The Nazi State and German Society A Brief History with Documents

by Moeller, Robert G.

• ISBN13: 9780312454685
• ISBN10: 0312454686
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-08-21
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

The Nazi State and German Societyinvites students to view the history of the twentieth century's most infamous totalitarian regime through the voices of people who experienced it. Robert Moeller's comprehensive introduction presents an overview of the Nazi regime, from Weimar to the end of the war, explaining the factors that led millions of ordinary Germans to sacrifice individual rights in the interest of collective goals and national security. The effects of Nazi rule on Aryans, Jews, and other "undesirables" are explored, along with a discussion of why so few people organized against the regime. Over 50 documents from a broad range of perspectives including speeches, memoirs, letters, diaries, and propaganda posters bring this history to life and illustrate the effect of Nazi rule on German society. Document headnotes, a chronology, questions for consideration, and a selected bibliography provide pedagogical support.

Author Biography

Robert G. Moeller (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley) is professor of history at the University of California, Irvine.  His work focuses on the history of Germany in the twentieth century, with an emphasis on social history and women’s history.  His books include War Stories: The Search for a Usable Past in the Federal Republic of Germany (2001), Protecting Motherhood: Women and the Family in the Politics of Postwar West Germany (1993), and German Peasants and Agrarian Politics, 1914-1924: The Rhineland and Westphalia, 1914-1924 (1986). Moeller is faculty advisor for the UCI History Project, a professional development initiative for middle and high school teachers in Orange County, California.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

PART ONE

Introduction: Understanding Nazi Germany

The Weimar Republic and the Rise of the Nazi Party

Life in Nazi Germany

Germany Goes to War

The Persecution of the Jews and the Final Solution

The Limits to Resistance

The Last Days of the Nazi Regime

PART TWO

The Documents

THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC AND THE RISE OF THE NAZI PARTY

1. Adolf Hitler, On His Hopes for Germany in 1914 from

Mein Kampf, 1925

2. Magnus Hirschfeld, Sexual Catastrophes, 1926

3. Elsa Herrmann, This is the New Woman, 1929

4. Adolf Hitler, Anti-Semitic Speech, April 22, 1922

5. Adolf Hitler, On the Use of Mass Meetings from Mein Kampf, 1925

6. Elsbeth Zander, Tasks Facing the German Woman, January 23, 1926

7. Adolf Hitler, Adolph Hitlers Manifesto, September 10, 1930

8. Albert Speer, On Joining the Nazi Movement in 1931, 1969

9. Melita Maschmann, A German Teenager’s Response to the Nazi

Takeover in January 1933, 1963

10. New York Times, Germany Ventures, January 31, 1933

11. Poster Critiquing Hitler, 1932

LIFE IN NAZI GERMANY

12. Reports on the Sources of Working-class Support for

the Nazis and the Limits to Opposition, 1935-39

13. Joseph Goebbels, The Tasks of the Ministry for Propaganda,

March 15, 1933

14. William Shirer, Description of the Nazi Party Rally in Nuremberg,

September 4-5, 1934

15. Concordat between the Holy See and the German Reich, July 2 , 1933

16. Protestant Church Leaders, Declaration of Independence from

the Nazi State, October 21, 1934

17. Adolf Hitler, Opening Address at the House of German Art in

Munich, July 19, 1937

18. Degenerate Music Brochure, 1939

19. New York Times, Report on a Visit to a Reich Prison Camp,

July 26, 1933

20. Gabriele Herz, Description of an Early Concentration Camp for

Women, 1937

21. Reports on Working-class Attitudes Toward the Murder of SA leader Ernest Röhm

22. Adolf Hitler, Speech to the National Socialist Women’s Organization,

September 8, 1934

23. Healthy Parents, Healthy Children! Poster, 1934

24. Jutta Rüdiger, On the League of German Girls, 1939

25. Peter Gay, A Jewish Teenager Remembers the 1936 Berlin

Olympics, 1998

26. Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring,

July 14, 1933

27. SS Security Service, Report Assessing Public Response to the Film I Accuse, January 15, 1942

28. Heinrich Himmler, On the Question of Homosexuality,

February 18, 1937

29. Heinrich Himmler, Fight against the Gypsy Nuisance,

December 8, 1938

30. Otto D. Tolischus and Frederick T. Birchall,

Reports Introduction of Anti-Semitic Laws

31. Marta Appel, Jewish Life after the Nazi Seizure of Power in

1933, 1940 -41

32. Inge Deutschkron, Growing up Jewish in 1930s Germany, 1978

33. David Buffum, Report on Kristallnacht, November 1938

GERMANY GOES TO WAR

34. Adolf Hitler, Speech before the Reichstag, September 1, 1939

35. Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of the National

Character of the German People, On the Re-Germanization of

Lost German Blood, December 1940

36. Melita Maschmann, A German Colonizer of Poland in 1939 or

1940 , 1963

37. Karl Fuchs, A German Soldier’s Letters from France, 1940

38. Field Marshal Walter von Reichenau, Conduct of Troops in

Eastern Territories, October 10, 1941

39. Karl Fuchs, A German Soldier’s Letters from the Eastern

Front, 1941

40. Total War Cover Illustration, 1943

41. Käthe Ricken, Life Under the Bombs, 1943

THE PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS AND THE FINAL SOLUTION

42. Victor Klemperer, Reflections on the Meanings of the Yellow Star

for Jews in Germany in 1941, 1947

43. Jewish Cultural Association of Württemberg, On Deportation,

November 17, 1941

44. Ria Bröring, A German Woman’s Account of Jewish Deportations,

April 23, 1942

45. Description of a Mass Execution of Jews in Ukraine in 1942,1945

46. Heinrich Himmler, Speech to SS Officers in Posen, October 4, 1943

47. Chaim Kaplan, In the Warsaw Ghetto, 1939-42

48. Hirsh Glick, Jewish Partisan Song, 1943

49. Ruth Kluger, A Young Girl’s Lucky Accident at Auschwitz in 1944, 1992

50. Hanna Lévy-Hass, The Bergen-Belsen Concentration

Camp, 1944-45

THE LIMITS TO RESISTANCE

51. National Socialist Reich Youth Leadership, Report on Swing

Dancing as a Form of Resistance, 1942

52. Jokes about the Nazi Regime, 1940 -43

53. The White Rose, Resistance to the Nazi State, 1942

54. Fabian von Schlabrendorff, Account of the Military Conspiracy to

Assassinate Hitler, 1944

55. Soviet Slave Workers in Germany, Anti-Nazi Leaflet, November 27, 1944

THE LAST DAYS OF THE NAZI REGIME

56. Melita Maschmann, The Mobilization of Youth in the Winter 1945, 1963

57. Anna Schwartz, Account of the Entry of Soviet Army Troops into Danzig on March 27, 1945, 1952

58. Gene Currivan, Report on a Visit to a Nazi Concentration Camp Liberated by the U.S. Army, April 18, 1945

59. Adolf Hitler, My Political Testament, April 29, 1945

APPENDIXES

A Chronology of the Rise and Fall of the Nazi State (1914-1945)

Questions for Consideration

Selected Bibliography

Index

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Rewards Program

Currently unavailable