Sonia Combe
Alter “Mythos Antifaschismus”, neuer “Mythos Buchenwald” in der Geschichtsschreibung des Antifaschismus. Ein Vergleich.
[The old “myth of anti-fascism” and the new “myth of Buchenwald” in the historiography of anti-fascism: A Comparison.]
My contribution attempts to trace the reasons behind and the “hidden tradition” through which a myth surrounding the Buchenwald concentration camp has developed, specifically in connection with the so-called “Myth of Anti-Fascism” that emerged after German reunification. In doing so, I draw on a comparison with the various narratives about the anti-fascist resistance in France, which could offer a deconstruction of the “Myth of Anti-Fascism.”
Sonia Combe is a historian (Université Paris-Nanterre, Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin). She specializes in the politics of memory in communist societies before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Her publications include Ein Leben gegen ein Anderes. Der “Opfertausch” im KZ Buchenwald und seine Nachgeschichte (One Life for Another: The “Exchange of Victims” at Buchenwald Concentration Camp and Its Aftermath) (2017); Loyal um jeden Preis. “Linientreue Dissidenten” im Sozialismus (Loyalty at Any Price: “Loyal Dissidents” under Socialism (2022); and Choix sous contraintes: survivre et décider dans l’univers concentrationnaire (Decisions under Extreme Conditions: Surviving and Deciding in the Concentration Camp) (with Emmanuel Delille, 2025).