ABSTRACT
This chapter builds on his previous scholarship concerning questions about “being German,” specifically in Hungary during the 20th century, but also throughout Central and Eastern Europe. He examines whether a postcatastrophic perspective—essentially knowledge of the Holocaust and of other 20th century genocides—influences the way we explain the postwar expulsion of Germans today. The author argues that the shift in scholarship—a shift in favor of broad historical developments, such as ethnic cleansing, as well as in favor of comparisons—away from scholarship concerning uniqueness or unprecedentedness presents alternative ways regarding how we explain the causes of the Holocaust in our postcatastrophic world and even about basic elements of historical understanding. This development often leads to comparisons between different forms of catastrophes—comparisons that could include the Holocaust and the expulsion of Germans in the same study. Despite the problems that such a comparison may incur, the author points out that a larger narrative of 20th-century ethnic cleansing or even genocide can at times be useful for describing what happened in the last 100 years, even if it has its drawbacks. Transcending causes reduce the need or desire to search for the local perpetrators or even to decipher the local causes of events. This is fundamentally an issue of how we understand agency. Did individuals just go along with the trends (just following orders) or were they responsible for decisions that they made or at least accepted? The author believes that if we return to a perspective that more directly takes into account the unique aspects of all events, and if we recognize how a postcatastrophic view encourages us to compare, we can better talk about the Holocaust and the expulsions in the same narrative.
