Defying Hitler: A Memoir

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Macmillan, 2003 - Biography & Autobiography - 309 pages

Written in 1939 and unpublished until 2000, Sebastian Haffner's memoir of the rise of Nazism in Germany offers a unique portrait of the lives of ordinary German citizens between the wars.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 1907 to 1933, his eyewitness account provides a portrait of a country in constant flux: from the rise of the First Corps, the right-wing voluntary military force set up in 1918 to suppress Communism and precursor to the Nazi storm troopers, to the Hitler Youth movement; from the apocalyptic year of 1923 when inflation crippled the country to Hitler's rise to power. 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.

 

Selected pages

Contents

Section 1
3
Section 2
6
Section 3
8
Section 4
16
Section 5
20
Section 6
29
Section 7
35
Section 8
39
Section 21
140
Section 22
147
Section 23
158
Section 24
181
Section 25
187
Section 26
194
Section 27
199
Section 28
208

Section 9
46
Section 10
52
Section 11
67
Section 12
72
Section 13
76
Section 14
85
Section 15
97
Section 16
105
Section 17
111
Section 18
117
Section 19
124
Section 20
136
Section 29
219
Section 30
227
Section 31
238
Section 32
247
Section 33
257
Section 34
258
Section 35
269
Section 36
284
Section 37
292
Section 38
297
Copyright

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About the author (2003)

Sebastian Haffner was born in Berlin in 1907, and died in 1999. In 1938, he was forced to flee to Britain, where he worked as a journalist. In 1954, he returned to Germany and became a distinguished historian and commentator.

Bibliographic information