In twelve in-depth interviews, the author explores the symbolic content of stories about World War II recollected by the children of German immigrants in the United States. The analysis focuses on a variety of strategies employed by immigrant families when dealing with a conflicting German identity and moral emotions such as shame and guilt. The respondent pool includes three opposite-sex sibling pairs to allow for an interpretation of gender as influencing both the transmission process and the content of the war stories. The study further examines the narratives within a complex context of variables such as history, temporality, and family communication patterns, hereby concentrating on intrafamilial taboo topics. Similarities between the identity-protective strategies of the respondents and their parents when dealing with the German past and the coping mechanisms of German generations in Germany become apparent throughout the book. Thus, the project is able to draw significant parallels to a large body of research focusing on German Vergangenheitsbewaltigung while illuminating the specific situation of German identity in the context of American Diaspora.

Данное издание не является оригинальным. Книга печатается по технологии принт-он-деманд после получения заказа.