Album of the Damned: Snapshots from the Third Reich

This haunting photo collection takes readers on a new tour of Nazi Germany, through snapshots taken by average citizens and soldiers living, loving, working and playing in Hitler's Germany. It's practically impossible not to identify with these scenes of domestic life, making the juxtaposition of Nazi ephemera, costumes and soldiers both sharper and more human: the young boy standing at attention in his backyard like a Cub Scout is actually a member of Jungfolk, the organization that prepares kids for the Hitler Youth. Writer and photographer Garson (Born to be Wild) provides ample historical context and Third Reich trivia without overwhelming or overreaching. What Garson wants to know, looking ""into the very faces of men and women, often smiling faces"" is that old chestnut: how do ""such ordinary people... commit such extraordinary crimes?"" Though the answer is ""essentially unfathomable,"" the folks peering out from this book, though swept up in a nation-wide madness, look an awful lot like ourselves and our neighbors; this, perhaps, is what makes the book so terrifying and arresting.