‘Hitler’s Shadow’ Still Over Germany?

In reviewing “Hitler’s Shadow. . .” by Richard J. Evans, Jonathan Kirsch manages to rekindle latent Germanophobic prejudices about the nasty Germans.

What your reviewer is actually discussing is a current historical debate in Germany about the political and moral dimensions of World War II. Kirsch shows little understanding of this debate and uncritically accepts Evans’ egregious misrepresentations of the views of German historians who are honestly trying to tell the truth.

With the exception of Ernst Nolte, who has been swimming against the currents of German historical opinions for some time, the historians Kirsch cites are liberal historians who have all written incisive works exposing Nazi crimes and doing their utmost to educate young Germans to political democracy.

It is doing a grave disservice to undermine such efforts by appealing to latent anti-German sentiments and by pushing guilt buttons in hopes of making Germans feel guilty in perpetuity.

Your reviewer seems to think that there is an “ominous” political agenda behind the works of these historians, an agenda aiming at political unification and teaching Germans to get off their knees and learn to walk tall again.

What is wrong with this agenda and what political view inspires the belief that Germans should remain on their knees and suffer permanent political disability?

DR. KLAUS P. FISCHER

Director

Chapman College

Vandenberg/Lompoc