Die Minderheit aus Sicht von drei Generationen

Recently, the German minority in Denmark has begun to evaluate its history during World War II. The community launched this assessment after being inspired by the work of historians in minority culture, memory, and identity. The aim of this dissertation was therefore to build on existing research and to examine the attitude of the German minority regarding its own role during the Nazi period. This was made possible by dividing and analyzing the minority members into three generations, all of whom came into contact with the topic in their own way. This dissertation divides the three generations as:

The parent generation — those who sent sons to war for a country they no longer belong to but felt emotionally connected to — the war generation — the volunteer soldiers from the minority who joined the Waffen SS — and the generation of children — those who grew up in Southern Jutland during the post-war era.

This project paid special to generation-specific differences, while also noting the differences within a generational group.

In the case of the parents' generation, one can speak of those actually responsible for the fate of the minority— - in the sense of the minority incoroperating National Socialist ideology and social structure within the community. The question is therefore, how did this generation deal with this guilt? Were they aware of their responsibility? It should be noted that with regard to the parents' generation, sources from the former functional elite were available for the most part. When analyzing the archival documents, three aspects of the parents' generation became visible in relation to its role in the war. First, the victim role, or the argument that Nazis seduced the minority – and it we had no other choice. Then a non-existent sense of shame – the minority community is not to blame but rather it was the Danish state at fault. For this generation it was important to create a new narrative with the three aspects mentioned above and at the same time also give meaning to the minority's war effort.

In transitioning to the war generation, they soon took over the narrative of the minority’s experience, because especially many people from this generation were condemned as traitors. Specifically, within the course of the legal settlement after the war and their subsequent interment in the Faarhus camp, and consequently felt betrayed by the Danish state. This generation took over the leadership after the minority's new start in 1945 and have continued and even refined the narrative of their parents' generation— in this, the grove of honor the war memorial — was a useful tool.

Lastly, the case of the children'’s generation, it must be emphasized that this generation also had to struggle with other challenges than just its own history. On the one hand, the search for their own identity. For another, the sources indicate that this generation did not know much about the behavior of the minority in the years from 1933 to 1945 -– which is not surprising, because their parents and grandparents did not talk much about it. Based on the sources, the children'’s generation could be divided into three groups.

1. the early generation of children, who for many decades - some even until their death - adopted and continued the narrative of their parents and grandparents.
2. the early generation of children, who decades after the war began to question the war effort and the minority community’s past
3. the late generation of children, who are aware of a shared responsibility of the minority during the Nazi period and who want to critically deal with it.
In addition, there is one final group, that of the youth who emigrated and did not return to Northern Schleswig.

How a person stores a certain historical event in their memory and reflects on it in retrospect varies from person to person. In looking at memory across generations the act of retrospection does not behave differently, only the interpretation patterns. However, all generations have one factor in common: time. Over time, many people change some of their attitudes, as in the case of this project, the role of the minority during World War II. What all generations also have in common is that war is something cruel and terrible — itself, a crime against humanity. Notably, the war was never glorified by the minority community, only the use of North Schleswigian soldiers. The parents' generation knew what war meant, and yet they were the forerunners when it came to implementing a Gleichschaltung with Germany. This dissertation showcase that the generations differed when it came to the handling and mediation of the war and the role of one’s own community, the German minority community, in it.