Thesis--Munich. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-212).

Thesis--Munich. / Bibliography: p. 209-212.

The purpose of this study was to determine how American involvement in the war-crimes trials held in Germany after World War II affected Germany's own prosecution of war criminals from 1949 to the present. Achievement of this objective entailed determining the role of the United States in war-crimes prosecutions, relating the role to that of the other occupation powers and then discovering the specific ways that the United States influenced Germany's conduct of its own trials.The procedure involved four steps. The United States plans for the prosecution of war criminals were traced throughout the war in order to determine attitudes and roles which might have affected planning for postwar Germany. Then the proceedings of the International Military Tribunal, the Dachau trials and Nuremberg trials were studied so their characteristics could be compared with the German-conducted proceedings. A note was next made 'on every individual who was indicted or tried in the Federal Republic. Also listed were the individual's age, former position in the Nazi regime, war-crimes charge, place of trial, results of the proceedings and appeal, public reaction, and any other data which might be pertinent to the trials, such as antiSemitic and neo-Nazi revivals, and Adolf Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem.General conclusions became immediately apparent. First, the trials of war criminals would have ended at the close of the International Military Tribunal had not the United States insisted they continue. Secondly, the United States conduct of its trials at Nuremberg and Dachau planted seeds which affected Germany's prosecution of war criminals. The most important seed was a crushing burden of guilt. Guilt in turn produced rationalizations about the past deeds of the Nazis. Consequently, no real atonement for the German people could take place. The number of trials declined appreciably from 1949 to 1957. Germany's delay in accepting its guilt was also due to the fact that American authorities determined that other issues were more important, including rebuilding Germany economically and. militarily to defend the Western world against the communist menace in Eastern Europe. Thirdly, the realization that German youth were not being taught the truth about the Nazi era, that Nazi war criminals had escaped prosecution, and that former Nazis had won their way back into the government and judiciary awakened people to the need to undergo a "national self-purification," The number of trials held in Germany increased. The Eichmann Trial was part of the momentum, but the Auschwitz proceedings were almost anti-climactic, creating more apathy and indifference than anything else. So deep, however, is the burden of guilt that the statute of limitations has been removed on genocide and extended twice for murder to insure that the remaining war criminals will be punished, despite the fact that two out of every five Germans opposed the trials. Finally, although a commendable effort has been made to write the last chapter in Germany's conduct of warcrimes trials, the Bonn government has undercut the force of extending the statute of limitations by allowing a penal code reform in 1968 to end the prosecution of war criminals except in cases of murder or aiding and abetting in murder out of such base motives as racial hatred. In spite of legal delays and manoeuvers in the trial of war criminals, one can expect the proceedings to continue but to slow down and then end completely in 1979.

Thèse : Université de Karlsruhe : 2000. / Bibliogr. p. 349-370. Index.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, June, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 571-591)

In 1945, many parts of Germany lay in rubble and there was a Zeitgeist of exhaustion, apathy, frustration and, in places, shame. German society was disorientated and the Catholic and Protestant churches were the only surviving mass institutions that remained relatively independent from the former Nazi State. Allowed a general religious freedom by the occupying forces, the churches provided the German population with important spiritual and material support that established their vital post-war role in society. The churches enjoyed widespread popular support and, in October 1946, over 90 percent of the population in the Soviet zone (SBZ) claimed membership in either confession. This thesis is a social history that examines the position of the churches in Thuringia, as a case study, between 1945 and 1948 and aims to evaluate their social and moral influence on the population. It seeks to readdress the considerable dearth of historiographical attention given to the role of the churches in people's everyday lives. In summary, despite a general religious revival in 1945, the popularity of the churches was both short-lived and superficial. Although the churches were industrious in attempting to provide for everybody, the acute destitution encountered by the Thuringian population in 1945 was a chronic problem that undermined the authority of the churches. This was revealed in the inability of the churches to influence faith communities to regularly attend church, to welcome refugees and to feel some responsibility for the Nazi past. Meanwhile, by 1948, the dominant political party, the Socialist Unity Party (SED), had tightened its control over social life in the SBZ. Instead of heeding the voice and dictates of the churches, the population fell into an ideological apathy that favoured the SED, despite the party's own widespread unpopularity. The result was the almost unchallenged, increasing power of socialism in the SBZ that ultimately led to the establishment of the German Democratic Republic under the aegis of the SED with the churches' acquiescence.

Zugl.: Berlin, Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2006.

This investigation examines the origins and function of the Napolas, boarding schools for the Third Reich’s future elite, before 1945 and demonstrates how those connected to the schools rehabilitated their experiences as students and teachers in the early postwar period and in the years since reunification. Between 1933 and 1945, the Napolas recruited racially valuable children and prepared them for leadership roles in Nazi Germany’s Thousand-Year Reich. The schools’ emphasis upon racial purity and premilitary training caught the attention of Heinrich Himmler and the SS. The appointment of August Heißmeyer, a high-ranking SS official, to the position of Napola inspector in 1936 opened the door for closer relations between the two organizations. Although the Napolas remained formally under the auspices of the Reich Education Ministry for the entirety of the Nazi dictatorship, the schools were gradually absorbed into the SS’ sphere of influence after 1936. The Napolas ceased to exist with the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. Due to the Napolas’ past ties to the SS, one of seven organizations deemed criminal by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, former administrators, teachers, and pupils of the schools were caught in the crosshairs of the Allied denazification program. Legal changes in the U.S. Occupation Zone in March 1946 gave Napola apologists an opportunity to challenge Allied accusations regarding the Napolas’ past as Nazi sites of indoctrination. As a result, a collective defense of the Napolas began to emerge, growing in repute and complexity as the denazification process continued. By 1949, the Napolas’ “postwar legend,” an exonerative tale of the schools’ history during the Third Reich, had not only stalled prosecution indefinitely, but also successfully reintegrated alumni into West German society. The postwar myth that exonerated the schools survived challenges during the Bonn Republic more or less unscathed. The willingness of former Napola pupils to recast their experiences as Nazi elite students in a positive light indicates that the Napolas’ postwar legend has lost none of its persuasiveness in unified Germany. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This investigation examines the legacy of the Third Reich through the prism of education. After the collapse of the Nazi regime in 1945, the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and France divided Germany into four zones of occupation and introduced a wide-ranging program of denazification. Former administrators, teachers and pupils of the Napolas, boarding schools for the Third Reich’s future elite, were among those affected by the purge. The Napolas had enjoyed an intimate relationship to Heinrich Himmler’s SS between 1936 and 1945, due in large part to the schools’ emphasis on racial purity and premilitary training. Yet Napola apologists responded to postwar prosecution by denying the schools’ role in Nazi plans for European domination. Their constructed memories rehabilitated the Napolas’ postwar image and successfully reintegrated alumni into West German society. The Napolas’ “postwar legend” has since become the defining characteristic of Napola alumni associations’ collective identities.

The end of the Second World War brought many questions to the United States. One of the greatest among these was what to do with defeated Germany. Many clamored for the dissolution of the former Nazi State and the shameful humbling of its people while others recognized the value of a revitalized Germany as an ally against the looming threat of an emboldened and empowered postwar Soviet Union. Though retribution held sway immediately following the war, the Cold War consensus of an alliance with West Germany and a reimagining of the German people as victims rather than perpetrators won out as the years progressed. This work examines this evolving shift in perception by the United States and its people and how it can be tracked through several prominent films of the day.

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