„Es ist schrecklich einfach, Kinder zu verblöden.“ Totalitarismus in Bild und Wort

Summary This paper focuses on three contemporary historical books for children or young adults dedicated to life under communism or a totalitarian regime: Petr Sís’ The Wall: Growing up behind the Iron Curtain (2007), Pavel Čech’s A (2016), and Michal Klíma’s Scouts’ Search for How the Communists Ruled Us (2021). It examines how indoctrination and lack of freedom affect the individual and his or her relationship to the masses. The imagined communities in the books include Soviet-era totalitarian communities as well as Western and post-totalitarian ones. It turns out that totalitarian communities are less homogeneous than one might think.