From the state myth of Buchenwald to the attack on democracy
Even 80 years after the liberation of Buchenwald, the memory of the Holocaust has not reached the democratic mainstream. Attacks on what is known in Germany as the culture of remembrance no longer come only from the right. Why? What is going on? Once again Ines Geipel delves into the past, searching for the origins of the camp world and questioning the legends after 1945: from the exemplary reappraisal in the West to the anti-fascist state myth of the GDR. A disturbing, highly topical book about the old and new inability to mourn and the coldness of memory after two dictatorships.
"All of Ines Geipel's texts look back. In that lies their forward-bursting force. How else can we know what our future is?"
— Hauke Hückstädt, Laudatory Speech for the Marieluise Fleißer Prize 2021
"a thoroughly gripping read" - Deutschlandfunk - Andruck, Angela Gutzeit
"The book’s thoughtful design [...] powerfully brings home the impact of memory right up to the present day." - der Freitag, Thomas Hummitzsch
"Shocking report" - NZZ, Peer Teuwsen
"A book that touches on deep wounds." - MDR Kultur, Bettina Baltschev
