The Good Germans: Resisting the Nazis, 1933-1945

by Catrine Clay

Overview

After 1933, as the brutal terror regime took hold, most of the two-thirds of Germans who had never voted for the Nazis - some 20 million people - tried to keep their heads down and protect their families.

They moved to the country, or pretended to support the regime to avoid being denounced by neighbours, and tried to work out what was really happening in the Reich, surrounded as they were by Nazi propaganda and fake news. They lived in constant fear. Yet many ordinary Germans found the courage to resist. Catrine Clay argues that it was a much greater number than was ever formally recorded. Her ground-breaking book focuses on six very different characters. They are not seen in isolation but as part of their families. Each experiences the momentous events of Nazi history as they unfold in their own small lives - Good Germans all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474607902
Publisher:	Orion
Publication date:	09/03/2020
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
File size:	14 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Catrine Clay worked for the BBC for over twenty years, directing and producing award-winning television documentaries. She won the International Documentary Award and the Golden Spire for Best History Documentary, and was nominated for a BAFTA. She is the author of King, Kaiser, Tsar, Trautmann's Journey and Labyrinths. She is married with three children and lives in London.
Catrine Clay is an author and documentary film maker. She first met Trautmann while making a documentary of his life. They are good friends and regularly see each other.

Table of Contents

Author's Note ix

Introduction: The Good Germans 1

The Good Germans 4

1 The Swastika 7

2 The Nazis take Power 30

3 1933 and all that 57

4 The Early Years of Nazi Rule 85

5 Hard Times: 1935 107

6 The Nazis Tighten the Screw 131

7 Turning Point: 1938 155

8 The Road to War: 1939 182

9 Into the Darkness 208

10 A War on Two Fronts 233

11 Back in the Reich 263

12 The End 293

13 Aftermath 334

Acknowledgements 359

Illustrations 363

Notes 365

Bibliography 383

Index 389

Editorial Reviews

Historians have long grappled with the question of how popular the Nazis really were ... The Good Germans suggests that there was much more resistance than was ever formally recorded ... The Good Germans shines the spotlight on people who didn't opt for the path of conformity, but instead made often small but nonetheless defiant choices in their everyday lives that put them at risk ... [Clay] is a great story-teller who proves adept at conjuring her characters straight off the page—BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE

A brilliant and deeply disturbing account of six individuals, ranging from Prussian aristocrat to law student to factory hand, who risked, and in some cases lost, their lives to oppose Hitler—THE SPECTATOR 'Books of the Year'

Timely, intriguing and extremely well informed—SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 'Pick of the Week'

Historians have long grappled with the question of how popular the Nazis really were ... The Good Germans suggests that there was much more resistance than was ever formally recorded ... The Good Germans shines the spotlight on people who didn't opt for the path of conformity, but instead made often small but nonetheless defiant choices in their everyday lives that put them at risk ... [Clay] is a great story-teller who proves adept at conjuring her characters straight off the page—BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE

A brilliant and deeply disturbing account of six individuals, ranging from Prussian aristocrat to law student to factory hand, who risked, and in some cases lost, their lives to oppose Hitler—THE SPECTATOR 'Books of the Year'

From the Publisher