Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 1, 2026

Good German

Good Germans is an ironic term — usually placed between single quotes such as 'Good Germans' — referring to German citizens during and after World War II who claimed not to have supported the Nazi regime, but remained silent and did not resist in a meaningful way. The term is further used to describe those who claimed ignorance of the Holocaust and German war crimes.

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Good Germans is an ironic term — usually placed between single quotes such as 'Good Germans' — referring to German citizens during and after World War II who claimed not to have supported the Nazi regime, but remained silent and did not resist in a meaningful way.12 The term is further used to describe those who claimed ignorance of the Holocaust and German war crimes.2

Pól Ó Dochartaigh and Christiane Schönfeld edited a volume on different cultural representations of the 'Good German' and state in their introduction: "After the division of Germany in 1949, finding 'good Germans' whose record helped legitimize each of the new German states became a core aspect of building a new nation in Germany and of the propaganda battle in this respect between the two German states."3

See also

See also

Citations

Citations

  1. Rich, Frank (October 14, 2007). "The 'Good Germans' Among Us". The New York Times.
  2. Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah (1996). Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-679-44695-8.
  3. Ó Dochartaigh, Pól; Schönfeld, Christiane (2013). "Introduction: Finding the 'Good German'". Representing the Good German in Literature and Culture After 1945: Altruism and Moral Ambiguity. Camden House. ISBN 9781571134981.