The Second World War in Swiss-German literature

In the context of exploring memory-cultural family novels, Swiss literature often represents a blind spot. However, despite Switzerland's unique situation in the first half of the 20th century, established historical narratives are critically examined in Swiss family novels. Through selected examples from Christoph Geiser, Thomas Hürlimann, and Urs Widmer, the themes related to Switzerland's role during World War II are explored, along with how they are described and evaluated. The family novels studied were published between the 1980s and the 2010s, a period during which the official historical narrative of Switzerland shifted away from the heroic resistance narrative and turned towards more complex accounts of the past. In the genre's typical connection between private family history and public contemporary history, both conflicts and feelings of belonging among the fictional family members are made visible. Throughout, World War II and the Holocaust repeatedly serve as reference points for intergenerational questions regarding origins, identity, and the significance of memory for the future. Important themes addressed include latent anti-Semitism in Switzerland, as well as the private and everyday life of the Swiss population during World War II.