Re-education of German POWs as a German-Jewish Task: The Case of Adolf Sindler
Towards the end of the Second World War, as a German defeat seemed inevitable, the Allied powers began searching for a postwar policy that would prevent the resurgence of Germany as a hostile military power in Central Europe. Instead of material destruction, the British preferred to tackle the Germa...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
De Gruyter
2016
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| In: |
Naharaim
Year: 2016, Volume: 10, Issue: 2, Pages: 247-272 |
| Further subjects: | B
Re-education
Émigrés
Adolf Sindler
British Army
Postwar Period
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | Towards the end of the Second World War, as a German defeat seemed inevitable, the Allied powers began searching for a postwar policy that would prevent the resurgence of Germany as a hostile military power in Central Europe. Instead of material destruction, the British preferred to tackle the German mind. As a means of achieving the objectives of ‘Denazification,’ the British launched a large scale plan for political re-education of the German people. The plan included a pioneering program for German Prisoners of War held in dispersed British captivity camps. In charge of executing the program in one such camp, located alongside the Suez Canal, was a German-Jewish refugee named Adolf Sindler. His service as a ‘Training Adviser’ began in early 1946 and lasted for two years. Sindler’s leadership in the camp created some of the earliest, and perhaps most unusual, encounters of the immediate postwar period between German soldiers, some of whom were still ardent Nazis, and German-Jews, in this case, one who was in charge of their mental rehabilitation. Sindler was provided constant support by a group of German-speaking socialist émigrés who had found shelter in Palestine. This paper explores how this historical case study informs our understanding of the inner-Jewish dialogue concerning the involvement of émigrés in the moral reconstruction of their former society. In addition, it seeks to contribute to our knowledge of the nature of operations during the early stages of the pretentious British re-education plan. |
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| ISSN: | 1862-9156 |
| Contains: | In: Naharaim
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/naha-2016-0017 |