Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition, and Racism in Everyday Life
In this quirky survey of daily life in the Third Reich, Peukert, who teaches at the University of Essen, attempts to help readers "understand better a generation which it would be unjust (and unhelpful for learning lessons for the future) to condemn . . . ." The raw material he presentssuch as circulation statistics in libraries following the public book-burnings and a judge's official view of "negative human material" and what should be done about "it"is more useful to historians than to general readers. Although he discusses the origins of the Nazis' deadly enmity toward homosexuals and "the facists' stereotyped fantasies of violence," quoted citations make the deeper impression: Himmler's decree banishing "young swing fans" to a concentration camp, for example, or diary records of dreams by German citizens intent on avoiding conscious confrontation with the sinister effects of National Socialist policies. Illustrations.Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.