ABSTRACT
In the culture of memory of World War II, Austria has been considered for some time to be among the postwar champions of forgetting this horrendous war, and Austrians have been considered the negative models of successful denial regarding their complicity in Nazi war crimes. The role of the veterans’ organizations in Austrian war memorial culture became a central factor in aiding and abetting the ongoing hibernation of a complex non-compartmentalized past, at least among the war generation. Like Austria, the GDR denied that National Socialism had taken root among their Germans and refused to share in any responsibility or guilt for Nazi genocide; any continuity of anti-Semitism was simply denied. A rare exception to the Austrian postwar memorial culture of the “good comrade,” is the memorial in the soldiers’ cemetery of Hieflau-Wandau. The Austrian historical profession also needed some outside prodding.
