''Persilschein'' is a German idiom and literally means "
Persil
Persil is a German brand of laundry detergent manufactured and marketed by Henkel around the world except in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Latin America (except Mexico), China, Australia and New Zealand, where it is manufactured and mar ...
ticket" ("Persil" refers to a brand of laundry detergent). To own or have a ''Persilschein'' is akin to having "a clean bill of health" and may refer to the granting of a wide-ranging permission or "carte blanche" to pursue a business or a previously morally or legally suspect interest.
Denazification certificates
The term ''Persilschein'' dates back to the
denazification
Denazification (german: link=yes, Entnazifizierung) was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of the Nazi ideology following the Second World War. It was carried out by remov ...
period in Germany. For a German to be given a ''Persilschein'' meant to be given a certificate that they had a clean political past.Duden online ''Persilschein'' /ref> Suspected
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
offenders could be exonerated by statements from others, ideally victims or former enemies of the Nazi regime, and thus accepted as having a good reputation.
Colloquially the affected person was said to be "washed clean" of accusations of Nazi sympathies; "cleanliness" in this context meaning "innocent". They were attested as having a so-called "white vest" and were now allowed to apply for a house or open a business again. During 1948, the interest of the Americans in systematic denazification waned markedly as the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
and the threat from the
Soviet bloc
The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
hove increasingly into view. Faster processes were introduced to bring denazification to a swift conclusion, however, that led to questionable judgements.
References
Bibliography
*
Ernst Klee
Ernst Klee (15 March 1942, Frankfurt – 18 May 2013, Frankfurt) was a German journalist and author. As a writer on Germany's history, he was best known for his exposure and documentation of medical crimes in Nazi Germany, much of which was concer ...
: ''Persilscheine und falsche Pässe. Wie die Kirchen den Nazis halfen.'' Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1992, (Fischer-Taschenbücher 10956 ''Geschichte'').
*