Cordula Reimann: Schamabwehr als Politik Gaza als Spiegel deutscher Verdrängung [Shame Defense as Politics: Gaza as a Mirror of German Repression], Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, https://www.rosalux.de/news/id/55133/schamabwehr-als-politik
Since Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, and Süddeutsche Zeitung published digitized NSDAP membership records from the US National Archives in April 2026, millions of Germans have searched online to find out if their relatives belonged to the NSDAP, SA, or SS. However, a public debate about the collective and political implications of this newfound private knowledge is missing; the research remains an individual quest for enlightenment conducted on one’s home computer. This text interprets the absence of this debate as a continuation of a familiar pattern: an unresolved collective German sense of shame that is politically intertwined with state interests. This sense of shame was reignited by the situation in Gaza and manifests itself in humiliation and authoritarian repression, ultimately benefiting the political right. Millions have learned that their grandfather or grandmother was a party member. Yet, this private revelation has not sparked a public discussion about political responsibility today, particularly regarding Gaza. Official policy, which prefers to tie responsibility to the concept of “reason of state” rather than engage in an honest examination of the present, benefits from this privatized, unspoken shame. Without political engagement with this substantial new body of knowledge, the wave of research risks dissipating into individual consternation without consequence behind phrases such as “Never again is now.”
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