Gaza, Ukraine, and the Lessons of the Nazi Past

This essay discusses Germany’s changing sense of the lessons of the Nazi past and its implications for foreign policy. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Germany suddenly abandoned the commitment to the idea of peace, which, during the previous twenty years, had become increasingly central to its national identity. After October 2023 Germany also doubled down on its unconditional support for Israel, which has become the main expression in German foreign policy of the idea of Nie wieder Auschwitz, or “Never again Auschwitz.” Together these developments complicate our understanding of the outcome of the Historikerstreit in the mid-1980s. In relation to Israel, the idea of singularity is enforced aggressively. But in relation to Russia, the exonerating relativization of Nazism has become quite normal again.