The Long Shadow of National Socialism

One of the most renowned German contemporary historians writes about the history and post-history of the Nazi regime.

The author’s many years of experience in dealing with the history of National Socialism provide the basis of this volume. Reinhard Rürup describes the historical events and processes that are of particular significance for a real understanding of the Nazi regime in a precise and vivid way: from the »seizure of power« and »bookburning« to the persecution and murder of the Jews and the war of conquest and annihilation against the Soviet Union. Rürup also turns his attention to the question of how the Germans have dealt with history after 1945 and up to the present day, a ques­ tion which has been raised more and more frequently in recent years. He is also concerned with the controversies surrounding the »Wehrmacht exhibition«, the »Goldhagen debate« or May 8, 1945 as the »day of liberation«.
The view of German history is widened to incorporate an international perspective in the introductory essay on the subject of the European history of dictatorship in the 20th century, and also in the concluding comparative study on the Second World War and the murder of the Jews in the politics of history and the culture of remembrance.

Reinhard Rürup, born in 1934, professor emeritus for modern history at the TU Berlin; research on political and social history, the history of economics and culture from the 18th to the 20th

centuries; scientific director of the Topography of Terror Foundation in Berlin for many years. Publications include: Schicksale und Karrieren. Gedenkbuch für die von den Nationalsozialisten aus der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft vertriebenen Forscherinnen und Forscher (Fates and Careers. Memorial Book for the Researchers Expelled from the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, 2008); Deutsche – Juden – Völkermord. Der Holocaust als Geschichte und Gegenwart (Germans – Jews – Genocide. The Holocaust in History and in the Present, 2006); Deutsch-jüdische Geschichte in der Neuzeit (German-Jewish History in Modern Times, co-ed., 1996).