Under the impression of the advancing Allies at the end of the Second World War, the Nazis made hasty attempts to evacuate the widely dispersed concentration camps and their subcamps. The resulting evacuation transports sent thousands of prisoners across Germany. Travelling on foot and by train, these so-called "death marches" confronted the German population directly "on their doorstep" with the horrors of the Holocaust. The lecture examines the extent to which the experiences of the civilian population as witnesses to the violence of the death marches influenced political attitudes after the end of the war. The lecture deals with the historical background of the death marches and their consequences, the challenges for modern, political science research into the marches and outlines implications for the collapse of tyranny in general.
