MIf you eat dictatorships with Durs Grünbein in terms of severity, then the communist military government in Ethiopia, which killed hundreds of thousands of “class enemies” between 1974 and 1991, is certainly in the top ranks. At that time, the bodies were displayed in shop windows or in market places so that passers-by had to step over them. Everyone should see what happens to those who stood in the way of the more or less spontaneously adapted communist ideology. The military government that ruled Argentina at the same time chose much more discreet methods. In most cases, there is still no trace of the thirty thousand people she made disappear. Some lie deep on the sea floor.
There is no common denominator in the afterlife of twentieth-century dictatorships, except that most villains go unpunished. States that have shaken off a dictatorship usually look for a new beginning. Comprehensively coming to terms with the past would overburden the legal system, which is why it often takes decades before the perpetrators are punished and the victims are compensated, if this happens at all. If the process of coming to terms with it is overloaded with idealistic demands, the divisions deepen. Civil wars can result or a relapse into dictatorship. In most cases you have to be happy with compromises. It is often a benefit if past injustice is only publicly identified.
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