 “Mitteilung über den Besuch des Mitglieds des Exekutivkomitees und Leiter der Politischen Abteilung der Palästinensischen Befreiungsorganisation (PLO), Farouk al-Kaddoumi, in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik,” 9 September 1980; and “Mitteilung über das Gespräch zwischen dem Generalsekretär des Zentralkomitees der SED und Vorsitzenden des Staatsrates der DDR, Erich Honecker, und dem Vorsitzenden des Exekutivkomitees der Palästinensischen Befreiungsorganisation (PLO), Yasser Arafat, in Berlin,” 29 December 1980, in DARDDR Band XXVIII 1. Halbband ([East] Berlin, 1980), pp. 525–7, and pp. 528–30.
49 See, for example, “Mitteilung über den Empfang einer Militärdelegation der Palästinensischen Befreiungsorganisation (PLO) beim Generalsekretär des Zentralkomitees der SED und Vorsitzenden des Staatrates der DDR, Erich Honecker,” 17 November 1981, in DARDDR Band XXVIII 1. Halbband ([East] Berlin, 1980), pp. 224–5; also see Neues Deutschland, 18 November 1981.
50 “The East Germans Issue an Apology for Nazis' Crimes,” The New York Times, 13 April 1990, pp. 1 and A7.
51 “Volkskammer bekennt Schuld am Holocaust: Erste freigewählte DDR-Regierung im Amt,” Frankfurter Rundschau 14 April 1990, pp. 1–2.
52 “Excerpts from East Berlin Statement Apology,” The New York Times, 13 April 1990, p. A7.
53 See “Truth and Healing in Eastern Europe,” The New York Times, 14 April 1990, p. 22; and “East Germany accepts burden of Holocaust,” The Jerusalem Post, 13 April 1990, pp. 1 and 11. For the text of the Volkskammer declaration see “Dokumentation: Gemeinsame Erklärung der Volkskammer,” Deutschland Archiv, Vol. 23, No. 5 (May 1990), pp. 794–5.
54 On the anti-cosmopolitan purges, see Herf, Divided Memory, chs. 4–5.
55 On the tendency to read the past as the prehistory of major events, see Michael André Bernstein, Foregone Conclusions: Against Apocalyptic History (Berkeley, 1994).
56 See Karl Bracher, The German Dictatorship (New York, 1970); Eberhard Jaeckel, Hitler's World View: A Blueprint for Power, trans. Herbert Arnold (Cambridge, MA, 1981).
57 Paul Berman, “The Passion of Joschka Fischer,” The New Republic, 27 August and 3 September 2001; also see Jeffrey Herf, “To the Editors,” The German Dictatorship (New York, 1970); Eberhard Jaeckel, Hitler's World View: A Blueprint for Power, trans. Herbert Arnold (Cambridge, MA, 1981), 15 October 2001, p. 4.
58 See the discussion in Herf, Divided Memory, pp. 348–9; also see Martin W. Kloke, Israel und die deutsche Linke: Zur Geschichte eines schwierigen Verhältnis, 2nd edn. (Frankfurt/Main, 1994); Micha Brumlik et al., Der Antisemitismus und die Linke (Frankfurt/Main, 1991); Dan Diner, Zivilisationsbruch: Denken nach Auschwitz (Frankfurt/Main, 1988); Rabinbach and Zipes (eds.), Germans and Jews since the Holocaust.
59 See Detlev Claussen, “Terror in der Luft, Konterrevolution auf der Erde,” in Links, Vol. 9, No. 78 (1976), p. 6; Dan Diner, “Linke und Antisemitismus: Uberlegungen zur Geschichte und Aktualität,” in Karlheinz Schneider and Nikolaus Simon (eds.), Solidarität und deutsche Geschichte: Die Linke zwischen Antisemitismus und Israelkritik (West Berlin, 1984), pp. 61–80; Dan Diner, Beyond the Conceivable: Studies on Germany, Nazism and the Holocaust (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2000); Detlev Claussen, List der Gewalt: Soziale Revolution und ihre Theorien (Frankfurt/Main, 1982); and Jeffrey Herf, “The Struggle Continues,” review of Beyond the Conceivable in The New Republic, 5 and 12 August 2002, pp. 34–6. For an excellent bibliography of articles about Jews, anti-Semitism and the West German Left covering the period of the 1960s to the Gulf War in 1991, see Kloke, Israel und die deutsche Linke, pp. 331–87.
60 Sigrid Meuschel, Legitimation und Parteiherrschaft in der DDR (Frankfurt/Main, 1992).
61 For a history of this episode, see Jeffrey Herf, War by Other Means: Soviet Power, West German Resistance and the Battle of the Euromissiles (New York, 1991).
62 Cited in Herf, War by Other Means, p. 171.
63 Cited in Herf, War by Other Means, p. 186.
64 Cited in Herf, War by Other Means, p. 187.
65 Cited in Herf, War by Other Means, pp. 188–9.
66 On the lack of differentiation in postwar West German memory, see Jeffrey Herf, “Abstraction, Specificity and the Holocaust: Recent Disputes over Memory in Germany,” Bulletin of the German Historical Institute, London, Vol. 23, No. 2 (November, 2000), pp. 20–35.
67 “Speech by Richard von Weizsäcker, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, in the Bundestag during the Ceremony Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the End of the War in Europe and of National Socialist Tyranny, May 8, 1945,” in Geoffrey H. Hartman (ed.), Bitburg in Moral and Political Perspective (Bloomington, IN, 1986), pp. 262–73 (hereafter “Speech”); and Richard von Weizsäcker, “Der 8. Mai 1945 – 40 Jahre danach,” in idem, Von Deutschland aus: Reden des Bundespräsidenten (Munich, 1987), pp. 9–36.
68 “Speech,” pp. 263–4. On politics and the memory of the German Resistance, see David Clay Large, “‘A Beacon in the German Darkness’: The Anti-Nazi Resistance Legacy in West German Politics,” in Michael Geyer and John W. Boyer (eds.), Resistance Against the Third Reich, 1933–1990 (Chicago, IL, 1994), pp. 243–56; and Jeffrey Herf, “German Communism, the Discourse of “Antifascist Resistance,” and the Jewish Catastrophe,” in idem, Von Deutschland aus: Reden des Bundespräsidenten (Munich, 1987), pp. 257–94.
69 “Speech,” p. 264.
70 “Speech,”, pp. 264–5.
71 “Speech,”, pp. 265–6.
72 “Speech,”, p. 267.
73 On this see Andrei S. Markovits and Simon Reich, The German Predicament: Memory and Power in the New Europe (Ithaca, NY, 1997).
74 “Bubis dringt auf Gedenktag für die NA-Opfer,” Süddeutsche Zeitung, 9 May 1995. On his trip to Israel with members of the Green Party, see “Davidstern neben Pälästinensertuch: Joschka Fischers Israel-Besuch als grüne Aussenpolitik,” Süddeutsche Zeitung, 24 May 1995.
75 “Auschwitz Anniversary to be German Remembrance Day,” Agence France Presse, 1 June 1995.