ERNST WINKLER, MY GRANDFATHER, was born in Esslingen (Southern Germany) in 1915. He grew up to become a primary-school teacher, then was drafted for military service in the German Wehr macht in 1938, witnessed the Anschluss of Austria, marched into Poland and France, and subsequently fought the war as a Leutnant on the Eastern Front. In May 1945 he was captured by the Red Army and became a prisoner of war (POW). Not until the winter of 1949 did he return from captivity in Siberia and the Ural mountains to his home and family in Southwest Germany, where he worked and lived until his death in September 2010.

My grandfather lived an individual life, and yet his life was shaped by the experiences of war, captivity, and return that he shared with millions of other former soldiers of Nazi Germany. He had his individual ways of dealing with the past, drew his individual lessons, and developed his individual ways of commemoration—and yet he shared his fate, his memories, and his status as a former soldier and POW with a significant section of German postwar society. What happened to German veterans and returnees from war captivity continues to be an integral part of the family histories of many Germans, as it does in ours. Yet they are much more than just privately told stories of the past, as this book will endeavor to show.

I am deeply grateful for the support I have received from a wide range of individuals and institutions who have contributed to turning my personal concern for my grandfather's memories into an academic endeavor that explores the long-term history of the memory of German returnees from war captivity after the Second World War in divided and reunited Germany. First and foremost, I am greatly honored to have had the opportunity to work with my PhD supervisor, Mary Fulbrook (UCL), for almost ten years now. I have received from her not only huge support and motivation but also constant intellectual inspiration. I am also very fortunate to have met Birgit Schwelling (KWI Essen) one day in the archive of the Verband der Heimkehrer in Bonn Bad Godesberg.