--- product_id: 55792096 title: "Guilt About the Past" brand: "bernhard schlink" price: "A$28" currency: AUD in_stock: true reviews_count: 4 category: "Books" url: https://www.desertcart.com.au/products/55792096-guilt-about-the-past store_origin: AU region: Australia --- # Guilt About the Past **Brand:** bernhard schlink **Price:** A$28 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Guilt About the Past by bernhard schlink - **How much does it cost?** A$28 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.au](https://www.desertcart.com.au/products/55792096-guilt-about-the-past) ## Best For - bernhard schlink enthusiasts ## Why This Product - Trusted bernhard schlink brand quality - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description From Booklist The author of the best-selling Holocaust novel The Reader (1997) moves to nonfiction as he discusses Germans' guilt about their past in a series of six lectures he delivered at Oxford University in 2008. The academic jargon is sometimes heavy (“the norms considered in the course of my deliberations”), but readers can skip the minutiae of legal scholarship and get to the gripping moral issues of collective guilt. What about those who did nothing? And what about those who, afterward, did not renounce the perpetrators? What about the children and grandchildren today: Can there be forgiveness and reconciliation? Has the obsession with the Holocaust resulted in banality? Can there be retroactive justice? Schlink admits that he, too, feels guilty that he has gone along with things because he does not want to escalate the conflict and irritate the silent majority. And fans of The Reader will welcome his reply to the critics who say he should not have humanized his character, Hanna, the former camp guard who committed monstrous acts. His answer is that every book does not have to tell the full truth, as long as it doesn't pretend to be more than it is. He hates Life Is Beautiful but praises Shoah and Primo Levi. This is great for book-discussion groups, especially those engaged with The Reader. The issues of authenticity and literary truth are universal, and so is the haunting guilt. --Hazel Rochman Read more Review Schlink’s essays provide a thankfully atypical view of the burden left by the years that included “the Third Reich and the Holocaust.” A specific German view comes clear, a writerly philosophy is offered and the era’s influence on contemporary life comes into focus. (Norman Ravvin The Canadian Jewish News 2010-08-26) Read more See all Editorial Reviews ## Images ![Guilt About the Past - Image 1](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51CcRHX79lL.jpg) ![Guilt About the Past - Image 2](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41mXqH8QHiL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Bernhard Schlink From the Podium *by G***P on June 2, 2011* For those readers captivated by the extraordinary prose and gift for relating involving stories ('The Reader', 'Flights of Love: Stories', 'Self's Punishment', 'Self's Deception', 'Homecoming', 'Self's Murder') this book of essays from the writer who also happens to be a professor law. Presented as a series of lectures in 2008, they are such fine reading and deserve publication in book form. These six short but pungent essays explore Guilt - both as a personal feeling and as a collective shroud. Grouped together they comprise some of the more enlightening book on the subject, using of course the German people and the aftermath of WW II.In both his introduction and the first essay Schlink appropriately delves into history going back to the 1300s when law were in force that punished members of families for something one member of a family did; entire families could be by law put in a sack and drowned for the malfeasance of one person. He then rather quickly reminds us of the collective guilt of the British in India, of Americans and slavery, of Canadians and First Nations and so on. According to Schlink 'when some members of a collective commit crimes, its other members have a duty to identify them and expel them from the group. If they don't, they become "entangled" in the perpetrators' crimes and share their guilt; the behavior of the few is then credited to the many. After 1945, Germans should have identified the Nazis in their midst and severed ties with them. When they didn't - when they preferred to forget Nazism - they became guilty as a collective for what had been done.' It is the courage to accept the past and at the same time investigate how to restore pride in a nation bludgeoned by the world for atrocities for the past.Schlink discusses moral consequences in his fourth essay addressing how ridiculous for politicians to apologize for things done in the past 'when it's not them who should bear any guilt for anything, and perhaps those being apologized to are not there to offer forgiveness. Given racial slaughters, of course, some reconciliation is always beneficial.' When members of a collective (such as Germany in WW II) commit crimes as in the Holocaust it is the onus, the obligation to identify the perpetrators and segregate them from the collective: those who did not come forth share the guilt and become equally guilty as a collective.In the final chapter of this book the author addresses the books and films that he believes to be accurate and responsible and also points out those he considers inferior and misleading. Being a writer of one of the more popular of these books gives him an edge in critiquing the writings of others. And even in this role Bernhard Schlink remains a figure of fairness, a man of opinions that matter. This book is a reliable survey of Guilt about the Past, whether that be counted in centuries, in decades or in days. It is pertinent information for us as well as a fine documentation of the philosophy of collective guilt. Grady Harp, June 11 ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Profound and readable! *by D***N on April 26, 2015* Having read Schlink's book The Reader a while back, I decided to see whether he had written anything else and I am happy to say that this book offers both some insight into the personality of the author as well as a better understanding of the ethical questions he is interested in. In addition, I found his exposition of the German legal system and its limitations in dealing with Nazi war crimes very interesting and a little disturbing. Schlink is an accomplished writer but he is above all a conscientious thinker who has taken the time to explore the at time uneasy relationship between the (German) legal system, justice and existential questions. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A very intellectual treatment of post-war guilt. This puts ... *by J***R on July 3, 2014* A very intellectual treatment of post-war guilt. This puts the book above the realm of screaming and yelling "why did it all have to happen??!!". --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.com.au/products/55792096-guilt-about-the-past](https://www.desertcart.com.au/products/55792096-guilt-about-the-past) --- *Product available on Desertcart Australia* *Store origin: AU* *Last updated: 2026-05-16*