Defying Hitler: A Memoir - Hardcover

Haffner, Sebastian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297607626 ISBN 13: 9780297607625

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2002

Synopsis

When the famous German author Sebastian Haffner died at age ninety-one in 1999, a manuscript was discovered among his unpublished papers. Spanning the years 1907 to 1933, it offers a compelling eyewitness account of the rise of Hitler and Nazism.

About this title

Review:

What was it about Germany that made the rise of Adolf Hitler and his murderous regime possible? That troubling question has occupied many fine minds over the last six decades, few more lucid and thoughtful than the late historian and journalist Sebastian Haffner. In this book, drawn from a manuscript he did not live to complete, Haffner examines the social and cultural conditions that made Germany ill-equipped for democracy and ripe for totalitarianism. Among these, Haffner writes, were a generational war between an apathetic adult population and a youth "familiar with nothing but political clamor, sensation, anarchy, and the dangerous lure of irresponsible numbers games"; a fatal fondness for the winner-and-loser dichotomy of sports and a rage for spectacle and entertainment; a resignation through which ordinary people came to "adapt to living with clenched teeth, in a manner of speaking," rather than stand up in protest. In that climate, Haffner--who left Germany just before World War II broke out--suggests, Nazism was almost an inevitability, against which he, too, tried to withdraw into "a small, secure, private domain," like so many others of his time and place. An important eyewitness account, Haffner's book deepens our understanding of how small missteps can lead to tragic ends, and how nations can be led into chaos. --Gregory McNamee

About the Author:

Sebastian Haffner (1938-1999) was born in Berlin. In 1938 he emigrated to England where he began writing for the Observer. He returned to Germany in 1954 and became the bestselling author of, among other works, The Rise and Fall of Prussia, From Bismarck to Hitler, and The Meaning of Hitler.

About this edition

• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0297607626
• ISBN 13: 9780297607625
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224