Friedemann Derschmidt

For this project, it is crucial to understand that the Nazis did not emerge from a void like a horde of madmen and then disappear into it again. They were also not “others” who turned up from outside, but instead, came from the heart of society: our own fathers and mothers, grandparents, aunts, and uncles were “the Nazis.” Taking a step back, and from this wider perspective, also taking the nineteenth century into consideration, based on the concrete example of my extended middle-class family, it is possible to clearly reveal how the frequently disastrous interplay of nationalism, youth movement, reformation and purity fantasies, and no least modern science, etc., must have unfolded. My specific family is, in this regard, not at all special or unique. The “Reichel complex” project can, instead, serve as a model for many Austrian, German, and other European families that were involved in the Holocaust.