151. A neglected story: German prisoners of war in Italy (1945-1947)
- Author:
- Federico Niglia
- Publication Date:
- 10-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
- Institution:
- Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- The story of German military prisoners in the hands of the Allies at the end of the Second World War is progressively shifting out of living memory and becoming an interesting topic for both scholars and ordinary readers. For years, the experiences of German prisoners have been neglected by historians; rarely has it even been possible to discuss in a dispassionate way the difficult conditions in which the prisoners lived. The reason for this neglect is self-evident: the suffering of the Germans in the aftermath of their surrender could not be compared to the suffering of Germany's victims. Since the collapse of the Berlin wall, a barrier that in some ways symbolised the price that Germany had to pay to Europe for its guilt in the war, the self-perception of the German people has started changing. A new generation that has no memory of the war and Nazism has helped to move beyond the crippling guilt that haunted Germany until the 1980s. Beginning in the 1990s, a benign revival of German national pride occurred, affecting the historical memory of the country. The literary elite that once confined itself to harsh censure of the guilt and the wickedness of its own people, began also to tackle once taboo subjects, such as the suffering of German civilians during the Second World War; the romance of Günter Grass Im Krebsgang is, for example, extremely significant.
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Germany