While processing the crimes of the Third Reich remains a concern for Germans born generations after Hitler’s suicide, it has been the inescapable professional problem of Germany’s historians. Leipzig University’s Nicolas Berg generated controversy when this book first appeared in Germany (2003) for its hard look at the leading figures in his field. Inevitably, the first generation of German historians were concerned with presenting their own behavior during the Third Reich, which ranged from collaboration to victimization with many shades of grey in between. Berg closely examines the conflicting trends in German historical perspectives on Nazism: Some see it as an aberration and others as continuous with their country’s history; some understand the Holocaust as part of a master plan and others as the result of unintended consequences; some felt sorry for themselves and others found empathy with the Holocaust’s victims.
