From Traitors to Role Models: Rehabilitation and Memorialization of Wehrmacht Deserters in Austria

Pirker, Peter; Krämer, Johannes

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-66496-5_3

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 13 publications

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“…The establishment of this group had been initiated by students at the University of Vienna in the late 1990s. In 2014, a monument commemorating these victims was installed on Vienna’s Ballhausplatz (Pirker and Kramer 2017; Manoschek 2003).…”

Section: “Crimes Of the Wehrmacht Dimension Of The War Of Annihilatio...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Controversies over Austria’s Nazi Past: Generational Changes and Grassroots Awakenings following the Waldheim Affair and the “Wehrmacht Exhibitions”

Embacher

2022

Nationalities Papers

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In 1945, the Austrian government constructed a new identity based on having been a “victim” of Nazi Germany. Thus, it had to hush up the fact that a majority of the population had welcomed the Anschluss, hundreds of thousands joined the NSDAP and served in the German Wehrmacht, and many were involved in the crimes of National Socialism. Only in the late 1980s, in the wake of the Waldheim Affair, did the years between 1938 and 1945 have to be re-interpreted. Ten years later, the exhibition “War of Annihilation: Crimes of the Wehrmacht 1941–1944” (short: Wehrmacht exhibition) questioned the myth of the “clean Wehrmacht.” Using the examples of the Waldheim Affair and the Wehrmacht exhibition, the article analyzes the influence of grassroots movements stimulated by these events. Since some members of the second generation defended the Wehrmacht rather than embracing the grassroots movements’ critique of earlier war myths, it will also problematize the category “generation.” Due to the leading role played by prominent Austrian Jews in these grassroots movements, the generational gap within the Jewish community is of further interest. I emphasize that the grassroots movements needed the support of Austrian political parties and from abroad to achieve a modicum of success.

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Section: “Crimes Of the Wehrmacht Dimension Of The War Of Annihilatio...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Controversies over Austria’s Nazi Past: Generational Changes and Grassroots Awakenings following the Waldheim Affair and the “Wehrmacht Exhibitions”

Embacher

2022

Nationalities Papers

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Between Heroization and Victimization. Assessing Empirical Evidence of Representations of Veterans in a Pre- and Post-heroic Era

Phillips,

Connelly

2024

The Military and Society

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Soziale Bedingungen von Erinnern und Vergessen: Biographische und intergenerationale Dynamiken

Pohn-Lauggas,

Schäfer

2024

BIOS

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Wir wenden uns in diesem Beitrag der Funktion des Vergessens und des Erinnerns in Familiengedächtnissen und in Biographien von Nachkommen jener zu, die im Nationalsozialismus als „asozial“ oder als Deserteure verfolgt wurden. Ausgangspunkt ist unsere biographieanalytische Mehrgenerationenforschung in Österreich und Deutschland zu intergenerationaler Tradierung und zu den Familiengedächtnissen dieser zwei Opfergruppierungen. Wir fokussieren hier auf die Frage, in welchen erinnerungspolitischen und biographischen Konstellationen bestimmte familiengeschichtliche Anteile vergessen und andere (wieder)erinnert werden. Anhand eines Vergleichs zweier Familien diskutieren wir, wie neues Wissen über die familiale Verfolgungsvergangenheit in Familiengedächtnisse integriert wird, wie an vergessene Anteile angeknüpft wird und wie somit neue Deutungen über die Familiengeschichte entstehen (können) und zugleich Anderes vergessen wird. Wir zeigen, dass das Vergessene, das sich einer intentionalen und reflexiven Zuwendung durch das Erinnern entzieht, dennoch intergenerational in Form von Deutungs- und Handlungsmustern weitergegeben wird; es wird nicht vergessen im Sinne eines Verlustes, sondern im Sinne eines Verdrängens oder Verblassens, eines Verleugnens oder Tabuisierens. Die in diesem Sinne vergessenen Anteile erweisen sich als intergenerational bedeutsam und handlungsstrukturierend.

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From Traitors to Role Models: Rehabilitation and Memorialization of Wehrmacht Deserters in Austria

Cited by 3 publications

References 13 publications

Controversies over Austria’s Nazi Past: Generational Changes and Grassroots Awakenings following the Waldheim Affair and the “Wehrmacht Exhibitions”

Controversies over Austria’s Nazi Past: Generational Changes and Grassroots Awakenings following the Waldheim Affair and the “Wehrmacht Exhibitions”

Between Heroization and Victimization. Assessing Empirical Evidence of Representations of Veterans in a Pre- and Post-heroic Era

Soziale Bedingungen von Erinnern und Vergessen: Biographische und intergenerationale Dynamiken

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