What was it about Germany that made the rise of Adolf Hitler and his murderous regime possible? That troubling question has occupied many fine mind...
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Mar 02, 2010
Matt
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This is the story of Sebastian Haffner, a man who lived in Germany during Hitler's rise to power. I loved hearing the story from the perspective of the average German. I can't imagine living in such tumultuous times, but reading this book gives me a glimpse. The best part about it is the fact that it tries to answer two very important questions: how on earth a regime like the Nazis could rise to power, and how almost the entire nation where corrupted by them. It's a wonderful story that I wo
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Dec 21, 2011
The English translation is called "Defying Hitler" which I am sure helped sell more copies but underplays the interest of this book which covers the years 1914 to 1933 in the life of a man from the middle class.
While at school during the Kapp Putsch for instance a particularly right-wing teacher asks if they can feel the difference in the atmosphere now that they are ruled by a firm hand again. They don't, things were exactly the same as before. The putsch was over in a c More...
While at school during the Kapp Putsch for instance a particularly right-wing teacher asks if they can feel the difference in the atmosphere now that they are ruled by a firm hand again. They don't, things were exactly the same as before. The putsch was over in a c More...
Mar 07, 2011
Alissa
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As I have read and studied about World War II through the years, I, too, have had the same questions Haffner's son mentions near the end of this book--How were the Nazis possible? and Why weren't they stopped by the German people? This book does an awesome job of providing some answers. It made it clear to me that Germany and its people were the first victims of Hitler and the Nazis. They were conquered first and then Hitler/Nazis moved on to other countries around them.
I think th More...
I think th More...
Mar 02, 2010
Jenna
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I read this book for a class in college and it was absolutely fantastic. If you have any interest in WWII it's definitely something you should read. It is the story of Hitler's take-over of Germany through the eyes of a young German boy. The difference between this book and most others is that this boy is a just a regular German boy - he was not persecuted by the Nazis, but rather he lives in a world where he is expected to join and support them.
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Aug 23, 2011
Inert1
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A remarkable book. Haffner wrote the book in 1938 and abandoned it once the war started; his son published upon his death. One of the things that makes it so interesting is that he didn't know what form the war would take or who would win, and the perspective is unlike anything else I've read for that reason. In addition, the book attempts to explain the phenomenon of Hitler from ground level, not explaining what made Hitler, but what made the Germans susceptible to his charisma and logic. I've
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Apr 17, 2010
Jon
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This book was very surprising. It was a memoir that read like a fiction account. It was very fascinating to read the account of the what it may have been like for the German populace during the years between WWI and WWII. How could have they succumb to the Nazi regime? Why didn't anyone do anything about it? I was surprised to hear about how Germany was first systematically taken over, almost like they were the first country to fall to the Nazi's. It sure makes you think that we are not al
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Apr 15, 2011
Brian
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If you are like me and you've always wondered just how an insane madman like Adolf Hitler came to power in a modern country like Germany than read Defying Hitler. The author, who describes his personal experiences of the time, pulls no punches and makes no excuses for the shift to radical nationalism in Germany in the 1930s.
The book is presented much like a diary recounting the author's life at specific times in Germany between WWI when he was a small child and 1933 when the Nazi regim More...
The book is presented much like a diary recounting the author's life at specific times in Germany between WWI when he was a small child and 1933 when the Nazi regim More...
Mar 02, 2010
Steve
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Haffner has`provided a lucid account of how German bourgeois society of the twenties and thirties allowed itself to passively accomodate itself to the tyranous insanity which powered the Nazi political machine. As such, three quarters of the way into the book he begs the reader to deliberate the core issue which determines the value of this memoir: why are the experiences of an ordinary young man with no influence on events of interest to anyone ? Haffner provides the answer in detailing his own
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Mar 02, 2010
Ruth
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This memoir of growing up in Germany as Hitler was coming into power offers a remarkable first-person story. It should be required reading for us all.
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Sep 16, 2011
Sharon
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Libraries and scientists -- the first two pieces of society attacked and destroyed by Hitler. Sebastian Haffner was young boy during the Great War, a teen in the period intervening the two world wars, and a young man at the time of the Second World War. He offers surprising insights as to why Hitler was able to take power and behave he did. Haffner offers these insights from the perspective of someone who lived them and the reasons he gives for Hitler's ascent to power are not the usual ones
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Mar 02, 2010
Kim
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Wow. Where has this book been? I can't believe it's taken me this long to find it. It is a brilliantly written first hand account of life for a pretty average boy growing up in Berlin in the early 1900s. It was originally written in 1939 (so before the outbreak of WWII) when the author had just emigrated to the UK from his home in Germany. What I really appreciated about the book was that it was written before the war (so no 20/20 hindsight view) and that it recounts both how strange the times w
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Mar 02, 2010
Maggieg
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I found Defying Hitler absolutely fascinating. It was so clearly written and easy to read that I felt I learned more about Germany between WWI and WWII than I could have gleaned from a dozen dry textbooks. This was essentially the story of an ordinary middle-class German who was ideologically anti-Nazi but who felt powerless to stop the rise of Hitler and his party, a story that must have been common to millions of Germans across the country. Ordinary Germans were struggling so hard just to surv
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Sep 30, 2010
Michael
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Written in 1939 but not published until 2000 [after the authors death] this is a fascinating autobiographical political memoir of an ordinary middle-class non-Jewish German citizen, a boy during the Great War, and an immigrant to England on the eve of the Second World War. Helps explain how the Nazi's rose to power when initially a solid majority of Germans voted for parties other than the National Socialists. Highly recommended.
Mar 02, 2010
Sandy
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It was an interesting book, a different perspective and perception of that dark era when all what we associate with the Third Reich began. And Haffner uses an intelligent and good-to-read style of writing.
Still, I have cerain reservations. PArtially because he describes with an underlying arrogance how he overlooked everything right from the beginning and was so much more intelligent than the average German citizen.
Yet he chose to work for the German jurisdiction even after H More...
Still, I have cerain reservations. PArtially because he describes with an underlying arrogance how he overlooked everything right from the beginning and was so much more intelligent than the average German citizen.
Yet he chose to work for the German jurisdiction even after H More...
Jan 21, 2012
Veronika
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This is one of my favourite books about Nazi Germany. It gives an excellent insight into the life of the ordinary, non-Nazi German intellectual who found himself marching along with the Nazis and shouting heil hitler - for many reasons, including fear and confusion. Really sheds light on how and why the Nazis became so widely followed and obeyed, what psychological terror they used on the Germans themselves....I recommend it to anyone interested in the topic.
May 22, 2011
Cynthia
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This book was written in 1938 while living in Germany and published by his son after he died. This book gives insight to what it was like living in Germany in the 1930's and the events that led to the rise of Hitler. This is an insightful to the life of Germans after WWI the poverty, inflation, and events that that were important and the rest of world was unaware.
Oct 10, 2011
Quim
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Reedició d'unes memòries de joventut de l'autor, escrites originàriament el 1939, acabat d'exiliar de l'Alemanya nazi. Tot i que el volum aplega els anys 1914-1933, 2/3 del llibre estan dedicats al darrer any, quan Hitler arriba al poder i el país es nazifica ràpidament. Però el capítol inicial és molt útil, ja que explica les contradiccions internes alemanyes que portaren al nazisme. A més, Haffner, en nom del poble alemany, demana perdó als europeus (recordem que som al 1939)per haver tingut p
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Dec 23, 2011
Meurs
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Un des livres les plus importants sur cette période. A travers cette autobiographie d'un allemand ordinaire, auquel on peut facilement s'identifier, on voit comment un peuple peut basculer dans le nazisme. De la grande guerre, où le petit Sebastian marque sur une carte avec un drapeau les fausses victoires allemandes, à son départ de l'Allemagne après des études de droit et l'embrigadement forcé, on voit l'Histoire en marche. Particulièrement fascinantes sont les anecdotes où il est obligé de co
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Mar 02, 2010
Elizabeth
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Yes, there are many books out there about Hitler and the History Channel almost seems exclusively dedicated to that era, but this book, Defying Hitler, has a different perspective. This book was published by the author's son posthumously and was arranged as a diary, not a novel. The result is an inside perspective of a young German of upper-middle class roots with no particular political leaning recording the rise of Hitler. It is interesting to note that many thought of Hitler as insignifica
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Mar 21, 2011
Mara
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This is an excellent book. And an important book. I would not have read it if it was not a book club selection but I am so glad I did. If you have ever wondered how Hitler came to power and why no one stopped him, read this book.
Apr 21, 2011
Doreen
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Die Geschichte zwischen den Kriegen kommt oft viel zu kurz. Dieses Buch hingegen macht neugierig auf Zeitdokumente und Hintergründe. Außerdem ein Lesevergnügen weil der Autor mit den Worten gut jonglieren kann.
Mar 02, 2010
Matt
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I expected quite a bit more from this book, but this to me seemed more like a priviliged individual that while he did not agree with Hitler and his policies, he didn't really do anything to fight against it.
Mar 02, 2010
Bradley
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I read this book for a history class, and it was one of the better explanations of the Nazi rise to power I have read. You get a good sense of how many Germans must have felt that what the Nazis were doing was wrong, but at the same time felt unable or were unwilling to do anything about it. Haffner's description of marching down a street, 'intimidating' other Germans was classic. He WAS the person who wanted to duck into an alley to avoid saluting the parade, while at the same time marching
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Aug 03, 2011
René
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Intéressante explication sociologique de la descente de l'Allemagne vers le nazisme. On y laisse présager l'exil au début, mais le livre se termine sans parler de ce départ.
Mar 02, 2010
Archana
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An insider's view-point of the brainwashing of youth in Nazi Germany. Very interesting- and highly recommended. I was disappointed a little bit with the abrupt ending where his memoir ends- from a storybook viewpoint of "what happens next? How did he escape?". Clearly, he escaped to England as his son states in the introduction, but there are no details of this in the memoir.
What is interesting, then, is the meticulous brainwashing of innocent people with German precision, and th More...
What is interesting, then, is the meticulous brainwashing of innocent people with German precision, and th More...
Feb 13, 2012
Godowd
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Excellent book for those wanting to hear from the people who had to live under the nazi regime. It was not all a bed of roses ...
Mar 12, 2010
Ricky
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This book was a revelation to me and helped me understand a time that was a major turning point in the world's history - it helped me to look at how people behave when they are under pressure and choices are taken away from them. It's very well written and draws you into a world that is fascinating and frustrating. It's a brilliantly observed memoir of growing up in Berlin between 1914 and 1933. Reading this book left me wondering how I would have reacted if I was living in Berlin at that time,
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Sep 18, 2011
Mike
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Interesting true account of German citizen prior to WWII. This account give a really eye opening view as we see it through a non Nazi, who basically by social pressure is obligated and pressured to pledge allegiance to the Nazi regime.
Rarely do we see an account from the perspective that we see here. Normally Germans are the enemies and this account makes you rethink that notion. A must read for anyone who enjoys learning about WWII and the development of the worst WW the world has an More...
Rarely do we see an account from the perspective that we see here. Normally Germans are the enemies and this account makes you rethink that notion. A must read for anyone who enjoys learning about WWII and the development of the worst WW the world has an More...
