"In zwölf Jahren haben die Nazi-Verbrecher Millionen Europäer gefoltert, verschleppt und ermordet. Männer, Frauen und Kinder wurden von Hitlers vertierten Henkersknechten gehetzt und zu Tode gequält, nur weil sie Juden, Tschechen, Russen, Polen oder Franzosen waren. Ihr habt ruhig zugesehen und es stillschweigend geduldet."
"In twelve years, the Nazi-criminals tortured, abducted, and murdered millions of Europeans. Men, women, and children were chased by Hitler's bestial executioners and tortured to death, only because they were Jews, Czech, Russian, Polish, or French. You looked on calmly and condoned it." Excerpt from American denazification propaganda
After World War II, the Allied powers, especially the United States, enacted a “denazification” policy designed both to remove Nazis from the government and to scrub fascist thought from the nation as a whole.
Under denazification, political leaders and other government officials identified as Nazis were removed from power. The media was censored and civilians were frog-marched through concentration camps to witness the horrors for which, or so the Allies insisted, every German was responsible.
Inevitably, the policies placed a hefty psychological burden on the German people. Guilt pervaded the German mindset, as anti-Nazi sentiment spread to encompass all of the German people, damaging the national psyche.
Under denazification, political leaders and other government officials identified as Nazis were removed from power. The media was censored and civilians were frog-marched through concentration camps to witness the horrors for which, or so the Allies insisted, every German was responsible.
Inevitably, the policies placed a hefty psychological burden on the German people. Guilt pervaded the German mindset, as anti-Nazi sentiment spread to encompass all of the German people, damaging the national psyche.
Denazification was designed to assure that the Nazis would never rise again, but it also created a specter of guilt that hangs over the German people to this day. The phrase "Sieg heil" remains illegal in Germany, a stark reminder that the process of denazification scarred as much as it healed.
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In a famous essay, Carl Jung wrote about the "kollektive Unterbewusst," or collective subconscious, of the German people, saying future therapists would have a hard time helping Germans reconcile their post-war guilt. American propaganda thoroughly dispelled the nationalist pride of the Nazi years. But the aggressive policies also tormented Germans who had never identified with the Nazi cause.
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