Memoirs and their Contexts: Nurses in the Great War, especially Germany Post–1933

This paper draws on previously published material (Nurse Memoirs from the Great War: Britain, France and Germany, Palgrave, 2021) to explore the possibilities and limits of contextual analysis. Of the myriad possible contexts that surround a memoir, how do we select those that are relevant? I will use some brief examples from elsewhere in history and focus on the main example.

All the nurse memoirs share a characteristic spectrum of responses to the war: an overwhelming focus on their work, varying degrees of reticence and frankness about what they experienced, and (in most cases) great devotion to the well-being of their patients.   Their writings are also characterised by significant absences.

Within this common spectrum, the German memoirs have significant differentiating characteristics. Those published during the war are significantly different from those – the vast majority – published after 1933, which are especially frank about the appalling conditions. Using the contemporary reception of these memoirs I will analyse relevant features of the context in which they were published, especially the Nazi drive to nurse recruitment in the mid-1930s.


Jerry Palmer is the former Professor of Communications at London Metropolitan University and Visiting Professor in Sociology at City University.  He is the author of two books about Great War memoirs.

This session is a hybrid session and in-person tickets are limited.