Part of the Casswiki article series Books
Defying Hitler: A Memoir is a book by Sebastian Haffner, written in 1939 and published posthumously in 2000. It gives an insightful account of the Nazis’ rise to power, as well as the events before (World War I, the hyperinflation, failed revolutions) which prepared the society to accept such a turn in direction. The perspective is that of an ordinary middle class citizen, relating how each turn of events affected him and his family, those around him, and the society at large.
This book makes it easier to understand how a whole society can “turn evil”. Its description of how societal conditions evolved (or devolved) across decades makes clear how Germans were gradually robbed of their senses and their values – preparing them to accept the Nazis, and in many cases eventually become Nazis – and that what followed had the character of a collective nervous breakdown. In this and other things, the book provides a concrete illustration which goes along nicely with the theory presented in Andrew M. Lobaczewski’s Political Ponerology.
Haffner himself describes the role and value of this book quite well:
Official, academic history has, as I said, nothing to tell us about the differences in intensity of historical occurrences. To learn about that, you must read biographies, not those of statesmen but the all-too-rare ones of unknown individuals. There you will see that one historical event passes over the private (real) lives of people like a cloud over a lake. Nothing stirs, there is only a fleeting shadow. Another event whips up the lake as in a thunderstorm. For a while it is scarcely recognizable. A third may, perhaps, drain the lake.
– Sebastian Haffner, Defying Hitler, p. 7
External links
Articles
- Chaos and Consent: Working Towards the Fuhrer (Article showing the similarities between developments in the US in recent years and the events that brought the Nazis to power. Contains quotes from Defying Hitler.)
- The dying of the light (Article relating what can be learned from Defying Hitler and Political Ponerology to developments in the West. 9/11 parallels the Reichstag fire, and the current anti-Muslim hysteria is a repeat of the old anti-Jew hysteria with a new scapegoat.)
- Holocaust 2.0: The ultimate decisions of conscience (Article quoting Defying Hitler and relating the events of those times to the recent, Western-backed developments in Ukraine. One in a series of articles on the coming “Holocaust 2.0” that seems to be in store.)
Forum content
- Cassiopaea Forum: Defying Hitler - by Sebastian Haffner (Discussion of the book.)