How Germany Developed a ‘Policy on the Past’
A Constellation of Days Has Emerged to Remember the Holocaust and Its Victims
Germany does not have a traditional, centuries-old national holiday, such as July 14 in France or July 4 in the United States.
But Germany is carefully attuned to dates, and how they might be used to reckon with the history of dictatorships, encourage the maintenance of memorial sites, and spark remembrance in ways that draw the public to past sins, and provide vital information and moral orientation.
Reckoning with and making restitution for the Nazi dictatorship of 1933–1945, World War II, and the deaths and persecution of millions occupies Germany to this …
