Back اجتثاث النازية Arabic Nasizmdən təmizlənmə Azerbaijani Дэнацыфікацыя Byelorussian Дэнацыфікацыя BE-TARASK Денацификация Bulgarian Desnazificació Catalan Denacifikace Czech Afnazificering Danish Entnazifizierung German Sennaziigo Esperanto
| Denazification | |
|---|---|
| Entnazifizierung | |
 Workers removing the signage from a former "Adolf Hitler-Straße" (today "Bahnhofstraße") in Trier, May 12, 1945 | |
| Type of project | Anti-fascism |
| Location |
|
| Established | 1943 |
| Disestablished | 1951 |
| Part of a series on |
| Nazism |
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| Part of a series on |
| Fascism |
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Denazification (German: Entnazifizierung) was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of the Nazi ideology following the Second World War.[1] It was carried out by removing those who had been Nazi Party or SS members from positions of power and influence, by disbanding or rendering impotent the organizations associated with Nazism, and by trying prominent Nazis for war crimes in the Nuremberg trials of 1946. The program of denazification was launched after the end of the war and was solidified by the Potsdam Agreement in August 1945. The term, in the hyphenated form de-nazification, was first used in 1943 by the Pentagon, intended to be applied in a narrow sense with reference to the post-war German legal system.[2]: 5–6 However, it later took on a broader meaning.[3]: 253-254
Very soon after the program started, due to the emergence of the Cold War, the western powers and the United States in particular began to lose interest in the program, somewhat mirroring the Reverse Course in American-occupied Japan. Denazification was carried out in an increasingly lenient and lukewarm way until being officially abolished in 1951. The American government soon came to view the program as ineffective and counterproductive. Additionally, the program was hugely unpopular in West Germany, where many Nazis maintained positions of power. Denazification was opposed by the new West German government of Konrad Adenauer,[4] who declared that ending the process was necessary for West German rearmament.[citation needed]
On the other hand, in the Soviet occupation zone and later East Germany, denazification was considered as a critical element of the transformation into a socialist society, and the country was stricter in opposing Nazism than its counterpart.
Not all former Nazis faced judgment. Performing special tasks for the occupation governments could protect Nazi members from prosecution, enabling them to continue working and in some cases reach prominence, as did special connections with the occupiers.[3]: 256 One of the most notable cases involved Wernher von Braun, who was among other German scientists recruited by the United States through Operation Paperclip and later occupied key positions in the American space program.[5]
- ^ Griffith, William E. (1950). "Denazification in the United States Zone of Germany". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 267: 68–76. doi:10.1177/000271625026700108. ISSN 0002-7162. JSTOR 1026728.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Dack2023was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Taylor, Frederick (2011). Exorcising Hitler: The Occupation and Denazification of Germany. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1408822128.
- ^ Goda, Norman J. W. (2007). Tales from Spandau: Nazi Criminals and the Cold War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 101–149. ISBN 978-0-521-86720-7.
- ^ Jacobsen, Annie (2014). Operation Paperclip: the secret intelligence program that brought Nazi scientists to America. New York Boston London: Back Bay Books, Little Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-22104-7.