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PARTISAN REVIEW
They are reacting to the silence surrounding history, to what began
in 1933, when the horrors to come were ushered in by the burning of
books. Then synagogues went up in flames; and finally there was the in–
cineration of human flesh. Unrestricted character assassination campaigns
opened the sluice gates for an orgy of racial killing. Nazi ideology
trained the Germans not to grieve and mourn and not to allow them–
selves any feelings of guilt. They had been sworn to a mentality of hero–
worship, a "dulce et decorum est" allegiance to fatherland and Fiihrer,
with the annihilation of Germany's unworthy enemies as the highest pri–
ority. Nor should we forget the perversion that went by the name of
Heldenmatter,
hero mothers, women who used the "deceased" columns
to publicly flaunt their pride at the heroic deaths of their husbands or
sons on the field of battle. As psychoanalysts, we would say that a para–
noid-schizoid condition had been inculcated into the German people.
They needed enemies and scapegoats, the better to idealize themselves as
members of the master race. Their cult of masculinity knew no bounds.
Guilt, mourning, and compassion, above all in relation to those who did
not belong to the master race and hence merited only abomination,
were forbidden on pain of death.
Today many people feel that the achievements, the spirit of renewal,
and the willingness to remember embodied by the student revolution of
the late sixties can safely be relegated to history. But however unpleas–
antly inquisitorial this generation could be, and despite the many undeni–
able aberrations of which it was guilty, its was the first attempt since the
end of the war to break the decade of silence observed by their parents'
generation. From then on a great deal changed, and for the first time
many of my compatriots learned to face the fact that they had been liv–
ing a lie. Active, conscious mourning became possible. They learned to
confront themselves, to bear up under feelings of guilt and anxiety, to
regain the capacity for feelings and thus build up a more stable identity.
The post-war generation spent immense energy in removing the
mountains of rubble that the war had left. But the mountain of guilt
remained untouched, as did the ideological poison that had seeped down
unnoticed into the depths of the collective mentality. After the late six–
ties, entrenched positions and defensive formations came under attack.
The cultivation of imperviousness to the suffering of others was called
into question. Former ideals were challenged. There was a kind of
awakening from the emotional hibernation that had followed the intox–
ication of war.
Today, more and more Germans in the East and the West are
protesting against the destructive and violent hostility towards foreigners.
