Voices from the Third Reich

The result of a collaborative editorial effort by two German veterans of WW II and an American college professor, these recollections from more than 150 Germans cover a wide range of experience, civilian and military, during the Nazi era. Many of those interviewed, who were children or teenagers when Hitler came to power, speak frankly about the allure of National Socialism and of the ``adaptations'' forced on them, internally and externally, during the war. As the editors point out, heroism and self-sacrifice are evident in many of the statements, but so are egoism and self- deception. The book challenges certain assumptions common among non-Germans: that most citizens of the Third Reich were fully aware of the crimes perpetrated by the regime; that the survivors of that generation are conscious of a burden of guilt; and finally that older Germans are happy to forget the war. The men and women included here recall their attitudes and behavior in compelling and painful detail. (May)