Service Above Self? Rotary Clubs, National Socialism, and Transnational Memory in the 1960s and 1970s

Abstract

In the 1960s and 1970s two controversies forced Rotary clubs to address the issue of complicity during the Holocaust. One emerged from a West German Rotarian’s attempts to publish an honest account of his organization’s concessions to National Socialism in the 1930s. The second ensued upon the nomination of an Austrian former Nazi to the Rotary International presidency. Both events unleashed intense discussions in the United States and elsewhere, pitting those who felt that the Holocaust must never be forgotten against those who saw camaraderie and forgiveness as more important than historical memory. These debates revealed “transnational” memory at work. Rotarians’ and the wider public’s response to these controversies transcended geographical boundaried, bringing Americans, Europeans, and others together to contemplate the moral legacies of Nazism and the Holocaust.