The True German: The Diary of a World War II Military Judge
In March 1944, as the tide of the war was beginning to turn against the Germans, Müller-Hill, a Wehrmacht military judge, started a secret diary. In it he records news items, fumes about Nazi propaganda, and wonders aloud about the future. At one point he mentions that the diary may one day be of interest to his son, Benno (age 11 at the time), but, given his legal acumen and increasingly strong belief that the war was already lost, one wonders if he also wrote to begin a paper trail. It quickly becomes clear, however, that Müller-Hill wrote primarily to voice doubts and fears that could only be voiced in secret. At times, his words drip with sarcasm. “A fellow of infinite jest,” he says, describing the “senseless demagoguery” of a Goebbels radio address. Viewed today, certain passages would seem to contradict some of the more sweeping hypotheses that have been suggested regarding ordinary Germans’ complicity with respect to the Holocaust. Other passages, however, reflect an ambivalent and perhaps contradictory patriotism. This is both an important historical document and an engrossing read. --Brendan Driscoll