Repressed, Forgotten, Neglected
The War against Poland and the Soviet Union
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The memory of the war against Poland and the Soviet Union, the occupation, and the crimes associated with them went through several phases in Germany. Initially, silence about the war in Eastern Europe prevailed in the postwar period. It was not until the 1960s and 1970s that a gradual reappraisal began, which received a decisive boost by the Wehrmacht exhibition in the 1990s. Today, the violence in the Eastern European theatres of war, the crimes committed against the civilian population and prisoners of war are an integral part of research. Nonetheless, in German remembrance cultural, the “historical space of East-Central and Eastern Europe” is still peripheral and perceived as foreign, unlike that of the West.
(Osteuropa 1-3/2025, pp. 175–190)