A Post- or Super-Nationality in the European Union

Series Preface

 

The Germans: Absent Nationality and the Holocaust

 

The Germans, with their loyalties split between the different German states, are viewed as having lacked a true common nationality until Adolf Hitler came to power, whereupon a theory of race was adopted that provided all Germans with a common long, imaginary history. That national sentiment was lost after Germany’s defeat in World War II, partly due to the shame of the Holocaust, an event that was derived from that racial theory, and partly because they were happy to share with other European groups a perception that the two horrendous World Wars were superfluous conflicts among members of the same family – people who had the same culture, traditions and history, who shared similar beliefs, futures and even enemies, and who could and should unite and cooperate politically and economically in the new world.

   In the course of the inquiry into the questions of why the Germans, of all European groups, perpetrated the Holocaust, and why it took place at a time when national feelings flourished in Europe, the German volume analyzes the uniqueness of German history and explains why the Germans chose a leader such as Adolph Hitler and adopted his racial theory; why the Germans changed their plan from the complete expulsion of Europe’s Jews to total annihilation; and why World War II was prolonged even after the German leadership had realized that the war was lost.

   The explanation for all of the above lies in the lack of a common national identity for the Germans, before the National Socialists came to power and then, again, after their downfall. This unique interpretation of the roots of the Holocaust is suggested by this volume for the first time.

   After Hitler’s death, the Germans demonstrated a tendency to bolster their dominance in Europe rather than engage in soul-searching – becoming the champions of an overarching European identity and the EU’s leader in the economic sphere. Such dominance – achieved through economic clout, not military might – was attained neither by Bismarck nor by Hitler.

 

   Dominance and a leadership role have always been German objectives; the Germans will certainly continue to aspire to reach these objectives within the EU.

 

 

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