German Voices: Memories of Life during Hitler's Third Reich

Frederic C. Tubach, Sally Patterson Tubach, "German Voices: Memories of Life during Hitler's Third Reich"
2011 | ISBN: 0520269640 | 296 pages | PDF | 4 MB

What was it like to grow up German during Hitler's Third Reich? In this extraordinary book, Frederic C. Tubach returns to the country of his roots to interview average Germans who, like him, came of age between 1933 and 1945. Tubach sets their recollections and his own memories into a broad historical overview of Nazism--a regime that shaped minds through persuasion (meetings, Nazi Party rallies, the 1936 Olympics, the new mass media of radio and film) and coercion (violence and political suppression). The voices of this long-overlooked population--ordinary people who were neither victims nor perpetrators--reveal the rich complexity of their attitudes and emotions. The book also presents selections from approximately 80,000 unpublished letters (now archived in Berlin) written during the war by civilians and German soldiers. Tubach powerfully provides new insights into Germany's most tragic years, offering a nuanced response to the abiding question of how a nation made the quantum leap from anti-Semitism to systematic genocide.

"A lively, extremely readable, and unique work. Tubach draws on archival wartime correspondences by soldiers on the front lines to loved ones on their devastated home fronts. German Voices is a long-overdue cultural study and a must-read for any student and scholar of German history and cultural studies."--G.H. Hertling, University of Washington

"A sensitive and thoughtful exploration. Tubach's use of personal interviews lends the narrative a deeply human touch. His ability to combine insight, empathy and objectivity make the book a fascinating and compelling read." - Bernat Rosner, co-author of An Uncommon Friendship: From Opposite Sides of the Holocaust