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Articles on Nazism

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People in Hamburg, Germany, protest against right-wing extremism and the AfD party on Feb. 25, 2024. Hami Roshan/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

A far-right political group is gaining popularity in Germany – but so, too, are protests against it

Hundreds of thousands of people in Germany are taking to the streets to push back against the far-right, nationalist policies of the AfD, which currently holds 11% of the seats in parliament.
Berliners giving the Nazi salute following the announcement of the German invasion of Poland on September 1 1939. Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo|Alamy

How the social structures of Nazi Germany created a bystander society

The German population was transformed under Nazism into a “bystander society” – even before the conditions of wartime normalised acts of excessive violence.
On Oct. 12, a sign in Tel Aviv says in Hebrew, ‘No more words,’ near candles lit both in memory of those killed in the Hamas massacres and for the hostages taken to the Gaza Strip. Amir Levy/Getty Images

Holocaust comparisons are overused – but in the case of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel they may reflect more than just the emotional response of a traumatized people

The Holocaust is not just a memory in Israel. It’s part of how Israelis understand themselves and their country − and it’s playing a part in how the country responds to the Hamas massacres of Oct. 7.
A woman at a Holocaust Memorial Centre in Macedonia looks at portraits of Jewish people killed in the Treblinka Nazi concentration camp. Georgi Licovkski/AAP

Is it time to reconsider the idea of ‘the banality of evil’?

Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was anything but banal. His case is an apt reminder of how evil agents can deflect accountability, denying victims even the thin consolation of the moral high ground.
Lizi Rosenfeld, a Jewish woman, sits on a park bench bearing a sign that reads, ‘Only for Aryans,’ in August 1938 in Vienna. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum /Provenance: Leo Spitzer

How individual, ordinary Jews fought Nazi persecution − a new view of history

Finding the stories of individual Jews who fought the Nazis publicly and at great peril helped a scholar see history differently: that Jews were not passive. Instead, they actively fought the Nazis.
Soviet-era monument in Riga, Latvia, which was splashed with the colours of the Ukraine flag the day after Russia invaded in February 2022. Kārlis Dambrāns/ Flickr.

Ukraine war prompts Baltic states to remove Soviet memorials

In much of eastern Europe historical memory of communist rule has been brought into sharp focus by the war in Ukraine.
‘Peace for our time’: British prime minister Neville Chamberlain displaying the Anglo-German declaration, known as the Munich Agreement, in September 1938. Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images

Are we learning the wrong lessons from history?

Oversimplified versions of the past lead to bad political decisions.
Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as people try to storm the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 61. Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images

How can America heal from the Trump era? Lessons from Germany’s transformation into a prosperous democracy after Nazi rule

The US faces many of the same problems Germans faced after World War II: how to reject, punish and delegitimize the enemies of democracy. There are lessons in how Germany handled that challenge.

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