Author: Heinlein Michael
Publisher: Rodopi
ISSN: 0927-1910
Source: German Monitor, Vol.73, Iss.1, 2011-07, pp. : 108-125
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Abstract
At present, a new generation of eye witnesses of World War II is forming in Germany: The memories of war children, i.e. of persons who were born between 1930 and 1945 and who experienced the war in their everyday life as children, are emerging as a prominent subject of public discourse. This article shows that this phenomenon is not merely documenting a new group of memory carriers, but argues that the ongoing attention to memories of 'Kriegskinder' needs to be situated within a broader trend about tendencies of self-victimisation in Germany's political culture of the last decade.