German Protestants Remember the Holocaust

Book excerpt: Focusing on the 1980s-90s, examines how Protestants in Germany interpret their self-understanding as part of the community which is defined by its connection to the Nazi past. Analyzes representations of the Holocaust and of the Christian-Jewish relationship in three German Protestant theological texts: the 1980 statement of the Rhineland synod of the Evangelical Church "Zur Erneuerung des Verhältnisses von Christen und Juden"; Marquardt's theological text "Von Elend und Heimsuchung der Theologie: Prolegomena zur Dogmatik" (1992); and Britta Jüngst's dissertation "Auf der Seite des Todes das Leben" (1996). The analysis of these texts is informed by the development of narratives of collective memory of the Holocaust in German society in the 1980s-90s, from the miniseries "Holocaust" to the Goldhagen controversy. All three texts admit the responsibility of Christianity and Christians for the Holocaust and build theologies that do not reject Jews. Contends that, contrary to their stated intentions, most Holocaust theologians do not truly listen to the Jewish perspective. Calls on practitioners of "theology after Auschwitz" to embrace Jews and Judaism in order to restore the credibility of Christian Churches which abandoned the Jews in Auschwitz.