Discursive Construction of Memory The Wehrmacht's War of Extermination

by Heer, Hannes; Manoschek, Walter; Pollak, Alexander; Wodak, Ruth

• ISBN13: 9780230013230
• ISBN10: 0230013236
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-07-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This interdisciplinary volume analyzes in detail for the first time, throughout multiple genres, the history and image of the " German Wehrmacht" and the debates in Austria and Germany surrounding two highly contested exhibitions about the war crimes of the Wehrmacht during WWII.

Author Biography

HANNES HEER works in Hamburg, Germany as a writer and exhibition organizer. From 1993 to 2000 he worked at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research, directing the first 'Wehrmacht exhibition'. He has written numerous publications on National Socialism, the Wehrmacht and post-war recollection.

SABINE LOITFELLNER is historian and fellow at the Austrian Research Centre for Post-War Trials, Austria, and is active in the area of art restitution in conjunction with the Holocaust Victims' Information and Support Centre of the Jewish Community in Vienna.

WALTER MANOSCHEK is professor for political science and chairs the Department for Government at the University of Vienna, Austria. His researches and publications focus on Politics of the Past, the Political System of Nationalsocialism and Holocaust Studies.

ALEXANDER POLLAK is research manager at the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia and independent scholar at the University of Vienna (Department of Government), Austria.

GUENTHER SANDNER is director of the research project "Democratising of Knowledge. Otto Neurath's Project in the Context of Different Scientific Cultures: Austria - Germany - England" at the University of Vienna, Austria.

HEIDIMARIE UHL is at the Commission for Culture Studies and History of Theatre, Austrian Academy for Sciences, Vienna, Austria

RUTH WODAK is Chair in Discourse Studies, Lancaster University, UK. She holds multiple visiting professorships (Stanford, Georgetown, Minneapolis, Uppsala, UEA); Karen Hesselgren Chair of the Swedish Parliament 2008/9. She is co-editor of Journal of Language and Politics and Critical Discourse Studies and her recent book publications include New Agenda in (Critical) Discourse Analysis (with Paul Chilton); Discourse and Discrimination, (with Martin Reisigl); Re/Reading the Past, (with Jim Martin).

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors

Preface with Acknowledgements

Preface to the First Edition: 'How History Is Made'

The Origins and Aims of the Project

Introduction: Collective Memory, National Narratives and The Politics of the Past

The Wehrmacht And The Second World War In The Memory Of The War Generation

The Crimes of the Wehrmacht in the Second World War

The Holocaust as Recounted in Wehrmacht Soldiers' Letters from the Front

The Attitudes and Beliefs of Austrian Soldiers in the German Wehrmacht 1938-45:

'That is What is So Terrible

That Millions of Soldiers Were There, Yet Today They All Claim They Never Saw a Thing

The Wehrmacht In Collective Memory After 1945

Defining the Victims of Nazism

The Myth of the 'Untainted Wehrmacht

'The Appalling Toll in Austrian Lives

All that Remains of the Second World War

Reaction To The Wehrmacht Exhibitions

Crime Scene: Wehrmacht Exhibition

The Head of Medusa

Interpreting the 'War of Annihilation

Glossary

Print Media

References

Index

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