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The Good Germans

Resisting the Nazis, 1933-1945

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The Good Germans

By: Catrine Clay
Narrated by: Karen Cass
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About this listen

 After 1933, as the brutal terror regime took hold, most of the two-thirds of Germans who had never voted for the Nazis - some 20 million people - tried to keep their heads down and protect their families.

They moved to the country, or pretended to support the regime to avoid being denounced by neighbours, and tried to work out what was really happening in the Reich, surrounded as they were by Nazi propaganda and fake news. They lived in constant fear. Yet many ordinary Germans found the courage to resist. Catrine Clay argues that it was a much greater number than was ever formally recorded. Her ground-breaking book focuses on six very different characters. They are not seen in isolation but as part of their families. Each experiences the momentous events of Nazi history as they unfold in their own small lives - Good Germans all.©2020 Catrine Clay 20th Century Europe Germany Military Modern War

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Critic reviews

Historians have long grappled with the question of how popular the Nazis really were ... The Good Germans suggests that there was much more resistance than was ever formally recorded ... The Good Germans shines the spotlight on people who didn't opt for the path of conformity, but instead made often small but nonetheless defiant choices in their everyday lives that put them at risk ... [Clay] is a great story-teller who proves adept at conjuring her characters straight off the page (Hester Vaizey)
A brilliant and deeply disturbing account of six individuals, ranging from Prussian aristocrat to law student to factory hand, who risked, and in some cases lost, their lives to oppose Hitler (Hilary Spurling)
Timely, intriguing and extremely well informed
All stars
Most relevant
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book. To many, the story of German resistance begins and ends with the July 20 plot and the failed coup attempt. The stories contained within this book go some way to adding depth and understanding to this subject. However, I do have some problems with the narrative. One fault is the simple perpetuation of the myth that the Reichstag fire was started by the Nazis as a pretext for mass arrests of communists. Richard J Evans has conclusively debunked this and all the evidence points to a lone wolf attack by Dutch communist, Marinus van der Lubbe as they German courts found at the time. The Nazis needed no such pretext. More grave, however is the charge that stems from the title, “The Good Germans.” The book, to my mind, reinforces the dichotomy that the Germans could be split in to two groups: Nazis = evil; ordinary Germans = good (and,by extension, resistors, or at least sympathetic to the resistance). This is very far from the truth. Without widespread approval, including at the ballot box, the Nazis would never have been able to go so far. The myth of the all knowing Gestapo has also been shown to be highly exaggerated. Within the Reich itself it was a much smaller organisation than might be imagined and relied heavily on denunciation for information. For ordinary Germans they may have feared the Gestapo and the concentration camps, but they were not directly affected by them. (Note: in countries occupied by the Nazis and the active resistance, both internal and foreign, the threat of the Gestapo and their methods of interrogation was all too real). This book shines great light on the inspirational resistance of Ernst Thälmann, Julius Leber and Fabien von Schlabrendorf among others, but it should not be forgotten that these people were in the tiny minority of Germans willing to oppose the Nazis. Statistics might be boring, but at least a chapter on putting these stories into a wider context might have been helpful.

Interesting but troubling

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This is an extremely well researched and written book. It’s scope is wide yet the author captures the behaviour and experiences of many people. As she states very little was recounted of resisters from a left wing perspective and this provides interesting material alongside more commonly explored events.
Overall a great listen and read.

Fascinating account

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In a world where everything is black or white, this book is timely. It lays to rest the myth that Germany followed Hitler blindly. This book reminds all those who believe that lie, of the thousands in camps, for their defiance, opposition or disregard of the Nazi tyranny, the executions and the waste. It is a deserved memorial to those brave Germans, known and unknown who sacrificed everything in the struggle for a better world

The good Germans

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what a great read. It certainly puts paid to the myth that all Germans were nazis. Includes names I have heard before but mostly new to me. A book that I will listen to agsin.

fantastic

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fascinating listen the history of the Germans against the Nazi regime shows that not all germans are bad

fascinating listen

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