Das Echolot. Abgesang ‘45. Lesung von Zeitzeugenberichten zum Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs nach Walter Kempowski

In the organizer's words:

Venue: Central Library in KAP 1, Konrad-Adenauer-Platz 1, 40210 Düsseldorf

On May 8, 1945, the Second World War ended after 2077 days with the unconditional surrender of Germany, initially in Europe (in Asia it lasted until September 2, 1945). The country that had started the war on September 1, 1939 and was responsible for over 75 million deaths, including 6 million murdered Jews, was finally defeated and the inhuman National Socialist tyranny was finally shattered.

In the final months before the capitulation, the unleashed regime, with its imminent end in sight, once again raged with particular murder - including against its own population. In the days of May 75 years ago, millions of oppressed and persecuted people who had survived the Nazi tyranny breathed an exhausted sigh of relief. It was a day of liberation for those who bravely risked their lives in the resistance, who were able to go into hiding, who suffered in the concentration camps and who had to toil in the war industry or agriculture.

Most Germans were probably glad that they were "left behind", as they were often called at the time. But for quite a few perpetrators and regime loyalists, it was a day of defeat and shame - even if they did not relate this shame to their criminal behavior. The extent of the silence and repression that characterized the social climate in Germany for a long time may be an indication of the extent to which large sections of the population were aware of their complicity.

Klaus Peter Hommes (Stadtbüchereien Düsseldorf), Dr. Benedikt Mauer (Stadtarchivs Düsseldorf), Volker Neupert ("Respekt und Mut"), Dr. Katja Schlenker (GHH) and Andrea Sonnen (CJZ) will read from letters, memories and diary entries that Walter Kempowski collected in his Echolot chronicles in the 1990s.

Further information: volker.neupertrespekt-und-mutde, Tel. 0152-55823791

A joint event of the Düsseldorf initiative "Respekt und Mut", the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation, the Düsseldorf City Archive, the Düsseldorf City Libraries and the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Haus Foundation.