Shrouded in “Silence”? Textbook knowledge on starvation in East and West Germany (1945–1989)

Abstract Despite starvation's central role as a weapon in the Holocaust and the Second World War, National Socialist killings are primarily associated with gas chambers, death camps, and death by bullets. This article examines how East and West German history textbooks (1945–1989) narrativized Nazi-induced starvation, offering insight into how such historical associations took shape. A comparative analysis of more than 120 secondary school textbooks reveals how differing interpretive frameworks of violence influenced the presence or absence of textbook knowledge on starvation. East German textbooks, emphasizing structural violence, highlighted long-term social, political, and economic inequalities, framing starvation as a key topic and a deliberate act of violence. In contrast, West German textbooks, which did not focus on power structures, centered more on events with clear and short timelines. Starvation was discussed less frequently and, when mentioned, was often portrayed as collateral damage. Crucially, this study reveals that starvation, not confined to a single moment, can be easily overlooked as a weapon when the overriding focus centered on direct methods of killing and events with clear short time frames.