Check out the top books of the year on our page Best Books of Looking for beautiful books? Visit our Beautiful Books page and find lovely books for kids, photography lovers and more. Review quote An astonishing memoir Fresh, immediate, and wonderfully personal In , he was forced to flee to Britain, where he worked as a journalist. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — Defying Hitler by Sebastian Haffner. Defying Hitler by Sebastian Haffner ,.
Written in and unpublished until , Sebastian Haffner's memoir of the rise of Nazism in Germany offers a unique portrait of the lives of ordinary German citizens between the wars. Covering to , his eyewitness account provides a portrait of a country in constant flux: This fascinating personal history elucidates how the average German grappled with a rapidly changing society, while chronicling day-to-day changes in attitudes, beliefs, politics, and prejudices. Paperback , pages.
Defying Hitler
Published August 1st by Picador first published August Berlin , Germany. Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize for Nonfiction To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Defying Hitler , please sign up. Is there a version in its original German? Derbenutzer Yes, it is: Written in approximately , was published after he died …more Yes, it is: Written in approximately , was published after he died https: See 1 question about Defying Hitler…. Lists with This Book.
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Reposting this with tears in my eyes, realising the fascist plague has reached the German Bundestag as well. I thought what I witness in America was as bad as can get. Starting with a chilling sentence, claiming that he tells the story of a duel between a strong, ruthless state and himself, a powerless individual, he shows in his erudite prose how he came to form his own opinions on the development of fascism and its spread. The passage that haunts me most is a dialogue between himself and his father, where he declares that his greatest fear is that war breaks out and he has to fight "on the wrong side".
His father opposes him. Haffner, still young and energetic, rejects that fatalistic approach, and questions his father's attitude. And the father replies, "For the moment, no! Why did Haffner write his book? He was not a hero despite the ridiculous, probably sales-oriented English translation of the story with the title "Defying Hitler" , just an educated, decent man who saw what went wrong and decided not to be indifferent.
He describes the effects of the propaganda machinery on himself and others with frightening honesty: How certain things were endured to secure personal goals like exams, career, plans for the future. How accepting one step in the chain of events compromised the own conscience and made him vulnerable, culpable in his own eyes: If I sang that song with the group how could I have refused, in the context?
If I waved the flag how could I have refused, in the context?
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Haffner himself went into exile, became an emigrant, or immigrant, depending on the point of view. And he raised his voice for the importance of understanding historical processes, and emotional responses to stress, manipulation and violence. He wrote for others to understand, so that it may not happen again. He described the slow eroding of democracy, as witnessed by himself, for example through changed paragraphs in general laws, each one taking away a grain of what people had considered basic human rights. Gradually, the exceptions were accepted as normal, and citizens got used to a completely new kind of language, and law enforcement.
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They stopped fighting it as it fell apart step by step, and each step could somehow be justified, in a flawed way, of course, but as a single event not worth the cost of resistance. Mass depression and fear ruled the political climate in which Haffner wrote his reflections. That is why this book should be required reading again, for all those who say that the developments in America at the moment are due to "liberal mistakes in the past".
The answer to that is: We have a responsibility to raise our voices against aggression, regardless of whether it is aimed at religion and this is the atheist speaking, on behalf of religious freedom, as long as the religion does not force others to believe and commit to specific rituals and rules that are only relevant to its particular dogma , ethnicity, gender, or social status.
Defying Hitler : Sebastian Haffner :
And we have to protect our shared environment against policy makers who confuse scientific data with personal opinions and beliefs based on profit. When the world is taken hostage by people with a clearly narcissistic, criminal agenda, we are in the same position as Haffner in the s. We can give up, like his father, or we can speak up, like himself. We don't have to be heroes, but sometimes, we have to choose sides. I am with Haffner on that: Master bullies need to be resisted - that is what teachers try to implement in schools, and it applies to the world of "so-called" grown-up politics as well.
View all 41 comments. Con la storia contingente e privata della mia della mia contingente e privata persona sono convinto di raccontare un pezzo importante della storia tedesca ed europea, non ancora raccontato. E ne ha trentuno quando decide che con il nazismo e Hitler non riesce a conciliarsi in alcun modo, meglio emigrare. E quindi, da questa partenza, mi sono aspettato illuminazioni a go go. Ho sperato in un bel libro di storia ricco di fatti e dati, ma sono rimasto subito deluso: Qui, invece, nessuna emozione, nessuna vibrazione, men che meno palpitazione.
Il mistero non si svela, la grande domanda rimane senza risposta, anche Haffner non aiuta. Ma le cose sono andate avanti per anni, i nazisti non hanno mai fatto passi indietro, la gente vedeva e assisteva. Le SA, organizzazione paramilitare del partito nazista, furono fondate nel Questo era appunto il segreto del successo del nazionalsocialismo, il suo appellarsi a qualcosa che era insito profondamente nella natura di tutti i tedeschi. Peccato che la spiegazione di Haffner non riesca ad andare oltre lo spirito di cameratismo: Ecco, su questo Haffner non accende nessuna luce, non chiarisce nulla, non aggiunge niente alla conoscenza.
View all 3 comments. The English translation of this book is called "Defying Hitler" which I am sure helped sell more copies but underplays the wider interest of this book which covers the years to in the life of a man from the German, specifically Prussian, middle class. While at school during the Kapp Putsch, for instance, a particularly right-wing teacher view spoiler [ which may have been a tautology given the circumstances hide spoiler ] asks if they can feel the difference in the atmosphere now that The English translation of this book is called "Defying Hitler" which I am sure helped sell more copies but underplays the wider interest of this book which covers the years to in the life of a man from the German, specifically Prussian, middle class.
While at school during the Kapp Putsch, for instance, a particularly right-wing teacher view spoiler [ which may have been a tautology given the circumstances hide spoiler ] asks if they can feel the difference in the atmosphere now that they are ruled by a firm hand again. They don't, things were exactly the same as before. The putsch was over in a couple of days anyway.
But the anecdote speaks to the expectation and hope placed in violent change and openly anti-democratic feeling around at the time. During the inflation the young Haffner and his friends get very excited and join in the speculation. His Father however, true to the dignity of a Prussian civil servant considers that financial speculation is an improper and immoral pass time for someone in his position, Ordnung muss sein afterall.
Due to the hyper-inflation come his pay-day the whole family troop off to the barbers to have their hair cut before the money looses too much of its value. Anyway readers who bought the book expecting to hear about Hitler being defied will be keen to know that the author moves on to the time that he spent training as a lawyer.
Defying Hitler : A Memoir
By the time his training is nearing completion in Gleichschaltung was under-way in the legal profession, ie the process of bringing that profession among others into the regime's ideological line, to which end Haffner and a bunch of other young trainees are sent to a training camp at Jueterbog where they march about singing uplifting patriotic songs and are generally meant to develop a sense of camaraderie.
Haffner's insight into this process was that the success of the Nazis was down to the triumph of du over sie or tu over vous if you prefer in other words creating a politics of the informal, politicised groups which could replace or act as a substitute for family or friends with a ready sense of society and inclusion. The victory of Fascism was the defeat of alienation and the familiar stratification of society.
Instead everyone could settle down and all be mates together, so long, naturally, as they conformed - and you wouldn't want to let your mates, your chums, your pals down would you? Friends after-all stick together, at any road at least until the time comes to commit suicide in your bunker.
Shortly after the author makes his escape to Britain where at the time since everybody treated each other as foreigners he could feel safe and begin to make a living for himself as a journalist. View all 6 comments. Oct 20, Lewis Weinstein rated it really liked it Shelves: Haffner provides a real sense of what it was like to experience the Hitler takeover of Germany.
From the eyes of a child before Hitler was ever heard of through when Hitler had squashed all opposition, Haffner reports in often electric prose how he felt.
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View all 5 comments. Mar 07, Alissa rated it it was amazing Shelves: As I have read and studied about World War II through the years, I, too, have had the same questions Haffner's son mentions near the end of this book--How were the Nazis possible? This book does an awesome job of providing some answers. It made it clear to me that Germany and its people were the first victims of Hitler and the Nazis. I think that Haffner did As I have read and studied about World War II through the years, I, too, have had the same questions Haffner's son mentions near the end of this book--How were the Nazis possible?
I think that Haffner did a great job portaying what it was like for a common German during the Nazi takeover. His confusion, frustration, and helplessness and some of the things he experienced must have been what thousands of other Germans were feeling and going through at the time. What a dark time it must have been as they came to grips with the new realities of their world.
I just wish Haffner would have finished writing his whole story before he died. It was a combination of Johann Sebastian Bach and of Mozart's Haffner Symphony , later he used the signature of this piece KV on his vehicle registration plate. During the Second World War in England Haffner was interned for several months in and released only after publication of his first book in English, Germany: Jekyll and Hyde Fyvel for Searchlight Books.
However, because of differences between Astor, who had become the newspaper's publisher, and the London editorship regarding a divided Germany, he became the German correspondent in Berlin in , a position which he kept until the building of the Berlin Wall. He then wrote for a German newspaper, Die Welt , until , and from then until was a columnist for the Stern magazine. Haffner is considered as one of the most successful German authors in the history of the 19th and 20th century writing for a broad, nonacademic audience.
He wrote most of his works in German, some of which have been translated into English, French, Spanish, Hebrew and other languages.