How have Holocaust perpetrators and symbols been rehabilitated? What is the impact on Holocaust remembrance?

In the context of the Holocaust, rehabilitation is the attempt to cleanse the reputation of perpetrators and others associated with atrocities and related crimes. Ideas and imagery can also be rehabilitated through their reintroduction and usage. Rehabilitation acts occur worldwide in countries with various cultures and histories. In relation to World War II and the Holocaust, rehabilitation efforts can contribute to rising antisemitism, extremist nationalism, and other forms of racial and religious prejudice. Learn more about rehabilitation acts and how they affect Holocaust remembrance.

What are rehabilitation acts?

Within the context of Holocaust history and memory, “rehabilitation” is an umbrella term for attempts to excuse or glorify the words, actions, symbols, and ideas of people and groups that were complicit in the Holocaust and related crimes. These acts are driven by a range of motivations.

Factors that contribute to rehabilitation efforts can include:

• lack of awareness of the historical record;
• nostalgia;
• efforts by descendants to reclaim family property confiscated as a result of a post-Holocaust legal conviction;
• a desire to revive the legacy of undemocratic political cultures; and
• the attempt to shift responsibility from the perpetrators to the victims.

Rehabilitation efforts are organized by:

• national and local governments;
• civil society organizations;
• individual citizens;
• a wide range of ethnic and diaspora communities; and 
• parts of the media.

Rehabilitation with Monuments and Memorials

Perhaps the most common form of rehabilitation is the placement of monuments and memorials that honor individuals or groups that were complicit in Holocaust-era crimes. The initiative can be official or non-governmental. It can also be international, national, or local.

Symbolic markers, for example, have been placed in honor of local units that collaborated with the Nazis. In Ans, Denmark, a memorial stone honors the Frikorps Danmark, a volunteer unit that fought in the Waffen-SS. Although members of the Danish resistance destroyed the original marker in the late 1960s, it was rebuilt. The marker has become a beacon for neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist groups in Denmark. 

Political and Governmental Rehabilitation

Governments can signal rehabilitation through actions such as:

• the naming of streets, parks, and other public facilities; 
• the placement of plaques; 
• participation in commemorations; and 
• issuing commemorative coins and stamps.

Roman Shukhevych is an example of someone whose reputation has been rehabilitated through government actions. Shukhevych was a Ukrainian nationalist and Nazi collaborator. He led ultra-nationalist Ukrainian paramilitary groups. Shukhevych also served in several capacities with the German military and Nazi state. For instance, he was a captain in the Schutzmannschaft Battalion 201, a Ukrainian auxiliary police battalion. In these roles, he was complicit in the mass murder of Jews and Poles. In 2007, the Ukrainian government gave him the title of Hero of Ukraine. He appeared on a stamp, and the central bank issued a coin with his image. Multiple streets in Ukraine bear his name. Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the city of Ternopil even named the local football stadium after Shukhevych.

In another example, Hungary’s government provided funds for a statue honoring Balint Homan after the Hungarian historian and politician was rehabilitated in 2015. Homan was twice Minister of Religion and Education in the period between 1932 and 1942 and was an active member of parliament. Homan participated in drafting the anti-Jewish race laws of 1938–1940, which stripped Hungarian Jews of their rights. Homan chose to remain a member of the legislature after the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944. He also supported deporting Jews into German custody. As a result of this policy, approximately 437,000 Jews were deported from Hungary between May 15 and July 19, 1944. Most were sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center. A Hungarian People’s Tribunal charged Homan with war crimes and sentenced him to life imprisonment in 1946. The government of Hungary withdrew its support of the Homan statue after international condemnation.

The government of Poland offers another example due to its participation in rehabilitating the reputation of the Holy Cross Mountain Brigade (Brygada Świętokrzyska). Part of a right-wing resistance group in German-occupied Poland, the Brigade initially cooperated with Allied forces. Late in the war, it collaborated with the Nazi regime. In February 2018, the Polish prime minister honored deceased Brigade members at a cemetery in Munich. This act drew criticism both inside and outside Poland. 

Judicial and Legal Rehabilitation

Judicial and legal rehabilitation occurs when courts overturn or annul convictions. This can happen even if the convicted individual is deceased and if the historical record shows evidence of guilt. Descendants of the convicted person can initiate this effort. Family members typically pursue this avenue to restore family honor or reclaim seized property.  

The Leon Rupnik case is an example of legal challenges brought by family members. Rupnik was a Yugoslav general who collaborated with Italian and Nazi German occupation forces. He was the governor of the German-occupied province of Ljubljana between 1943 and 1945. Rupnik’s regional forces were responsible for rounding up and deporting all Jews found in and around the province. Captured and returned to Yugoslavia in 1946, he was convicted of treason and executed. In January 2020, the Slovenian Supreme Court overturned Rupnik’s death sentence at the request of his family. The family argued that the 1946 trial by communist authorities had violated legal procedures. The government of Slovenia publicly stated that the court ruling did not mean Rupnik was innocent of his crimes. The ruling, however, sent a damaging message that downplayed the Holocaust and its victims.

Cultural Rehabilitation

Cultural rehabilitation can benefit complicit individuals who made literary, artistic, academic, scientific, or other contributions. The cultural contributions of these individuals are overemphasized, while their role in the Holocaust is ignored or disputed. By celebrating these people, their reputations and ideas are made acceptable in mainstream settings. 

As an example, Romanian scholar Mircea Eliade achieved major academic success in the United States. Known by some as “the father of the history of religions,” Eliade taught at the University of Chicago, where there is still a professorship in his name. Yet, before coming to America, Eliade was a strong supporter of Romania’s fascist and violently antisemitic Iron Guard movement. During the Holocaust, Romania perpetrated the murders of Jews within its borders and the territories under its control. The country was second to Nazi Germany in the number of Jewish deaths it was responsible for during that period.

Rehabilitation in Service to Ethnic or Religious Solidarity

During the Cold War, many people fled communist-ruled Central and Eastern Europe, creating diaspora communities around the world. Some diaspora communities and associations have been responsible for acts of rehabilitation of people or organizations complicit in Holocaust-era crimes. Rehabilitation in this context works as an expression of ethnic or religious solidarity. 

Some groups within the large Croatian ethnic community in Australia, for example, use and publicly display Ustaša symbols and photos of fascist leaders. The Ustaša regime was responsible for the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews and Serbs during World War II. This form of rehabilitation serves to legitimize the Ustaša and its ideas. It can also lead to false understandings of the Holocaust in both the countries where these communities live and in the countries from which they came.

Rehabilitation via Marches, Rallies, and the Normalization of Fascist Imagery

Public parades, marches, and rallies that honor persons who participated in the Holocaust and related crimes occur around the world. The increasing use of fascist imagery during rallies and protests also shows growing acceptance of these symbols and the rehabilitation of organizations and ideas associated with them. The symbols appear on flags, T-shirts, tattoos, and websites. They are used to evoke or support extremist ideologies such as Nazism, fascism, racism, and antisemitism. Attempts to commercialize Holocaust-related imagery, such as its use in merchandise, can also lead to these extremist ideologies being perceived as acceptable.

For instance, in Bulgaria, a torchlit march by right-wing nationalists and named for Bulgaria’s assassinated minister of war during World War II, Hristo Lukov, has taken place in the capital city of Sofia nearly every year since 2003. As head of the Union of Bulgarian National Legions, Lukov supported the deportation of thousands of Jews to their deaths. Bulgaria’s government and city officials have repeatedly attempted to ban the Lukov March. However, administrative courts have overturned these efforts.

What are the consequences of rehabilitation acts?

Allowing the rehabilitation of people, organizations, symbols, and ideas that contributed to the crimes of the Holocaust can have multiple consequences. These include but are not limited to:

• condoning antisemitism and other forms of hatred; 
• encouraging distortion or denial of the Holocaust;
• erasing the collective memory of the victims and survivors of the Holocaust and related atrocities;
• undermining public support for democratic institutions; and
• legitimizing fascism, undemocratic regimes, and acts of terror against people from minority groups.

Acts of rehabilitation are complex. They can have intersecting and far-reaching consequences. Understanding the different forms of rehabilitation is crucial to preventing its spread and preserving the history of the Holocaust.