In Democratization and the Jews, Kauders deals with the ways in which the West Germans in Munich reacted to the Holocaust. He explores the changing viewpoints and the ways in which the people of Munich distanced themselves from the Nazi regime. Kauders describes these techniques as changing drastically over twenty years. Although they first used Weimar antisemitic images, by the late 1950’s many people – especially Social Democrats and church-members – people had begun to repudiate anti-Semitism and “the language of liberalism merged with the spirit of democracy.”
Anthony D. Kauders teaches in the Department of Jewish History and Culture at the University of Munich. He is the author of German Politics and the Jews: Dusseldorf and Nuremberg, 1910–1933.