In 2019, at a Digital Humanities workshop held at Jacobs University Bremen, accessibility and contextualization were identified as some of the primary challenges facing digital projects related to Nazi Germany.[1] While open access is one of the key benefits of Digital Humanities, it also raises issues of potential misuse, especially regarding sensitive data or material that might be used to incite violence or hate. This necessitates careful contextualization with Nazi related material, as has been attempted here.
In the edited volume, Writing the Digital History of Nazi Germany, historian Julia Timpe summarized the issues inherent in this field:
“Some of the challenges that emerge when looking at newer digital approaches are, on closer inspection, actually older challenges. Differently put, one could speak of an “old wine in new bottles” scenario. This is not meant to dismiss the new challenges and the need to address them. In fact, such considerations are important and beneficial for all historians, regardless of their direct engagement with digital tools, as they allow us to re-calibrate our tasks and methods as historians. Nevertheless, it is useful to recognize that some of the challenges identified in discussions related to (the) digital history (of Nazi Germany) are in fact older concerns which now re-appear connected to digital approaches and sources. Historians have always been—or should always have been—compelled by the argument that increasing access to sources is inherently a good thing, but equally aware of the need to provide contextualization and guidance to that access; digitization does not create, but renews this.”[2]
This webpage is an ongoing project, but hopes to successfully navigate the balance between providing access to Third Reich artifacts while carefully contextualizing them to minimize or prevent misuse. A bibliography of the primary and secondary sources used in creating this page can be found below.
[1] The workshop was called “Zeugnisse des Nationalsozialismus, digital – Projekte, Methoden, Theorien” (“Digital Testimonies of National Socialism – projects, methods, theories”). For the conference report, see Friederike Jahn, “Tagungsbericht: Zeugnisse des Nationalsozialismus, digital – Projekte, Methoden, Theorien, 13.12. 2019–13.12. 2019 Bremen,” H-Soz-Kult, March 19, 2020, accessed May 8, 2024, www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/tagungsberichte-8695.
[2] Julia Timpe, Frederike Buda (eds.), Writing the Digital History of Nazi Germany (Berlin, 2022) p. 12.
Bibliography and Further Reading
Archival Sources:
- Bundesarchiv Militärarchiv Freiburg im Breisgau
Division Files
RH 26-111/1-70
RH 7-111
Secondary Sources:
Auslander, Leora, and Tara Zahra. Objects of War: The Material Culture of Conflict and Displacement. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2018.
Brooks, Crispin, and Ḳiril Feferman. Beyond the Pale: The Holocaust in the North Caucasus. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2020.
Buttar, Prit. The Reckoning: The Defeat of Army Group South, 1944. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2020.
Dr Liam Gillespie, University of Melbourne. “Banning the Nazi Salute Is One Thing, Let’s Talk about the Consequences.” Pursuit, December 14, 2023. https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/banning-the-nazi-salute-is-one-thing-let-s-talk-about-the-consequences.
Heindl, Gabu. “Gabu Heindl Architecture.” Disposing of Hitler: Out of the Cellar, Into the Museum – GABU Heindl Architektur. Accessed December 3, 2023. https://www.gabuheindl.at/en/overview/political-history/disposing-of-hitler-out-of-the-cellar-into-the-museum.html.
Hughes, Michael. Anarchy of Nazi Memorabilia: From Things of Tyranny to Troubled Treasure. S.l.: ROUTLEDGE, 2023.
Kaiser, Menachem. “What Kind of Person Has a Closet Full of Nazi Memorabilia?” The New York Times, September 29, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/29/opinion/nazi-memorabilia-market-liveauctioneers.html.
Kay, Alex J. Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2021.
Kühne, Thomas. The Rise and Fall of Comradeship: Hitler’s soldiers, Male Bonding and Mass Violence in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
Musculus, Friedrich. Geschichte Der 111. Infanterie Division 1940-1944. Hamburg: Self Published by the Traditional Association of the 111. Inf. Div. e. V., 1980.
Neitzel, Sönke, Harald Welzer, and Jefferson S. Chase. Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing, and Dying. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012.
Rass, Christoph. “Menschenmaterial”: Deutsche Soldaten and Der Ostfront: Innenansichten einer infanteriedivision 1939-1945. Paderborn: Schöningh, Ferdinand, 2003.
Römer, Felix, and Alex J. Kay. Comrades: The Wehrmacht From Within. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Rutherford, Jeff. Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front: The German Infantry’s War, 1941-1944. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Schechter, Brandon M. Stuff of Soldiers: A History of the Red Army in World War II Through Objects. S.l.: CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2023.
Shepherd, Benjamin H. Hitler’s Soldiers: The German Army in the Third Reich. Yale University Press, 2017.
Shepherd, Benjamin H. War in the Wild East: The German Army and Soviet Partisans. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 2004.
Timpe, Julia. Nazi-Organized Recreation and Entertainment in the Third Reich. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
Timpe, Julia, and Frederike Buda (eds.), Writing the Digital History of Nazi Germany (Berlin, 2022)
Veltzke, Veit. Kunst und Propaganda in der Wehrmacht: Gemälde und grafiken aus dem Russlandkrieg / Veit Veltzke. Bielefeld: Kerber Verlag, 2005.
Visentin, Lisa. “Sale of Nazi Memorabilia to Be Banned in Federal Crackdown on Hate Symbols.” The Sydney Morning Herald, June 7, 2023. https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/sale-of-nazi-memorabilia-to-be-banned-in-federal-crackdown-on-hate-symbols-20230607-p5deph.html.
“Withdrawing Adolf Hitler from a Private Space, 2020–21.” Withdrawing Adolf Hitler from a private space – yoshinori niwa. Accessed December 3, 2023. https://yoshinoriniwa.com/works/74.