An ambitious history of Germany interrogates the country’s moral makeover

Berlin in 1950 showing damage from World War II. "Out of the Darkness" examines 80 years of Germany's history. The final capitulation of Nazi Germany after years of devastating war, brutal repression and genocidal persecution left the country a ruin.

West Germany’s first postwar chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, hoped that payments to Israel and Jewish refugees might settle accounts. But the bureaucratic nightmare into which some compensation claims descended — with former Nazi civil servants sometimes handling the cases of Holocaust survivors they once persecuted — left a bitter taste for some, even as that compensation eased West Germany’s path out of international isolation.

When the SS commander and convicted war criminal Kurt “Panzer” Meyer was released from prison in 1954, he was greeted with flowers and a brass band. Meyer had initially been sentenced to death for executing Canadian prisoners of war, and he was also implicated in other atrocities. Trentmann shines light on just how rarely victims had a direct voice in Germany’s conversations about amnesty, compensation and forgiveness. In the immediate aftermath of the war, Germans found themselves isolated, in a more ethnically homogenous country than ever before or since. The Nazis had driven Jews into exile, then murdered many of those who didn’t escape.

United States Latest News, United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Projection mapping leaves the darkness behindResearchers developed a system that enables projection mapping within an illuminated environment. Several standard projectors and one large-aperture projector reproduce the environmental illumination in all areas except for the target object, whereas texture projectors display the texture on the unilluminated object's surface.
Source: ScienceDaily - 🏆 452. / 53 Read more »

Willow Processes ‘Darkness and Complexity’ on ‘Big Feelings’ From New Album ‘Empathogen’Willow has shared the new single 'Big Feelings' from her newly-announced studio album 'Empathogen,' out May 3.
Source: RollingStone - 🏆 483. / 51 Read more »

Moment of totality: Despite clouds, daytime darkness fills Rochester sky during eclipseRochester, N.Y. While the sun and the moon weren't visible under the cloud cover during the long-awaited total solar eclipse, the celestial phenomenon did bring
Source: 13WHAM - 🏆 256. / 63 Read more »

Total awe: Dallas basks in darkness of a rare solar eclipseThe total solar eclipse Monday plunged Dallas into four minutes of midday darkness as roughly half a million visitors looked up in awe.
Source: dallasnews - 🏆 18. / 71 Read more »

The Darkness Rises: Exploring the Ripple Effects of Everyday ActionsStacy Stokes discusses her new young adult novel, 'The Darkness Rises,' which delves into the profound impacts of everyday actions on individuals and communities.
Source: OakTribNews - 🏆 597. / 51 Read more »

Charles Barkley mocks 'losers' watching total solar eclipse: 'We've all seen darkness before'NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley mocked total solar eclipse views during Monday night's broadcast of the men’s college basketball national championship game.
Source: FoxNews - 🏆 9. / 87 Read more »