Ten authors from five countries present a variety of fresh analyses of the strategies Germans have adopted in coping with the Nazi past. Through historical sociological educational and cultural approaches the unresolved tensions existing in German society between the will to be accepted as an integral part of western civilization and to put the Nazi chapter in general and the Holocaust in particular behind on the one hand and an awareness of responsibility combined with recurring sometimes sudden manifestations of longterm results and implications of the past on the other are analyzed. Through its multifaceted approach this book contributes to a better understanding of presentday German society and of Germanys delicate relationships with both the United States and Israel.