Thomas Casagrande Presented his new book about SS men and their children at the invitation of the Army History Museum and the Wiener Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI): “Shadow. Our fathers in the Waffen-SS” (Edition Raetia). Some of the glorified war and soldiers, the others fell silent. How defining is the long shadow of war for the descendants?
In Talks with sons, daughters and grandchildren of relatives of the Waffen-SS – A total of eight perpetrators and dialogues with the descendants – the injuries, the ambivalences of feelings, the experiences with violence and the still current traces of history are visible. Unlike prominent Nazi operators, a judgment is not easy. Uncertainty and tornness determine the view of the SS men: Was there a direct participation in atrocities? And how can this be reconciled with an otherwise loving father or grandfather?
Thomas Casagrande is a political scientist and author, formerly deputy director of the schools in the German book trade. Publications: “The Volksdeutsche SS division ‘Prince Eugen’. The Banat Swabians and the National Socialist war crimes” (Campus Verlag, 2003); “South Tyroleans in the Waffen-SS: exemplary attitude, fanatical conviction” (Raetia, 2015). His father, Otto Casagrande (1919–1990), was an activist of the illegal Nazi movement in South Tyrol and member of the SS.
Greeting: Georg HoffmannDirector of the Army History Museum
Book presentation: Thomas Casagrande
Then a conversation with the author Thomas Casagrandewith Ljiljana RadonicVice Director of the Institute for Cultural Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) and with Jochen BöhlerDirector of the Wiener Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI).
Book presentation “Shadow. Our fathers in the Waffen-SS” by Thomas Casagrande
Datum: 05/22/2025, 7:00 p.m.
Art: Lectures and discussions
Ort: Wiener Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI)
Rabensteig 3
1010 Wien
Austria
URL: https://vwi.ac.at/index.php/veranstaltungen/icalrepeat.detail/2025/05/22/517/-/thomas-casagrande-schatten-unsere-vaeter-in-der-waffen-ss-raetia-bozen-2024
Wiener Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI)
Teresa price
Telephone: +431 8901514150
E-mail: teresa.preis@vwi.ac.at
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