„Gestern wird sein, was morgen gewesen ist." Mit diesem auf dem ersten Blick verwirrenden Satz fängt die Erzählung Das Treffen in Telgte von Günter Grass aus dem Jahr 1979 an. Die These, die hinter dieser Behauptung steckt, nämlich, dass Einstellungen zur Geschichte veränderbar sind, ist die Voraussetzung für das wachsende Interesse am Thema des hier zu besprechenden Buches. Es geht darin vor allem darum, wer, wie und zu welchen Zwecken Geschichtspolitik betreibt und dadurch die öffentliche Meinung beeinflussen will. Es versteht sich von selbst, dass die Ereignisse seit 1989 zu neuem Nachdenken über die Geschichte vor allem in Ost- und Mitteleuropa geführt haben.
The origins of this volume lie in a conference held at the Berlin Topography of Terror museum in January 2017 under the auspices of the museum's associated foundation, together with two other Berlin-based organisations: the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the Institute for Prejudice and Conflict Research. Following a brief Introduction by co-editor Wolfgang Benz which, after outlining many of the themes of the conference, ends with a positive reference to the revival of Jewish life in Germany since unification, the volume consists of eleven essays divided into four sections entitled 'Uprooting and New Start: Displaced Persons', 'After Exile', 'Expulsion as Collective Fate' and 'Bitter Balance'. The main emphasis is on the immediate post-war situation, although there are references in some of the essays both to earlier periods and more recent developments.
This volume is a paperback edition of a 2007 publication to which new elements have been added. Its subject is the experiences of a Jewish family from Kraków following German occupation in 1939, with well over half of the text devoted to letters sent by various members to Joseph (Józia) Hollander, the one person to escape the Nazis and find a new home in the United States. As a primary source, these letters are clearly a valuable research tool for anyone working in the area of Holocaust Studies, whilst having a much wider relevance, not least in an era marked by persecution and flight caused by war. The remainder of the book puts the family's experiences into wider contexts.