Theodor Oberländer and the Nachtigall Battalion in 1959/60-an Entangled History of Propaganda, Politics, and Memory in East and West

Bibliographic Data

ID4216370
AuthorsKai Struve (0000-0002-4017-1985, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume81
Issue3
Pages677-700
Publication date2022-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSlavic Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0037-6779 • E-ISSN: 2325-7784
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/slr.2022.228
OpenAlexW4319437778
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited2

This article analyzes the East German and Soviet campaign against the West German federal minister Theodor Oberländer in 1959-60 as an exemplary case of how the Cold War and east-west entanglements influenced the memory of the Holocaust and Stalinist crimes. These entanglements were complex and went beyond the relations between the two German states. The article examines also the interrelations with the Soviet Union's propagandistic struggle against Ukrainian nationalism. It addresses the diverse impact that the campaign had in the two German states, the Ukrainian diaspora, and the Soviet Union. It argues that in the German context the campaign contributed to critical reckonings and remembrance of the Holocaust, which it did not do in the Soviet Union and among the Ukrainian diaspora. Moreover, in the Soviet Union it amplified an enemy image of Ukrainian nationalism that still exists today and serves Russia to justify its current war against Ukraine with the accusation that Ukraine is ruled by a "Nazi" regime

Context (archaeology · Diaspora · Economic history · German · Nationalism · Nazi Germany · Nazism · Political science · Politics · The Holocaust · Ukrainian · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · European history and politics · German History and Society · History · Law

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