The NSDAP’s Enduring Shadow: Putting in Perspective the Recent Outing of Brown Octogenarians

Both the examination of key technicalities of the Nazi Party membership process and case studies of individuals who at one point in their careers sought NSDAP affiliation provide an important historical perspective on the recent controversy surrounding the hitherto unknown party membership of several postwar authors and other prominent Germans. With the youngest generation of Nazis, which included such people as Martin Walser and Hans Dietrich Genscher, the circumstances of the wartime recruitment of Hitler Jugend members deserve special scrutiny. Any discussion of their culpability must take into account the rapidly shifting priorities and superficiality of the postwar denazification project.