These findings show that the way the host society responds to the period of the Third Reich and the fate of the Jews has a significant bearing on the present psychological situation of the exiles and former camp detainees. What they did expect was tact and discretion in the way their fate was discussed and a tactful bearing towards those people who had suffered this fate. The book also inquires into how the victims themselves engage with the problem of the constantly recurring traumatic memories. In the interviews there is frequent reference to the heartening interest taken by many young people in the fate of the Jews in the Third Reich. Personal identification with Germany suffered A central chapter of the book looks at the interviewees' personal relationship to Germany, its history and culture.
Responses here differ greatly from one person to another.
In all of the persons asked, however, there was a definite lapse of identification with Germany due to the events in the Third Reich, over and against a definite increase in their identification with Judaism. Even those adopting a very critical attitude still mostly felt very personal links with the cultural history of Germany.