Rediscovering narratives of German resistance: Opposing the Nazi ‘Terror-State’

Abstract

This article looks at the way in which the process of recording oral history concerning National Socialism in an institutional setting changed as a result of trends in the broader society. During the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, West German society went through a significant reevaluation and reinterpretation of the National Socialist years. This was in large part caused by a wide-ranging discussion of the Holocaust in film, on television programs, in newspaper articles and on radio broadcasts. In this context, the Landesbildstelle Berlin began to include members of the German resistance, Jews and those who saved Jews into a long-running oral history project of ‘prominent Berliners’. The narrative space opened by the explicit discussion of the Holocaust aided the formulation of additional counter-memory narratives. During the postwar years, a specific narrative regarding the Nazi terror-state had developed that sought to explain German ‘passivity’ during the Nazi years. These personal narratives of resistance and helping Jews challenge the notion of German ‘passivity’. They also help us to better understand the range of resistance activity that was possible during the Third Reich. Furthermore, the interviews show the rifts that exist between different memory clusters. The narratives of the broader ‘passive’ German population clash with those who chose the path of resistance, often risking their lives to save Jews. The contrasting narrative structures between Germans and Jews are also considered.