Study Reveals German Families' Self-Serving Nazi Memory

A pioneering sociological study by H. Welzer, S. Moller, and K. Tschuggnall, published by Gallimard as 'Grand-Père n'était pas un nazi', reveals how German families construct a consensual, self-exculpating version of their Nazi past. Based on hundreds of interviews, the research shows that historical scholarship on Nazism is powerless against the complacent narratives dominating family memory. Descendants, especially those with higher education, feel a subjective need to protect their family from historical knowledge. The study identifies key mechanisms: victimization narratives borrowed from war films and Holocaust imagery, vague testimonies filled with empty phrases, and a cumulative heroization of ancestors. Contradictions abound, such as a young woman believing her grandmother hid Jews while the grandmother boasted of never housing camp survivors. The general conviction is that 'the Nazis' were always others, even when describing SA soldiers or Gestapo officials. The Holocaust is nearly absent from these family accounts, which challenge conventional understanding of collective memory formation.