"An intriguing account of Germany's continuing attempts to come to terms with its past."
---M. Deshmukh, Choice, October 2001
— M. Deshmukh, Choice
"Klaus Neumann's book appears in the wide-ranging series 'Social History, Popular Culture, and Politics in Germany'. It is, however, mandatory reading far beyond this cluster of disciplines. . . . This book does a remarkable job in tracking the historically shifting memories of what, as a historical necessity, must remain both in collective and personal memory."
---Roger Hillman, Australian National University, Cultural Studies Review, May 2003
— Roger Hillman, Australian National University, Cultural Studies Review
"An important contribution to the University of Michigan Press' series in Social History, Popular Culture, and Politics in Germany. . . .Rather than imposing a comprehensive German collective or public memory on his readers, Neumann persistently emphasizes that German efforts to master, to commemorate, or even to discuss the Nazi past are diverse, usually local, and always rooted in individual memories, however much these may reflect broader social discourses about the past."
---German Studies Review
— Jonathan Huener, Univ of Vermont, German Studies Review
"Shifting Memories is both a book about history and about the formation of historical consciousness. Above all, it is a personal journey, occasionally even an Odyssey, an opportunity for Neumann to explore the recent history of various places in Germany--Salzgitter, Celle, Weimar, Hamburg, and possibly most important for the author, Heldesheim, the town in which Neumann grew up. . . . Reminiscent of the haunting portrayal of the death marches in Daniel Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners Neumann depicts the hideous nature of crimes committed in the last stages of the war, with particular reference to events in Celle. He clearly shows the contrast between attitudes towards the Nazi past adopted by many Germans in the first decades of the Federal Republic and more recent developments. . . . Neumann makes it clear that attitudes prevailing in the 1950s did not suddenly die out in the 1980s."
--Christian Leitz, History Now, February 2003
— Christian Leitz, History Now
"His overall project is an attempt to refute the attitude that Germany should be encouraged to return to 'normal,' even after more than fifty years. As he sees it, Germany will likely never be done with the past, nor should Germans wish to be."
---Brad Prager, University of Missouri, Columbia, Seminar, Fall 2003
— Brad Prager, University of Missouri, Columbia, Seminar