HISTORY
HOW ORDINARY GERMANS EXPERIENCED THE 20TH CENTURY
KONRAD H JARAUSCH Princeton University Press, 464pp, £27, Oldie price £18.53 inc p&p
‘The distinguished historian Konrad Jarausch’s new book is a German narrative, told through the stories of ordinary people who lived through his chosen period,’ Jonathan Steinberg wrote in the Spectator. Six dozen Germans – mostly from the generation born in the 1920s – testify through their memoirs to how it was to live through the tumultuous 20th century in Germany. ‘And what a rich topic this is!’ exclaimed Hester Vaizey in THE, ‘So much happened during this time: defeat in two world wars, a Holocaust, two different types of dictatorship, a wall dividing Germany into two countries and then reunification, leading to an East German chancellor elected in a country that is the strongest economic power in Europe.’
Vaizey described Jarausch as ‘a master of his craft’ and ‘a class act as a researcher. Each pronouncement is carefully weighed and underpinned with evidence. His thorough, considered approach epitomises social history at its very best.’
Steinberg is more sceptical. ‘Is there any way to say with certainty what they really did,’ he asked, ‘what they added to their memoirs or erased and left out? This is a particularly unsettling question when it comes to the Nazis. Jarausch quotes from diaries and postwar recollections, but there is no way to know if those who were active Nazis tell the truth in their diaries.’
Certainly we see in the Nazi era young men transformed into killing machines, while women supplied half the votes for the Nazi party and much of the public enthusiasm. Most poignant was the Jewish boy who realised that with the coming of the Nazis, his parents could no longer protect him.