Martyr Construction and the Politics of Death in National Socialism

Abstract

Abstract Politics is practiced by the living, but sometimes also built upon the dead. This is the case with National Socialism and other religions of the fatherland. They are vehicles for a politics of memory and mobilisation in the public sphere, fostered by a specific movement or regime around the death of some members of its community in whom they see condensed the values they aspire to universalise among all citizens. The Nazis concocted a sophisticated liturgy in which those who fell for the ‘Idea’ became a cause of ritual celebration and objects of worship. The social construction of martyrs by the Nazi leadership, with Goebbels shaping the mould and Horst Wessel as the most complete example, evolves around three discursive pillars: (1) the presentation of the (male) candidate as someone who has died for the sake of the community; (2) a rhetoric of the few, carriers of Truth and Good, facing a sea of enemies who cannot be engaged in dialogue but must instead be hated to the point of death; and (3) the martyr is embellished, their virtues are exaggerated while features or facts that are potentially dysfunctional are hidden.