Everyday Denazification in Postwar Germany : The Fragebogen and Political Screening during the Allied Occupation

In the wake of the Second World War, the victorious Allied armies distributed twenty million political questionnaires, or Fragebögen, to anxious Germans who hoped to prove their non-Nazi status and gain employment. This grassroots history illuminates the Allied screening campaign and offers an original and comprehensive history of denazification.

In the wake of World War II, the victorious Allied armies implemented a radical program to purge Nazism from Germany and preserve peace in Europe. Between 1945 and 1949, 20 million political questionnaires, or Fragebögen, were distributed by American, British, French, and Soviet armies to anxious Germans who had to prove their non-Nazi status to gain employment. Drafted by university professors and social scientists, these surveys de?ned much of the denazi?cation experience and were immensely consequential to the material and emotional recovery of Germans. In Everyday Denazi?cation in Postwar Germany, Mikkel Dack draws the curtain to reveal what denazi?cation looked like on the ground and in practice and how the highly criticized vetting program impacted the lives of individual Germans and their families as they recovered from the war. Accessing recently declassi?ed documents, this book challenges traditional interpretations by illustrating the positive elements of the denazi?cation campaign and recounting a more comprehensive history, one of mid-level Allied planners, civil affairs soldiers, and regular German citizens. The Fragebogen functions as a window into this everyday history.