Margit Reiter demonstrates fluency in the major theoretical concepts and historiography of historical memory in her study of postwar families and children coming to terms with their Nazi family histories. She argues, convincingly, that the interviews, which are her core primary sources, are “sites of memory” as famously defined by Pierre Nora. A particular goal of Reiter is to bring women to the fore in the discussion of historical memory, both as Täter and as one half of the generation after. Although Reiter succeeds along these lines, the book falls short of its promise.

Reiter's analysis of the interviews she conducted demonstrates a good eye for the subtle meanings behind word choice. She also pays close attention to contexts and the subjectivity of memory. Especially important is Reiter's liberating Austrian women from their innocence as she points out that women, though not part of the power structure of the Nazi state, were heavily invested in the system in roles ranging from supportive SS wives to running women's National Socialist organizations. Here, Reiter is not blazing a new trail, but what is new are the views of the generation after when it comes to their mothers. Based on the interviews, it would seem that many children of the Nazi generation gave little thought to their mothers' politics and deeds, generally remembering the father when it came to National Socialism. Mothers typically were remembered more as unpolitisch or somewhat mythologized as Trümmerfrauen. Also of great interest is Reiter's section on the Nazi inheritance of the generation after. She notes that many people with “tainted” names (Adolf, Hermann, etc.) stopped using them, and her subjects speak of feelings of guilt for the deeds of their parents. She notes also a tendency for the grandchildren to be more defensive about their grandparents than were the parents.

Reiter's concept and her deconstruction of the interviews make an important contribution to the study of Austrian historical memory, but ultimately the book falls short of its potential. One problem is the small number of interviews. With only eighteen subjects, the evidence is essentially anecdotal. A subject of this weight and scope merits further research. Related to this is the organization of the book, which attempts to cover too much ground for the base of sources. The bibliography also does not include any of the extensive English language work on Austrian historical memory. The writing is clear with a first-person, almost journalistic quality, but one distraction (and this trend cannot be blamed on Reiter) is the near mania of nonsexist language. A reader will find that he or she must navigate through the flak of “innens” added to nouns of every variety. Reiter also occasionally makes an argument that does not hold up especially well. For example, she stresses that 1968 has been wrongly assumed to be a generational turning point, the time when the postwar sons and daughters rejected the ways of their parents. Instead, she argues that the Waldheim Affair of the 1980s is a more accurate time to point to a generational split and awakening in Austria. Reiter is on firm ground on this second point, but it is unclear who is arguing for 1968 in the first place. Indeed, some Austrian historians have noted that 1968 happened everywhere except Austria. These flaws weaken the book, but in the end, this study still makes valuable contributions to the growing body of work on Austrian historical memory. A larger sample of oral history interviews and a more focused organization could have improved this important study.