How do democratic and pluralistic societies cope with traumatic events in their past? What strategies and taboos are employed in reconstructing wars, revolutions, torturing, mass killings and genocide in a way that makes their contradiction of basic human rights and values invisible? The process of reconstructing history takes place in different domains of life and in a range of genres. Narratives are frequently reproduced through political speeches, films, documentaries and schoolbooks. Moreover, they are also transmitted in the private spheres of families and across generations. This interdisciplinary volume analyzes in detail, for the first time, the history and image of the German Wehrmacht and the debates in Austria and Germany surrounding two exhibitions about Wehrmacht war crimes during World War II -- exhibitions which have to be regarded as a major intervention in the construction of national historical narratives and 'myths', and which provoked widespread political and media reaction, ranging from the scandalized to the critically reflective.