Denazification facts for kids

Workers removing the signage from a former "Adolf Hitler-Straße" (street) in Trier, 12 May 1945

Denazification was an Allied initiative to get rid of Nazism from German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics.

It was carried out by removing those who had been Nazi Party or SS members from positions of power and influence and by disbanding or rendering impotent the organisations associated with Nazism.

The programme of denazification was launched after the end of the Second World War and was solidified by the Potsdam Agreement in August 1945.

Images for kids

• 

  A 1948 denazification clearance certificate from Wattenscheid in the British Zone.

• 

  Eagle above the rear main entry to the Robert-Piloty building, department of Computer Science, Darmstadt University of Technology. Note the effaced Swastika under the eagle.

• 

  East German propaganda poster in 1957

• 

  A poster from the North Rhine-Westphalia state elections 1947, with the slogan "For a quick and just denazification vote CDU"

• 

  Diese Schandtaten: Eure Schuld! ("These atrocities: your fault!") One of the posters distributed by US occupation authorities in the summer of 1945.

• 

  German Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger (right) was a former member of the Nazi Party

• 

  Adenauer's State Secretary Hans Globke had played a major role in drafting antisemitic Nuremberg Race Laws

See also

In Spanish: Desnazificación para niños