De-nazification

De-nazification

• Aim was to produce a changed culture, a changed political outlook.
• The national identity hammered into them by Nazi's had to be changed - as did racial and cultural ideas that had been imposed.
• Found all Nazi's involved in the Holocaust and prosecuted them.
• Marched people past piles of dead bodies so they could face up to the extreme Nazi policies.

Nuremberg Trials

• War crime trials - started on 18th Nov 1945
• 22 defendants - 12 sentenced to death, 3 to life imprisonment and 3 were acquitted. The remaining defendants went to prison.
• Germans accepted this as necessary as part of losing the war and the fact that there should be an end to the Nazis.
• Hitler became the person to take all the blame.
• People felt they should be able to get to rebuilding their lives now that Nazi's had been dealt with.
• Year zero - supported by right wing politicians like Adenauer and those who had lived through the war as adults.

De-Nazification Policies.

• Different zones pursued this differently.
• Problems with classifying who was a Nazi (many had joined the party to keep their jobs but didn't have Nazi sympathies).
• The process also looked bungled and corrupt - this did not encourage people to welcome the democratic process set up by the same Allied authorities.
• Western Zones set out to reeducate the young - uphill battle as many young people had been indoctrinated.
• May 1946 - Nazi textbooks, films and slides were banned.
• Nazification had been so thorough that De-nazification meant there were not enough people to do key jobs in education or in government.
• The USSR was the most ruthless - the British were most pragmatic.

Reactions to De-Nazification

• Resigned acceptance - Punishing Germany was inevitable. People thought De-Nazificaton was necessary.
• Indignation- Why should only Germans be punished for war crimes? Allies had been involved in bombings etc too.
• Avoidance - People who supported the Nazi's wanted to avoid too close of an examination of who did what in war.
• Cynicism - The prosecution of ex-Nazi's was patchy. Allies were guilty of allowing ex-Nazi's to leave and start new lives.
• Desire to move on - Not looking too closely at the past and believed in the 'year zero'.
• 1960s - Some young people wanted to know what their families had done in Nazi Germany, they wanted to clear the air. They were angry at the sloppy application of de-nazification.