“Harald Jähner’s magnificent book Aftermath (fluently translated by Shaun Whiteside) is part of this continuing process [of] Vergangenheitsbewältigung, roughly translated as ‘assessing the past.’ Drawing on the huge literature listed in the bibliography, it takes a lucid overview of the astonishing decade following the defeat of Nazism and the partition of Germany between the Western allies and Soviet Russia. Although it embraces subjects of explosive ideological controversy, the story is told with judicious impartial intelligence and a light touch: Jähner has no axe to grind and he casts his net wide, fully aware of the large patches of grey morality through which he is treading. There are great lessons in the nature of humanity to be learnt here.”
