Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition, and Racism in Everyday Life

Abstract

This book examines how the German people really lived under the Nazis, and their reactions to the regime, ranging from conformity to outright resistance. The characteristic popular response was not enthusiasm, but a blend of grumbling and accommodation accompanied by a widespread withdrawal into a non-political private life. The author's main theme is to emphasize the ironies, contraditions, conflicts and sheer muddle of Nazism, a combination that allowed the Third Reich to preside not only over the barbarism of the final solution, but also despite Nazism's anti-modernist image, over a process of modernization in the German economy and society. This book examines how the German people really lived under the Nazis, and their reactions to the regime, ranging from conformity to outright resistance. The characteristic popular response was not enthusiasm, but a blend of grumbling and accommodation accompanied by a widespread withdrawal into a non-political private life. The author's main theme is to emphasize the ironies, contraditions, conflicts and sheer muddle of Nazism, a combination that allowed the Third Reich to preside not only over the barbarism of the final solution, but also despite Nazism's anti-modernist image, over a process of modernization in the German economy and society.