Hatred after War: Emotion and the Postwar History of East Germany

The massive eruption of deadly violence around the world during the 1940s left as many as 100 million people dead and many more wounded and scarred for life. This was probably the greatest eruption of violence the world has yet seen, and left in its wake difficult and far-reaching legacy--of loss, of mourning,of disorientation, of bitterness and of hatred. Bessel attempts to suggest that examining hatred after war, and viewing public and political behavior as an expression of that hatred, may offer insights into what occured in both the public and the private spheres in post-1945 East Germany.