Title page-Playing Politics with History; Contents; Preface; List of Abbreviations; Introduction; Chapter 1-Establishing the Commission of Inquiry; Chapter 2-The Inquiries at Work; Chapter 3-The SED's Dictatorship from the Beginning; Chapter 4-Implementing and Resisting Socialism in the GDR; Chapter 5-Vergangenheitsbewaltigung Good and Bad; Chapter 6-The Double Totalitarian Past; Conclusion; Appendices; Appendix A; Appendix B; Bibliography; Index
Summary
After Germany's reunification in 1989-90, the country faced not only the history and consequences of the nation's division during the Cold War but also the continuing burdensome legacy of the Nazi past and the Holocaust. This book explains why concerns that the Nazi past would be marginalized by the more recent Communist past proved to be misplaced. It examines the delicate EastWest dynamics and the notion that the West sought to impose "victor's justice" (or history) on the East. More specifically, it examines, for the first time, the history and significance of two parliamentary commissions