Revisiting History, Reshaping Politics: The Effects of Confronting In-Group Atrocities

• In Event: The Legacies of War on Political Identities and Behavior

Abstract

How do voters react to challenges of established collective memories? We study the controversial “Wehrmacht Exhibition” (1995–1999), which, for the first time, exposed the German public to graphic evidence of WWII war crimes committed by the German military. This traveling exhibition challenged the widespread “myth of the clean Wehrmacht”, the false post-war narrative that only the SS, not the military, systematically committed war crimes and perpetrated the Holocaust. To study how different segments of the electorate reacted to the exhibition, we leverage high-frequency survey data of more than 830,000 voters in a staggered difference-in-differences setup. We complement this analysis with descriptive evidence from over 1.200 letters to the editor. We find that the exhibition triggered political backlash, especially among the sons of WWII soldiers. However, this backlash is localized and short-lived. Our results highlight the conditions under which memory entrepreneurs may challenge established narratives without incur ring long-term political costs.

Authors

• Alexander De Juan, Osnabrück University

• Julian Voss, Osnabrück University

• Anton Peez, Goethe University Frankfurt

• Sascha Riaz, Harvard University