In “Hitler Within You,” Ulrike Meinhof examines the responses to and remembrance of the Holocaust by Germans in the 1950s and 1960s. Ulrike Meinhof was a member of the Red Army Faction, a militant left-wing group that believed the German government still had elements of fascism that needed to be eliminated. Meinhof highlights the responsibility of the younger generations, even though they did not live through the Holocaust, to acknowledge the dark history of Germany to ensure that it does not happen again.
The majority of the article cites a text written by Dieter Bielenstein, the representative at the time of the Association of German Student Organizations. Bielenstein incorporates the issue that Meinhof also focuses on: how can a country reconcile its dark history when it is populated with individuals who were complicit? Bielenstein says that many students were anti-Semitic before the rise of the Nazi Party; he said students supported discriminatory legislation that kept Jewish people out of universities and stayed silent as Jewish academics were removed from their jobs. Bielenstein says that those students – the ones who were complicit in or supported anti-Semitism – became the adults that, at the time, were running the government, schools, law practices, and more. Bielenstein states that this was not a “blanket accusation,” but that it showed the necessity of acknowledging the nation’s history – silence would only let anti-Semitism continue to fester in society. Meinhof says that this is important, but that in addition to questioning older generations, they must question all the policies in place. She says that the students who criticize anti-Semitism of the past must defend freedom anywhere it is threatened today. She also says freedom of political beliefs and expression must be guaranteed for all.
The concept of collective remembrance of tragedy and guilt is a difficult one. This is complicated further by the great deal of complicity of Germans in the Nazi rise to power and the Holocaust. It is impossible to change events of the past, but it is possible to change how we view those events and how we move forward. Bielenstein covers half of this equation: he encourages German students to question the older generation. The importance in history as part of the humanities is that it allows us to find an identity and truth in our past; the value, however, comes in the application of this truth, and in the change that we can bring because of it. My research paper is on collective remembrance of racial violence in the United States, and how it can impact our understanding of racial tensions today. Learning from our history and applying that knowledge is the only way to lessen tragedies in the future. Truly understanding and learning from a nation’s history can create a paradigm shift, leading to revolution in thought. Ulrike Meinhof called for a direct response to German history, and a renewal of policies in place to rid the present of evils of the past. The title of her work is striking but offers an interesting insight into the value of humanities.
Citations
Meinhof, Ulrike. “Hitler Within You” in Everybody Talks About the Weather… We Don’t. The Writings of Ulrike Meinhof, ed. Karin Bauer. 1961.
Unknown Member of the Meinhof family, “Ulrike Meinhof as a young journalist,” 1964, photograph. Accessed 5 May 2020.