Reconstructing the Past: Perceptions of the Holocaust and Positioning of German National Identity

Abstract

Once the extent to which ordinary German people had either participated, acquiesced, or silently tolerated the crimes of the Nazi regime became known, it was no longer a matter of merely a few guilty individuals - a whole nation stood accused for the atrocities of the Third Reich. The concept of collective guilt was then launched and debated (Tauber, 1967; Grosser, 1970; Jaspers, 1987; Märthesheimer, 1979a). Consequently, the notion of guilt has received considerable theoretical and research attention (Mitscherlich & Mitscherlich, 1975; Adorno, 1977; Mitscherlich, 1987; Brendler, 1991). Drawing on the theoretical distinctions between guilt and shame, this thesis suggests that shame is an alternative description of the third generation's relationship to the Nazi past. Guilt is defined as being the feeling of having been responsible for a moral violation (Izard, 1977; DeRivera, 1984; Scherer, 1984). Unlike guilt, the question of responsibility is irrelevant to feelings of shame. Furthermore, one can feel shame for the behaviour of others with whom one connects oneself through racial, ethnic, cultural or national identity. Therefore, the third generation is neither guilty of, nor responsible for, the crimes of the Third Reich. However, the memory of these crimes is strongly connected to the German nation as a whole. Through the process of national belonging and family connections, the third generation is not able to relinquish the heritage of collective liability for its historical past. The present study developed and tested a theoretical model of collective shame in an attempt to examine the third generation's relationship to the Nazi past. The model consisted of five constructs; attachment to the national unit, collective self-esteem, feelings of shame, willingness to confront the Nazi past and willingness to accept responsibility for the Nazi past. The pivotal aspect of the shame model is the willingness to confront and accept responsibility for the Nazi past, through which all other factors exert their influence. The research participants were 500 university and training college students from both former East and West Germany. The results indicated that a large proportion of the sample experienced shame over the Nazi past to some degree. The feelings of shame for the Nazi past were negatively related to attachment to the national unit, and collective self-esteem. Furthermore, shame motivates the willingness to confront, and accept responsibility for, the Nazi past. Also, a number of political and social factors were found to have significant influence on attitudes towards the Nazi past, revealing a complex pattern of acceptance and denial of this historical past. Overall, these findings confirm the conceptual expectations of the theoretical model of shame. The results are interpreted from the perspective of social identity theory, focusing on psychological reactions to a negative social identity. The methodological and theoretical implications of the study are then presented together with suggestions for further research.