Germany's transition from Nazism to peaceful, if at times reluctant, integration into the western and Soviet spheres during the decade immediately following the Second World War is one of the most remarkable events of the twentieth century. Shattered relations between Germans and their wartime enemies and victims had rendered prospects for peaceful relations between these groups unimaginable, or a dream belonging to the distant future. However, numerous grassroots initiatives found varying degrees of success in fostering reconciliation.

Drawing on underutilized archival materials,...