After Hitler

In the spring of 1945, as the German army fell in defeat and the world
first learned of the unspeakable crimes of the Holocaust, few would have
expected that, only half a century later, the Germans would emerge as a
prosperous people at the forefront of peaceful European integration.
How did the Germans manage to recover from the shattering experience of
defeat in World War II and rehabilitate themselves from the shame and
horror of the Holocaust? In After Hitler, Konrad H. Jarausch
shows how Germany's determination to emphasize civility and civil
society, destroyed by the Nazi regime, helped restore the demoralized
nation during the post-war period. Unlike other intellectual inquiries
into German efforts to deal with the Nazi past, After Hitler
primarily focuses on the practical lessons a disoriented people drew
from their past misdeeds, and their struggle to create a new society
with a sincere and deep commitment to human rights. After Hitler
offers a comprehensive view of the breathtaking transformation of the
Germans from the defeated Nazi accomplices and Holocaust perpetrators of
1945 to the civilized, democratic people of today's Germany.