REHABILITATION OF THE NAZI REGIME, ITS SUPPORTERS AND ACCOMPLICES IN THE EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHY: CURRENT STATE AND NEW TRENDS IN DEVELOPING MEMORY POLICIES

Abstract

The presented study is dedicated to the rehabilitation of the Nazi regime, its supporters and accomplices in modern cinema as part of the memory policy. The relevance of this work is determined by the growing influence of ultra-right politicians in a number of economically developed countries, an increase in the number of memorial wars due to the rehabilitation of Nazism accomplices and the spread of right-wing radicalism in the United States and European Union states. The aim of the study is the evaluation of the rehabilitation practices of Nazism and its supporters in new motion pictures, which have not been previously studied by representatives of the expert community from this perspective. Indirect apologetics of the Nazis and their adherents, including representatives of organizations recognized as criminal in accordance with the decision of the Nürnberg Tribunal, are widespread in modern cinema. The thesis is being promoted that even numerous members of organizations recognized as criminal secretly opposed the Nazi regime. Cooperation is considered as a necessary measure. The audience gets the impression that even highranking representatives of the army leadership were not aware of war crimes. People who for many years supported Hitler’s regime are shown as its victims. There have been attempts to re-evaluate certain aspects of the Nazi regime as a positive experience, in a way of referring to actual matters nowadays.

Keywords

• rehabilitation of Nazism
• memory policy
• cinema