Die Generation danach

Bruno Kreisky Prize for Political Book 2006 (Recognition Award) National Socialism is part of every family history in Germany and Austria. Historian Margit Reiter now examines for the first time how National Socialism has been remembered in Austrian post-war families and passed on to the subsequent generation. She finds that families did not simply remain silent. But what was told, how was it discussed - and what was ignored and made taboo? Family memory and the public discourse on National Socialism have profoundly shaped the worldview of the second generation. What do the descendants actually know about their fathers and mothers during the National Socialist era, and how do they deal with their (potential) complicity today? The author has interviewed 'children of the perpetrators' and explored the various ways of coping with this familial legacy.