Date: Thursday, June 3, 1999
List members might be interested to read an
interview with the organizers of the so-called
Wehrmacht exhibition (Wehrmachtsausstellung) in last
week's DIE ZEIT. The title of the interview is "Am
Abgrund der Erinnerung." It's available online:
http://www3.zeit.de/zeit/nacht/aktuell/199922.wehrmacht.n_.html
One of the makers, Hannes Heer, asserts that
military historians have supported the exhibition from
the very beginning. However, in an informative article
in the "Berliner Morgenpost" titled
"Wieder falsche Fotos? Neue
Zweifel an der umstrittenen Ausstellung zur
Wehrmacht," Rolf-Dieter Mueller of the
Military Historical Research Office
(Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt) is quoted
as saying that the "Präsentation ist didaktisch
eine Katastrophe." Indeed, this is a far cry from
Heer's claim!
In the same article a Hungarian historian argues
that some photographs in the exhibit show not soldiers
of the Wehrmacht executing Serbian civilians, but
instead Hungarian soldiers shooting Serbian partisans
in the Hungarian-annexed Vojvodina. It seems to me
that the organizers tend to immunize themselves
against legitimate scholarly criticism. By the way
here is the online address of the aforementioned
article:
http://archiv.berliner-morgenpost.de/export/home/netscape/docsroot/contents/bm/archiv1999/990531/politik/story04.html
Best
regards, Jorg Bottger
Independent Scholar
on the website of the rightwing Deutsche Nationalzeitung and
download a leaflet (with photos) plus petition against the
Wehrmachtaustellung: "Informationsflugblatt (PDF) zu
Reemtsmas Ausstellung. Fakten, die die Fälschungen
widerlegen"
