‘Mass Deception without Deceivers’? The Holocaust on East and West German Radio in the 1960s

Abstract

In the Cold War climate of the early 1960s in divided Germany the nazi past was just as much part of the ideological debate as the rivalries between the superpowers. The differing interpretations of the causes and consequences of the 12-year dictatorship were being played out in the mass media, particularly on radio. The high point of this 'broadcast war' - the Auschwitz Trial in Frankfurt in 1963-65 - is the focus of this article. Whether this ideological battle played a significant part in the Vergangenheitsbewšltigung (coming to terms with the past) is investigated by analysing some of the programmes from East and West German broadcasters.