Thanks for this guys. I think PilotFred’s making a valid point. The context in which I found this term, supports the proposition of coming to terms with a past.

W G Sebald in his book “On The Natural History of Destruction” attempts this. I recommend it to all of us armchair historians trying to understand what happened in 1940’s Germany.

http://www.amazon.com/Natural-History-Destruction-W-G-Sebald/dp/0140298002/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-7096995-4907902?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184628504&sr=1-1