How Germany remembers the Holocaust

"On October 18th 1941, a train steamed out of Grunewald station in western Berlin. On board were around 1,000 people classified by the Nazis as Jews, who in the official jargon were being "deported" or "resettled". This was the first of 184 trains that would depart from the German capital over the next four years, transporting around 55,000 Jews to Theresienstadt and other concentration camps and ghettos. The majority didn't survive the war."

"The Holocaust - originating from the Greek words meaning "whole" and "burnt" - was the persecution and murder of more than six million Jews and others from oppressed minorities in Europe between 1941 and 1945. Although a large proportion of the murders were committed outside of the borders of contemporary Germany - the most infamous camp, Auschwitz, for example, now lies in Poland - Germany has a particular responsibility to ensure that the genocide is not forgotten."

"After the Second World War and up until 1990, Germany was divided into the FRG (West Germany) and the Soviet-allied GDR (East Germany), and both states struggled to come to terms with the horrors of the past at a national level. The term Vergangenheitsbewältigung, which literally translates as "coping with the past", has become a key concept in post-1945 German culture, and describes the way in which Germans discuss and confront their history."

Germany marks the 81st anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation with ceremonies and remembrance. In October 1941 the first of 184 trains departed Berlin's Grunewald station carrying around 1,000 people classified as Jews; over four years about 55,000 Berlin Jews were deported to Theresienstadt and other camps, most of whom did not survive. The Holocaust involved the persecution and murder of over six million Jews and other minorities across Europe between 1941 and 1945. Many killings occurred outside present-day Germany, yet Germany bears particular responsibility for remembrance. After 1945 East and West Germany struggled differently with Vergangenheitsbewältigung.

Read at The Local Germany