They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933–45 - Softcover

Mayer, Milton; Evans, Richard J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 022652583X ISBN 13: 9780226525839

Verlag: University of Chicago Press, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

The classic, chilling account of how fascism took over Germany—and of the constant danger of complacency

“When this book was first published it received some attention from the critics but none at all from the public. Nazism was finished in the bunker in Berlin and its death warrant signed on the bench at Nuremberg.”

That’s Milton Mayer, writing in a foreword to the 1966 edition of They Thought They Were Free. He’s right about the critics: the book was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1956. General readers may have been slower to take notice, but over time they did—what we’ve seen over decades is that any time people, across the political spectrum, start to feel that freedom is threatened, the book experiences a ripple of word-of-mouth interest.

They Thought They Were Free is an eloquent and provocative examination of the development of fascism in Germany. Mayer’s book is a study of ten Germans and their lives from 1933-45, based on interviews he conducted after the war when he lived in Germany. Mayer had a position as a research professor at the University of Frankfurt and lived in a nearby small Hessian town which he disguised with the name “Kronenberg.” “These ten men were not men of distinction,” Mayer noted, but they had been members of the Nazi Party; Mayer wanted to discover what had made them Nazis. His discussions with them of Nazism, the rise of the Reich, and mass complicity with evil became the backbone of this book, an indictment of the ordinary German that is all the more powerful for its refusal to let the rest of us pretend that our moment, our society, our country are fundamentally immune.

A new foreword to this edition by eminent historian of the Reich Richard J. Evans puts the book in historical and contemporary context. We live in an age of fervid politics and hyperbolic rhetoric. They Thought They Were Free cuts through that, revealing instead the slow, quiet accretions of change, complicity, and abdication of moral authority that quietly mark the rise of evil.

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Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Milton Mayer (1908–86) was the author of What Can a Man Do? And coauthor of The Revolution in Education. He wrote for the Progressive, Harper’s, and other outlets.

Milton Mayer (1908'86) was the author of What Can a Man Do? And coauthor of The Revolution in Education. He wrote for the Progressive, Harper's, and other outlets.

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They Thought They Were Free

The Germans, 1933-45

By Milton Mayer

The University of Chicago Press

Copyright © 2017 The University of Chicago
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-226-52583-9

Contents

PART I. TEN MEN, 
KRONENBERG, 
November 9, 1638, 
November 9, 1938, 
1. TEN MEN, 
2. THE LIVES MEN LEAD, 
3. HITLER AND I, 
4. "WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE?", 
5. THE JOINERS, 
6. THE WAY TO STOP COMMUNISM, 
7. "WE THINK WITH OUR BLOOD", 
8. THE ANTI-SEMITIC SWINDLE, 
9. "EVERYBODY KNEW." "NOBODY KNEW", 
10. "WE CHRISTIANS HAD THE DUTY", 
11. THE CRIMES OF THE LOSERS, 
12. "THAT'S THE WAY WE ARE", 
13. BUT THEN IT WAS TOO LATE, 
14. COLLECTIVE SHAME, 
15. THE FURIES: HUEINRICH HILDEBRANDT, 
16. THE FURIES: JOHANN KESSLER, 
17. THE FURIES: FUROR TEUTONICUS, 
PART II. THE GERMANS, 
HEAT WAVE, 
18. THERE IS NO SUCH THING, 
19. THE PRESSURE COOKER, 
20. "PEORIA ÜBER ALLES", 
21. NEW BOY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD, 
22. TWO NEW BOYS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD, 
23. "LIKE GOD IN FRANCE", 
24. BUT A MAN MUST BELIEVE IN SOMETHING, 
25. PUSH-BUTTON PANIC, 
PART III. THEIR CAUSE AND CURE, 
THE TRIAL, 
November 9, 1948, 
26. THE BROKEN STONES, 
27. THE LIBERATORS, 
28. THE RE-EDUCATORS RE-EDUCATED, 
29. THE RELUCTANT PHOENIX, 
30. BORN YESTERDAY, 
31. TUG OF PEACE, 
32. "ARE WE THE SAME AS THE RUSSIANS?", 
33. MARX TALKS TO MICHEL, 
34. THE UNCALCULATED RISK, 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, 
AFTERWORD BY RICHARD J. EVANS, 

CHAPTER 1

Ten Men

1. Karl-Heinz Schwenke, Sturmführer and janitor (formerly tailor), age 54

It was almost midnight of November 9, 1938, when Standartenführer Kühling of the SA Kronenberg entered the Huntsmen's Rest, at the corner of Frankfurterplatz and the Mauerweg, and said:

"The synagogue will be burned tonight."

As the scene was reconstructed by principals and witnesses fifteen years afterward, there were present in the public room of the inn twenty or twenty-five uniformed members of the SA Reserve Troop, composed of men over fifty, and five or ten members of other SA troops who had dropped in. There were no other customers, and the innkeeper testified in 1948 that he was "in and out" of the public room that evening and did not hear any of the conversation or remember who was present.

After Kühling spoke, Sturmführer Schwenke turned to the men in the public room and said:

"You heard what the Standartenführer said. Those who want to help, come into the private room with me."

The Standartenführer said, "I'll be back," and left the inn.

About half the men present, according to the testimony, followed Schwenke into the private room and closed the door. Schwenke reopened the door from within, said, "No more drinking," and closed it again. Those who were left in the public room sat saying nothing for a few moments and then began talking in low tones. They testified afterward that they could hear the talk, but not the words, from the other room.

Twenty minutes later the Standartenführer re-entered the Huntsmen's Rest. The dozen or so men left in the public room were eating buttered bread and drinking coffee, playing Skat, reading the paper, or just sitting there. They got to their feet and said, "Heil Hit —"

"They still in there?" said the Standartenführer.

"Yes, Herr Standartenführer."

The Standartenführer opened the door to the private room and the talk inside stopped. The dozen or so men within got to their feet and said, "Heil Hit" "Jetzt mal, los! los! Let's get going, let's get going," said the Standartenführer, standing in the doorway. "You, Sturmführer."

"Yes, Herr Standartenführer," said Schwenke. "I thought I would send two men to reconnoiter."

"You be one of them, Sturmführer."

"Yes, Herr Standartenführer. Here, Kramer, come with me. The rest of you, remain where you are until you get orders."

"I'll be back," said the Standartenführer, leaving again.

Schwenke and Kramer walked west on the Mauerweg. Half a block down, in front of the Café Schuchardt, they stopped and stood in the entrance of the darkened café. Kramer looked up and down the street. "No police," he said. "Not a sign," said Schwenke.

They crossed the street to the synagogue, pushed open the iron fence gate, and went around the building, trying the side and back doors. The furnace-room door was unlocked, and they went in. In a few minutes they left again. As they re-entered the private room of the Huntsmen's Rest, the men stood up and said, "Heil —"

"Pechmann," said Schwenke, "I want you and Heinecke and — let me see — Dowe. Upstairs. Quick. You"— to the others —"remain. This is duty. You hear me?"

The five, including Kramer, went upstairs to the SA meeting room. In a few minutes they came down.

"I don't care," Schwenke was saying, "we can use it. We have to have something."

"But it's floor oil," said Pechmann, "and it belongs to the Theater."

"I don't care," said Schwenke, "it's oil. This is duty. You heard the Standartenführer, Pechmann."

"Yes, Herr Sturmführer," said Pechmann.

Pechmann, Heinecke, and Dowe headed for the Theater, a block west of the Huntsmen's Rest, and Schwenke and Kramer returned to the furnace-room of the synagogue. In a few minutes the other three SA men entered the furnace-room, carrying, among them, four three-gallon canisters. There were footsteps above, in the synagogue.

"Can I go now?" said Pechmann to Schwenke, in a whisper. "I'm on duty at six in the morning."

"Go ahead, you s — t," said Schwenke.

"Thank you, Herr Sturmführer," said Pechmann. Heinecke and Dowe left with him, without even asking permission.

"S — — ts," said Schwenke.

Pechmann testified against Schwenke after the war, but he supported Schwenke's claim that there were footsteps heard in the synagogue above when the SA men were in the furnace-room. Schwenke denied having had anything to do with the floor oil taken from the Theater; he had, he said, only reconnoitered. The four canisters were never found.

Schwenke and Kramer returned to the Huntsmen's Rest around 12:50 midnight. The Sturmführer led the way to a table in the corner of the public room. Ten minutes passed. Nobody spoke in the public room; the men in the private room, beyond the door, were still talking in a murmur. The two church bells struck 1 A.M., and the rooster atop the Town Hall crowed. Then it was quiet again. Schwenke said something to Kramer, and Kramer left the inn. None of the men in the private room raised his head. Kramer returned and said something to Schwenke. Then Schwenke left the inn and returned at once.

"SA men!" he called. "The synagogue is on fire! Outside, everybody! Close off the street! It's dangerous!"

A voice said, "Shall we call the Fire Department?"

"I'm in charge!" said Schwenke. "Close off the street! It's dangerous! Schnell, hurry!" And he turned and went, followed by all the SA men in the inn.

The instant the last man was out the door, the innkeeper of the Huntsmen's Rest entered the public room from the swinging door behind the bar. He closed the outer door to the street, locked it, turned out the lights, and went right to bed.

2. Gustav Schwenke, soldier (formerly...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: University of Chicago Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 022652583X
• ISBN 13: 9780226525839
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 384
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: preigu GmbH & Co. KG; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; Niedersachsen; 49078; Deutschland