When will we talk about Hitler : German students and the Nazi past Education in the service of democracy Talking about the Nazi past in class and succeeding at school Gender family and the Nazi past(s) The Nazi past as an everyday resource for adolescents The social and cultural limits to appropriations of the Nazi past Peer group dynamics and playful uses of the past Conclusion: From memory to appropriation(s). For more than half a century discourses on the Nazi past have powerfully shaped German social and cultural policy. Specifically an institutional determination not to forget has expressed a duty of remembrance through commemorative activities and educational curricula. But as the horrors of the Third Reich retreat ever further from living memory what do new generations of Germans actually think about this past Combining observation interviews and archival research this book provides a rich survey of the perspectives and experiences of German adolescents from diverse backgrounds revealing the extent to which social economic and cultural factors have conditioned how they view representations of Germanys complex history