Why Denazification Failed

In 1945, victory in Europe was secured and the Allies faced a problem. For over a decade, the German people had been under a Totalitarian state. There were around 8.5 million members of the Nazi Party and many millions more people affiliated with Nazi organisations. The Third Reich had committed atrocities on an incomprehensible scale. And Nazism was more than a political party, it was a cultural ideology.
The “re-education” of an entire country was required. Was there any way that this could be successful?
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CREDITS
Removal of Nazi symbols: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R77793 / CC-BY-SA 3.0
Photographs of 1968 student protests: Ludwig Binder, Studentenrevolte, 1967/68, West-Berlin; veröffentlicht vom Haus der Geschichte. CC BY-SA 2.0
Journalists in the press room at Nuremberg, 1945/46 © National Archives, College Park, MD, USA
Denazification questionnaire of Karl Fiehler, former Nazi mayor of Munich, filled out in 1947 © Bilestone via Wikimedia Commons
Denazification questionnaire © Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg
Map of Europe and Germany © David Rumsey Collection
Adolf Eichmann's trial. Jerusalem, Israel, May 4, 1961 © Israel Government Press Office
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