ABSTRACT
The version of the Verbotsgesetz effect underwent legislative review in 1992, suggesting that the majority of Austrian politicians deemed the persistence of such legislation valuable for the Second Republic's democratic, republican values. Margit Reiter's exploration of the Nazi era through family memory draws on an established body of German literature rooted in psychoanalysis, the cultural dynamics of memory, and oral history, which she applies provocatively to the Austrian experience. As eyewitnesses, including "political" or "racial" victims of Nazi policy pass away and the indifferent or indignant play a potentially larger role in shaping the contours of cultural memory. Credible historical research may well assume an even more valuable public/didactic role than it has to date, even as its guild-specific academic contributions remain important for scholars and students. Academic historians may shake their heads in frustration or smile patiently at the perception of their discipline in the popular imagination.
