I've been totally fascinated by German history for decades--but especially after spending 2 years in Hanau--(near Frankfurt am Main) in the 70's.

There has been evidence coming out in recent years of the links of many in the former DDR to Nazi crimes. Wolfgang definitely did not intend to give the DDR a clean bill of health--with his (amazing!) grasp of English he is being sarcastic when he states "the socialist Germany was by definition free from any guilt".

Recently there have been many questions as to why the DDR did not feel such a soul-wrenching burden as West Germany did--and still somewhat does--even going to such lengths as the controversy over "Ich hatte einen Kamaraden" which Wolfgang, I believe discussed in another thread--link to a fascinating article in German.

I remember--in fact I taped the program--the palpable feeling of das Jahre Null (year zero)--that German history had started in 1945--in a program on the radio about post-war Germany--a program which emphasized this. Again this was in an ironic sense--the clean slate approach was something the producers of the program strongly disagreed with--clear subtext that it was largely a whitewash.

And, as posters above have noted, it's also clear why it was done--the Cold War. Remember the book on the Krupp family which came out, I believe, in the 1960's---William Manchester, I think---the Krupps had a sordid history which was largely ignored in signing up West German industry to oppose the Eastern bloc.