Book Review: "Seduced by Hitler: The Choices of a Nation and the Ethics of Survival" by Adam LeBor

Seduced by Hitler: The Choices of a Nation and the Ethics of Survival by Adam LeBor

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Amazon Book Description

Drawing on new research and recently declassified documents, authors Adam LeBor, author of Hitler's Secret Bankers, and Roger Boyes, The Times of London correspondent in Berlin, reveal a tapestry of ordinary lives lived under extraordinary circumstances-ranging from subversion and confrontation to passive acceptance and eager complicity.

Seduced by Hitler shows in startling detail how almost every waking hour of Hitler's reign offered insidious choices-from degrees of compromise to outright resistance-to the average German in their interactions with each other and the regime, whether at work, home or leisure.

It may seem impossible to explain how an entire nation could allow itself to be seduced by a man such as Adolf Hitler. By examining the everyday lives of Germans under Nazi rule, the authors propose an explanation more complex, strange and morally ambiguous than one might imagine. In doing so, they bring to life the steady decline in national morality in the Third Reich as the German people let themselves be taken in by Hitler.

A fascinating study of the people and companies who were taken in by Hitler.  The mastermind of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels along with the perfect storm ingredients of a nation in financial ruin and psychological peril, allowed the rabble-rouser, Hitler, to woo a mass population into submission and unwavering loyalty to their supreme leader.  Fear and uncertainty illicit the need and desire for someone to take control and appear to have the answers to right the wrongs and reclaim pride and superiority.  This book looks at the everyday lives of the German people and how, with limited or no access to accurate information as to the true intentions of Hitler and the Third Reich, more and more people were seduced into submission.  Greed played a big factor in the fall of morality and the profiteering of Jewish property.  Public auctions of Jewish goods were held every working day in Hamburg between February 1941 and April 1945.  While the profits went directly into the bank account of the Gestapo, citizens from other nations gobbled up these works of art, antiques, jewels and furs that were confiscated during the round-ups.  This breach in morality became more widespread as more and more citizens of Germany and surrounding European countries felt victimized by the Allied bombings.  A need for material things was a common ploy in winning over the masses.  During Hitler's rise to power, the German people were lured in with programs designed to reward the working class with yearly vacations, family cars and other durable goods.  Becoming a member of the party brought with it a status symbol of belonging to an elite group of powerful people.  Women soon saw it as their duty to their Fuhrer to have more children to further strengthen the Aryan race and better ensure the survival of a 1000 year Reich.  Families were rewarded financially through shopping vouchers based on the number of children born into the family and mothers were awarded medals, The Mother's Cross, when the family reached 4 or more children.  The role of parenting was soon handed over to the leaders of the Hitler Youth.  But not everyone blindly followed Hitler and the Third Reich.  This book also explorers the resistance in occupied countries as well as within Germany itself.  Overall a broad look at the psychology behind the success and then ultimate failure of Hitler and the German Reich.