Non-Fiction

Lulu KC

(4,183 posts) Wed Nov 16, 2016, 02:15 PM Nov 2016

I am looking for a book about how Germans felt when Hitler came to power

I am talking about the people who did not like him, were not targeted specifically, and how they dealt with it all. I keep seeing posts saying that we need to be more aware than they were. I know there must be a classic that describes how it was--do you know what the book is?

I am also looking for a similar book regarding France, and how the French Resistance became organized and stayed aware.

Thanks--

9 replies

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Highlight:

I am looking for a book about how Germans felt when Hitler came to power (Original Post) Lulu KC Nov 2016 OP

Do some research on how American progressive intellectuals thought about the rise randr Nov 2016 #1

Try Diary of a Man in Dispair Little_Wing Nov 2016 #2

Thank you! n/t Lulu KC Nov 2016 #4

They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45 (Mayer) PufPuf23 Nov 2016 #3

Thank you! n/t Lulu KC Nov 2016 #5

While not exactly what you're asking for, PoindexterOglethorpe Jan 2017 #6

Thank you! n/t Lulu KC Jan 2017 #7

I think it's time to give this thread a good kick. Nt. raccoon Oct 2017 #8

Defying Hitler by Sebastian Haffner. Neoma Dec 2017 #9

randr

(12,479 posts)

1. Do some research on how American progressive intellectuals thought about the rise

Reply to Lulu KC (Original post)

Wed Nov 16, 2016, 02:32 PM

Nov 2016

of that monster. You may find parallels to modern history.

Little_Wing

(417 posts)

2. Try Diary of a Man in Dispair

Reply to Lulu KC (Original post)

Wed Nov 16, 2016, 11:46 PM

Nov 2016

A journal written from 1936 to 1944 by a German man who hated the Nazis. Just started it myself. Chillingly honest....

Lulu KC

(4,183 posts)

4. Thank you! n/t

Reply to Little_Wing (Reply #2)

Mon Nov 21, 2016, 09:52 AM

Nov 2016

PufPuf23

(9,233 posts)

3. They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45 (Mayer)

Reply to Lulu KC (Original post)

Fri Nov 18, 2016, 04:21 PM

Nov 2016

by Milton Mayer.

Classic book of Germans that were not overt Hitler followers to start but who became followers and their the slide into fascism and horror.

https://www.amazon.com/They-Thought-Were-Free-Germans-ebook/dp/B00D4M89A4/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479503770&sr=1-1&keywords=They+thought+they+were+free

>First published in 1955, They Thought They Were Free is an eloquent and provocative examination of the development of fascism in Germany. Mayer’s book is a study of ten Germans and their lives from 1933-45, based on interviews he conducted after the war when he lived in Germany. Mayer had a position as a research professor at the University of Frankfurt and lived in a nearby small Hessian town which he disguised with the name “Kronenberg.” “These ten men were not men of distinction,” Mayer noted, but they had been members of the Nazi Party; Mayer wanted to discover what had made them Nazis.

“What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.”--from Chapter 13, “But Then It Was Too Late”<

Lulu KC

(4,183 posts)

5. Thank you! n/t

Reply to PufPuf23 (Reply #3)

Mon Nov 21, 2016, 09:52 AM

Nov 2016

PoindexterOglethorpe

(26,727 posts)

6. While not exactly what you're asking for,

Reply to Lulu KC (Original post)

Tue Jan 24, 2017, 06:01 PM

Jan 2017

the following two books might be of interest:

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson is about the first American Ambassador to Nazi Germany. Chilling and fascination.

A Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead is about some 230 French women who were in the Resistance, who were caught by the Nazis and sent off to the death camps in January of 1943. This one is heartbreaking because of the horrors of the death camps.

Again, I know that these are not what you've asked for, but they touch on both those themes.