denazification
Sign in to saveDenazification () 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. 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 hyph
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Denazification was an Allied program after World War II aimed at removing Nazi ideology from German and Austrian society by eliminating Nazi Party members from positions of power, dismantling Nazi organizations, and prosecuting major Nazi leaders for war crimes at the Nuremberg trials. The initiative mattered because it sought to prevent the resurgence of Nazism and reshape German and Austrian institutions, culture, and politics after the war's end.
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Key facts
- Project.name
- Denazification
- Project.image
- Denazification-street.jpg
- Project.caption
- Workers removing the signage from a former "Adolf Hitler-Straße" (today "Bahnhofstraße") in Trier, May 12, 1945
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Article
20 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Overview
- Application
- American zone
- Censorship
- {{lang|de|Fragebogen}}
- Soviet zone
- British zone
- French zone
- Brown book
- Responsibility and collective guilt
- Surveys
- End
- Hiding one's Nazi past
- In other countries
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Further reading
- External links
Denazification () 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. 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. However, according to historian Frederick Taylor, it later was used with a broader meaning.
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 highly unpopular in West Germany, where many Nazis maintained positions of power. Denazification was opposed by the new West German government of Konrad Adenauer, who declared that ending the process was necessary for West German rearmament.
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Aftermath of World War II in AustriaAftermath of World War II in GermanyAllied occupation of AustriaAllied occupation of GermanyAnti-Nazism in AustriaAnti-Nazism in GermanyDemocratizationPolitical and cultural purgesPolitical history of AustriaPolitical history of GermanyPolitical repression in GermanyPolitical terminology