Backing Hitler : consent and coercion in Nazi Germany / Robert Gellately.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gellately, Robert, 1943-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Germany--History--1933-1945.

Germany.

History.

Germany--Race relations.

Race relations.

Physical Description:

xvi, 359 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2001.

Summary:

The Nazis never won a majority in free elections, but soon after Hitler took power most Germans turned away from democracy and backed the Nazi regime. Hitler was able to win growing support even as he established the Gestapo and concentration camps. Yet for over fifty years historians have disputed what the German people knew about these camps and in what ways they were involved in the persecution of 'race enemies,' slave workers, and social outsiders.

In this ground-breaking study of Nazi terror within Germany, Robert Gellately finally answers these questions. The author exposes once and for all the substantial consent and active participation of large numbers of ordinary Germans in the terror. He shows that rather than hide their racist and repressive campaigns from the German people the Nazis trumpeted them in the national papers and on the streets. He reveals how they drew on popular images, cherished German ideals, and long held phobias to win converts to their cause. Tracing the story from 1933 to its grim conclusion in 1945, he demonstrates how war and the prospect of defeat radicalized Nazism. As the country spiralled towards defeat, Germans for the most part held on stubbornly. For anyone who dared contemplate surrender or resistance, terror became the order of the day.

Contents:

1. Turning Away from Weimar 9

2. Police Justice 34

3. Concentration Camps and Media Reports 51

4. Shadows of War 70

5. Social Outsiders 90

6. Injustice and the Jews 121

7. Special 'Justice' for Foreign Workers 151

8. Enemies in the Ranks 183

9. Concentration Camps in Public Spaces 204

10. Dictatorship and People at the End of the Third Reich 224.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [265]-338) and index.

ISBN:

0198205600

OCLC:

45406462