This time the Politisches Foyer has only one guest. Götz Aly has written a monumental work on the entanglement of the German people in National Socialism, which we discuss with him in dialogue. Why did hundreds of thousands take part in unprecedented mass murders, what led so many people to join a criminal system, to support it, or to profit from it?
The historian and journalist Götz Aly pursues these questions in his new book "Wie konnte das geschehen?". For decades he has been concerned with the history of National Socialism and German society. In doing so, Aly has also researched and disclosed his own family history – a personal perspective that makes his engagement with the past especially powerful.
In conversation with the writer Dana von Suffrin, the discussion turns to the mechanisms of going along and adapting, to individual responsibility and social participation.