History

Was My Grandfather a Nazi? Germans Are Opening Up Their Family Archives

A crowd cheering Adolf Hitler at the harvest festival in Bückeburg, 1935 // Photo12 / BE&W

Millions of NSDAP documents have been posted online this year. Germans are increasingly looking into their ancestors’ wartime experiences. Will digital archives break through the wall of family amnesia?

By Paweł Zarychta

A few months ago, the acclaimed German writer Judith Hermann published her autobiographical novel entitled Ich möchte zurückgehen in der Zeit (I Want to Go Back in Time). The novel’s heroine, the author’s alter ego, sets off on a journey from Germany to Radom in Poland to discover and understand her grandfather’s story.

Why this particular city? One of the few mementoes that the family of Judith Hermann (born in 1970) had kept of this grandfather was a photograph of a young man on a motorbike, wearing a Waffen-SS uniform. On the back side of the photograph was a short, faded inscription: ‘Radom’.

Human Cannibalism. When Did It First Appear And What Does It Tell Us About Ourselves?

Why has a behaviour that is widespread in the natural world and has recurred many times throughout human history become subject to one of the strongest human taboos? By Kasper Kalinowski On 9 March 1945, at 9 am, the commander of a Japanese battalion, Major Matoba – who was later taken

Ian Rankin’s Scottish Tenacity. What Is the Secret Behind the Success of His Crime Novels?

Ian Rankin, author of the John Rebus series, has never really experienced a dip in form, even though he has sold tens of millions of books. After a break of several years, he returns with A Heart Full of Headstones. By Piotr Kofta The contemporary crime novel is governed by

No More Kisses

A vice-president with African-American or Asian roots, such as Kamala Harris, was unthinkable even to people whose job it is to make up stories in Hollywood. By Piotr Tarczyński No American politician aspires to the role of vice-president; no one enters politics in the hope of one

Society Can Be Kind. Why Did Millennials Allow Themselves to be Convinced Otherwise?

Agata Sikora, essayist: Millennials were promised a world without major conflicts — all they had to do was get on with their lives. The price of this peace of mind was to be withdrawal from public life and the belief that only the private sphere matters. By Monika Ochędowska and Agata

Read more

Human Cannibalism. When Did It First Appear And What Does It Tell Us About Ourselves?

Ian Rankin’s Scottish Tenacity. What Is the Secret Behind the Success of His Crime Novels?

No More Kisses

Society Can Be Kind. Why Did Millennials Allow Themselves to be Convinced Otherwise?