Exploring the Europeanization of Memory of Nazi Crimes and Post-War Accountability from 1989 Onwards

This entry explores the 'Europeanization of memory' concerning Nazi crimes that emerged in 1989. It discusses how countries grappled with their responsibility for collaboration and the Holocaust, marking a new era in confronting past atrocities across Europe.

This detailed entry, titled '1989: Europäisierung der Erinnerung an NS-Verbrechen' (Europeanization of Memory of Nazi Crimes), examines a significant shift in how Europe collectively remembered and confronted its past related to Nazi atrocities. It contrasts the post-war approach in Germany, which embraced responsibility as a source of national pride, with Austria's prolonged 'victim myth' that was challenged by the 'Waldheim Affair' in 1986. The text highlights that by the 1990s, many European nations that had collaborated with Nazi Germany began to acknowledge their complicity, moving beyond earlier narratives of widespread resistance. This process was further influenced by the fall of the Eastern Bloc and the subsequent EU enlargement, which led to the inclusion of Soviet-era crimes into the European memory discourse, sometimes equating them with Nazi crimes and risking the portrayal of national populations solely as victims. The entry, authored by Ljiljana Radonić, points out that the 'Europeanization' of memory in the 1990s saw former collaborating nations gradually admitting their roles in crimes like the Holocaust and genocide against Romani people. This was partly driven by a desire to signal readiness for European integration. The inclusion of Stalinist crimes into the European historical narrative, exemplified by the joint commemoration day for victims of Stalinism and Nazism, is also discussed. A critical perspective is offered regarding the potential pitfall of this linkage, which might lead to populations seeing themselves only as victims of external powers while downplaying their own collaboration.