Monsters in the Mirror: Representations of Nazism in Post-War Popular Culture

Gavriel Rosenfeld is a contributing author, "What Ifs? of Nazism: Recent Alternate Histories of the Third Reich" pp.1-28.

Book description: This collection provides readers with a comprehensive overview of postwar representations of Nazism in popular culture, documenting and critiquing their enormous impact and importance. More than 60 years after the collapse of the Nazi regime, the symbols, mythologies, and themes of this disturbing era still pervade popular culture. Why are the trappings of Adolf Hitler's movement so fascinating, and what do they say about our society and how it has developed since 1945? From Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator to the depiction of Nazis in the Raiders of the Lost Ark to other various literature, comic books, video games, television programs, and pop music, Nazism has maintained a constant presence in popular culture after World War II. Why are representations of Nazism—which are often used to depict the ultimate expression of human evil—so entrenched in our culture? Each chapter in this book examines this multifaceted topic from different angles, highlighting the different incidences of Nazistic representations in the post-1945 period. The diverse subject matter in this text ranges from analysis of recent allo-historical novels, to the music of the "neo-folk" movement, to fetishes and pornography. Readers will gain insight on how the imagery and symbology of Nazism in popular culture has changed over time and understand how the disconnect between representations of Nazism and the historical record have developed, particularly with regard to the genocide that resulted from Nazi politics.