Legacies of Dachau
The Uses and Abuses of a Concentration Camp, 1933–2001

A unified interpretation of the historical, political and remembered culture of Dachau concentration camp, first published in 2001.

Harold Marcuse (Author)

9780521064484, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 May 2008

664 pages, 84 b/w illus. 1 map
22.9 x 15.2 x 3.7 cm, 0.96 kg

Review of the hardback: '… Marcuse extends his story well into the present … Marcuse's book comprehensively documents the tug-of-war between the interests of local and regional authorities … ' German Historical Institute London

Auschwitz, Belsen, Dachau. These names still evoke the horrors of Nazi Germany around the world. This 2001 book takes one of these sites, Dachau, and traces its history from the beginning of the twentieth century, through its twelve years as Nazi Germany's premier concentration camp, to the camp's postwar uses as prison, residential neighborhood, and, finally, museum and memorial site. With superbly chosen examples and an eye for telling detail, Legacies of Dachau documents how Nazi perpetrators were quietly rehabilitated to become powerful elites, while survivors of the concentration camps were once again marginalized, criminalized and silenced. Combining meticulous archival research with an encyclopedic knowledge of the extensive literatures on Germany, the Holocaust, and historical memory, Marcuse unravels the intriguing relationship between historical events, individual memory, and political culture, to offer a unified interpretation of their interaction from the Nazi era to the twenty-first century.

Dachau: past, present, future
Part I. Dachau 1890–1945: A Town, A Camp, A Symbol of Genocide: 1. Dachau: a town and a camp
2. Dachau: a symbol of genocide
Part II. Dachau 1945–55: Three Myths and Three Inversions: 3. 'Good' Nazis
4. 'Bad' inmates
5. 'Clean' camps
Part III. Dachau 1955–70: Groups and Their Memories: 6. The first representations of Dachau, 1945–52
7. Rising public interest, 1955–65
8. Catholics celebrate at Dachau
9. The survivors negotiate a memorial site
10. Jews represent the Holocaust at Dachau
11. Protestants make amends at Dachau
12. The 1968 generation: new legacies of old myths
Part IV. Dachau 1970–2000: New Age Cohorts Challenge Mythic Legacies: 13. Redefining the three myths and ending ignorance: the 1970s
14. The 1980s: relinquishing victimisation
15. The 1990s: resistance vs. education.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Sociology & anthropology [JH], Jewish studies [JFSR1], Second World War [HBWQ], The Holocaust [HBTZ1], Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3], European history [HBJD]