“Dear Fatherland, Rest Quietly”: A Report on the Collapse of Hitler’s “Thousand Years”

by Margaret Bourke-White

THIS IS the story of the search for “Faceless Fritz”—the most difficult and frightening camera-hunt ever undertaken by ace photographer-reporter Margaret Bourke-White. “Fearless Fritz” was cable shorthand for one of several LIFE assignments that brought Miss Bourke-White and her camera to Germany some months before its fall. She was to pin down the private German citizens—to find out what kind of human being it was who, multiplied by millions, made up the Nazi terror. Was he cruel? Was he a villain? Or was he a jolly, gemutlich, beer-drinking, music-loving sentimentalist so many of us remembered, who had really been helpless in the power of a small gang of madmen?

By the time Margaret Bourke-White arrived in Germany on this mission, she had seen much death and danger. She had been in Moscow during its fiercest bombings. In Italy she had come closer to the enemy lines than any American woman before her. But it was in Germany that cold horror overtook her.

The Germany that Miss Bourke-White saw and recorded in this book puts to shame Dali’s most grotesque nightmares. It is a physical and spiritual chamber of horrors, a cuckoo-cloud land whose inhabitants live in a lost dream. They are the people whose faces are as usual and recognizable as neighbors’, but whose reactions do not seem to make sense.

“Dear Fatherland, Rest Quietly,” which was first published in 1946, takes its title from the words of the anthem, “Die Wacht am Rhein,” to which German soldiers have marched three times in the memory of many now living. It brings new light to bear on the German people—in the hope that through a more immediate understanding of them, a fourth march may be averted…

Richly illustrated throughout with 128 of her photographs, with detailed captions, forming an integral part of Margaret Bourke-White’s important report on conquered Germany.

Genres: Memoir, History, European History, Nonfiction

344 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 21, 2012

About the author

Margaret Bourke-White was an American photographer and documentary photographer. She is best known as the first foreign photographer permitted to take pictures of Soviet Industry, the first female war correspondent (and the first female permitted to work in combat zones) and the first female photographer for Henry Luce's Life magazine, where her photograph appeared on the first cover.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am very fortunate to have found this book in an attic upon clearing out my late parents’ house. It’s certainly more heartbreaking than inspirational, though many of her accounts hold deep and ironic resonance in that MB-W couldn’t have known then what we do now about what was to come, yet her thoughts and observations are nevertheless illuminative and relevant given our recent history and current events.

[S. Hancock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enlightening and like a photo, open to interpretation, and she does.

Lovely read, very brave woman for sure. The post war trips in Germany are especially enlightening. Remarkable memory to recall pages of conversation but never a note-book mentioned. No doubt she could and did according to her obvious talent. Easy read, difficult subject. German lack of responsibility for the war, and an expectation that the Brits and US fix Germany - is startling. Interviews show clearly the success of Goebells and the Nazi State’s mind machine. Shocking. Recommend reading this with ‘Promise me you’ll shoot yourself’ by Florian Huber. Stories are in both books told from different perspectives. Bourke-White’s book is a little degrading of Europeans - including Brits - but she was American. Pity the book was short and only available as an e-book.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published a year after WWII ended, I loved the immediacy of the text and pictures which were created as WWII was ending in Europe. Her first person account of the post-war environment and interviews of German citizens' and their reactions to the war was stunning. Nearly every single one denied knowing what was happening in concentration camps, pretended they didn't know or weren't responsible for funding or creating the tools that allowed Germany to wage war successfully for so many years (think Krupp industrial family), or --most astoundingly--still admired Hitler. The photographs of decimated German cities and of concentration camps and their victims as they were liberated remain as chilling and gasp inducing as they must have been when Life magazine first published them.

[miss j antill · Rating 5 out of 5]

The finest book I have read about this period her eloquence and humanity shine through

Superb. A thought provoking , insightful and humane book. Margaret Bourke White was in the thick of it when Germany was disintegrating she has a keen for the smallest detail and examines the human character throughout reminding us that in life things are not always black and white. A
timely reminder for how a developed modern nation can be brainwashed with disastrous consequences.

[Annette Drake · Rating 5 out of 5]

A glimpse of post-WW2 Germany

Well written. Great photographs. This book presented me with a new perspective. Glad I purchased it.
A book I heartily recommend.

[Greynomad · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is amazing how Maggie lived through all of the WW II without getting shot or killed

[BeachFan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in 1946 just after the war, this book gives an honest account of what the German citizens really knew about the Nazi atrocities and how little their views had changed towards Jews by the end of the war. I was surprised how many believed the allies were at fault for starting the war. Many didn't want to take any responsibility. Over time it seems people want to forget that the German citizens were involved, but this book sets the record straight. Everyone should read this book!