Defying Hitler: A Memoir

The title might make a person (as it did me) initially think this was the memoir of an overlooked resistance member, or perhaps a government or party worker who ended up aiding the fight against Nazism. Rather, it is one man's very personal, and very chilling - yet very analytical - observations of what was happening around him and how it caught up with him and his circle of friends, changing lives, destroying friendships, and causing some, like himself, to finally leave Germany.He finds that the Nazi phenomenon was made possible by patterns in German history, particularly of the militaristic sort. He describes the excitement of the outbreak of war in 1914 among children like him, and reminds the reader that these children would be adults in their prime as the Nazis grew in significance and promised to rekindle that excitement.Other topics include Luxemburg and Liebknecht, Rathenau, Bruening, how foreign leaders' appeasement of Hitler repeated German politicians' attempts to tame him the same way, and how some in Germany thought the Hitler chancellorship wouldn't last because he always seemed to be his own worst enemy.But there are lots of books on all these subjects. What makes this one unique is who wrote it - a fairly ordinary German at the time. He has first-hand encounters with brownshirts, his friends are affected by the new laws and indeed some are endangered by the new regime. But another of his friends morphs into a committed Nazi. (Indeed this aspect of the memoir made me think of the Eugene Ionesco play, Rhinoceros.)He defends the value of his memoir by once or twice reminding the reader that it is precisely because his experiences were common that it is important that someone write them down. Later in the book he writes:"If you read ordinary history books...you get the impression that no more than a few dozen people are involved...According to this view, the history of the present decade is a kind of chess game among Hitler, Mussolini, Chiang Kai-Shek, Roosevelt, Chamberlain, Daladier, and a number of other men whose names are on everybody's lips...It may seem a paradox, but it is nonetheless the simple truth, to say that on the contrary, the decisive historical events take place among us, the anonymous masses. The most powerful dictators, ministers, and generals are powerless against the simultaneous mass decisions taken individually and almost unconsciously by the population at large."The book does cut off rather suddenly. He never finished it.Incidentally, this modest little book indicates that the reality of Hitler's murderous intentions toward the Jews was obvious to even an ordinary person.The book is exceptionally well written, with an informal, personal style that sometimes addresses the reader directly. Frank and insightful. Highly recommended.

This was very powerful and insightful for me. Like an evening with a new friend that stirs you profoundly and stays fresh for weeks thereafter. Of course it lands on me in the era of Trump and my quest for understanding how this current political climate in the US could have come about. So it has reached a fertile ground in my case.The author details how the period from the first World War in 1914 up through 1933 was experienced by the German people. Young people in particular since he was born in 1907. The Nazi movement grew out of the experiences of daily life in those years and the author is very clear and straightforward in the patterns and motivations that he saw and experienced himself. As background to the living of those years I also learned the basics of German history in that era which I didn't know clearly beforehand.There is no way I can encapsulate the key factors in any manner even close to the impact that one will pick up from reading this book. What had prompted the rise of Hitler and the Nazis? I had some conception that the economic hardships stemming from the Treaty of Versailles had made the populace angry and was the primary fuel. That the Jewish businessmen had continued to thrive and were therefor further fuel for resentment. Not really, it seems. These were ancillary factors, not the driving forces behind the attraction for individual young Germans.In our current US environment one could cite the failure of the white, blue collar American to prosper while others gather all the attention. And the Latinos who come to our country for work as a further fuel for resentment. But this common explanation totally misses the psychological factors that once worked upon the Germans and which now have a similar resonance in our current US. I see it and experience it.Beyond that, when one is shown qualities in others that can be recognized in oneself too, then the impact is enhanced. I love this book, it is easy to read and not lengthy.

Haffner, Sebastian. Defying Hitler.Defying Hitler is the most penetrating examination of the rise of the Nazi movement, written secretly by a German citizen who survived the horrors of living in Germany throughout the Second World War. This book, published ultimately by the author’s son, has, since 2001, become available in English. The story is of a most unpromising Austrian youth who ultimately held the fate of millions in his hands and it has long craved further explication. At last we have reached the heart of the matter. We close the book gasping ‘If only ...’This memoir avoids the author’s real name, Raimund Pretzel, and was covertly begun in 1939 just before the Second World War got really underway, and the book was first published under the name of Sebastian Haffner, with notes to explain the political situation existing in pre-1933 Germany. I doubt very much if the German nation’s seeming conversion to Angela Merkel’s charitable invitation to foreigners can possibly wipe out or even mitigate what seems to have become a national characteristic – the German devotion to an ideal of power and self-aggrandisement, but I could be wrong. After all, it is always unwise to generalise about national traits, but nevertheless we are all inclined to do this, and ‘fighting anti-Semitism’ as we call it is likely to be a perpetual battle, almost as deeply grounded as sporting insults that begin with the innocent wearing of team colours.Be that as it may, Haffner is remarkably honest in having plenty of harsh words to say about his own people. He is bold enough to say, ‘Most Germans are subjugated, “comraded” and self-satisfied, terribly happy but demeaned, but so terribly loathsome, so proud and yet so despicable and inhuman.’ And further on in the book, ‘The idealisation of proficiency for its own sake is a German vice, the Germans think it is a German virtue.’ (Now I think I can perhaps understand Boris Becker’s need to make a comeback on the tennis court). Maybe more than a grain of truth in it, but I can also understand Haffner’s point of view, while at the same time I’m not sure I can agree with the reasoning behind it. We are all human enough to enjoy victory but become bored or even disgusted at excessive marching and victory parades. The Triumph of the Will is not exactly our favourite movie, while extending its message to a whole nation and beyond seems to me somewhat excessive.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's the most insightful personal memoir of what it was like to live through the slow but relentless transformation of German society as Hitler rose to power. Haffner traces his childhood into young adulthood, living through the first world war, seeing in it the seeds of the trauma which made Germany so vulnerable to Nazi ideology. It is a terrifying read, as the threads of these developments can easily be seen in Western society today. They will lead to the same disastrous outcome. A MUST read for anyone concerned about today's world. Forewarned is forearmed. Get it today!

Extraordinary book - lively style, amazing lucidity. Unfortunately, 30 missing pages in the middle (my book must have been a reject) and it is an unfinished work. I feel cheated.

This is one of the most interesting and compelling books I have read. Haffner describes his experience of the First World War as a child in Germany, and his years growing up witnessing the rise of Hitler and fascism. His analysis of the why and the how as his life develops is absorbing and fascinating. This is a gripping personal story, not a history book, and it doesn't take long to read - give it a go!His personal journey is always interesting, but for me - as a reader in the 2020s - the most striking things about this book are his observations on how Hitler, despite being a nasty joke figure initially, took power: by vilifying a minority in harsh and violent language, by bending, changing or subverting the constitution to gain control, by applauding the violent deeds of sympathetic spirits without recrimination, but above all by promising something (something terrible for the world) that filled a wound in the soul of the people and establishing all of that by eliminating opposition by creating a (well-justified) fear of speaking out. This book is as relevant today as it was on the day it was written.

Great read.It 's the memoir of a German who was a law student and then lawyer in the 30's in Germany.He was opposed to what what happening and left the country.