Everyday Denazification in Postwar Germany - The Fragebogen and Political Screening during the Allied Occupation

In the wake of World War II, the victorious Allied armies implemented a radical program to purge Nazism from Germany and preserve peace in Europe. Between 1945 and 1949, 20 million political questionnaires, or Fragebögen, were distributed by American, British, French, and Soviet armies to anxious Germans who had to prove their non-Nazi status to gain employment. Drafted by university professors and social scientists, these surveys de¿ned much of the denazi¿cation experience and were immensely consequential to the material and emotional recovery of Germans. In Everyday Denazi¿cation in Postwar Germany, Mikkel Dack draws the curtain to reveal what denazi¿cation looked like on the ground and in practice and how the highly criticized vetting program impacted the lives of individual Germans and their families as they recovered from the war. Accessing recently declassi¿ed documents, this book challenges traditional interpretations by illustrating the positive elements of the denazi¿cation campaign and recounting a more comprehensive history, one of mid-level Allied planners, civil affairs soldiers, and regular German citizens. The Fragebogen functions as a window into this everyday history.

List of contents

List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; List of Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. An Army of Academics: Planning the Denazification of Germany; 2. 'A Miserable Paper Substitute for a Spontaneous Revolution': Drafting the Questionnaire; 3. 'Land of the Fragebogen': Screening the German Population; 4. The 'Little Man's Nuremberg': Germans and Denazification; 5: Writing Away Culpability: The Unintended Outcomes of Denazification; Conclusion; Appendices: The Fragebogen Questions; Bibliography; Index.

About the author

Mikkel Dack is Assistant Professor of History at Rowan University and Director of Research at the Rowan Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights.

Product details

• Authors: Mikkel Dack, Mikkel (Rowan University Dack
• Publisher: Cambridge Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 08.08.2024
• EAN: 9781009216357
• ISBN: 978-1-009-21635-7
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 18 mm
• Weight: 476 g
• Illustrations: Worked examples or Exercises
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; European History, HISTORY / Military / General, HISTORY / Europe / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Process / General, military history, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, Fascism & Nazism, Second World War, Political structures: totalitarianism and dictatorship, Far-right political ideologies and movements, Modern warfare, c 1940 to c 1949, c 1939 to c 1945 (including WW2), Political structures: totalitarianism & dictatorship, HISTORY / Wars & Conflicts / World War II / General