AntiFascism and Memory in East Germany sheds new light on the legacy of the Spanish Civil War, the way in which societies remember, and the nature of state socialism. It combines cultural, social, and political history to examine the ways in which the legacy of the International Brigades was commemorated in the German Democratic Republic.
Anti-Fascism and Memory in East Germany is a book about remembering and about forgetting, about war, and about the peace which eventually followed. In the unlikely setting of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the Spanish Civil War became the subject of a debate which both predated and outlasted the Cold War, involving historians, veterans, politicians, censors, artists, writers, and Church activists. Examining these multiple memories and interpretations of Spain casts new and unexpected light on the legacy of the Spanish Civil War, and the relationship between history and memory under state socialism.
