Those Who Forget: One Family’s Story; A Memoir, a History, a Warning

But decades later, delving through the basement of their apartment building, Geraldine discovers that her grandfather Karl profited from the forced ‘Aryanisation’ of Jewish businesses - and so she is compelled to investigate her ancestors’ past. On her mother’s side, she delves into the role of her French grandfather, a policeman during the Vichy regime. How guilty were they?

Combining generations of family stories with the history of Europe’s post-war reckoning, Geraldine asks: how did Germans transform their collective guilt into democratic responsibility? And, given rising populism in Europe today, how can we ensure we learn from history?