Trout Library Blog

I would like to recommend that people read Defying Hitler: A Memoir, by German author and historian Sebastian Haffner.

The book is available in the Narratives section of the Library.

Born in 1907, Haffner (a.k.a. Raimund Pretzel) recounts his childhood and youth in Germany through 1933 – covering World War I, Germany’s defeat and the revolutions that followed, the period of the Weimar Republic, and Hitler’s rise to power. Much of the book focuses on the events of 1933 and what Germany was like during the first months of the Third Reich. Haffner describes himself as politically centrist and was very much opposed to the Nazis, the hate they espoused, and their populist demagoguery. The reader has the opportunity to see, from the perspective of the average citizen, how evil and authoritarianism gradually overtook a seemingly advanced society – largely through the democratic process. The psychology involved in what Hannah Arendt defined as the banality of evil becomes apparent as Haffner describes interactions with his contemporaries and a growing police state. Although Haffner was not Jewish, he had many Jewish acquaintances whose experiences he brings into sharp focus.

Haffner became romantically involved with a Jewish woman (later his wife) who fled to Great Britain in 1938. The author soon followed her, and he wrote Defying Hitler in 1939 while in exile. He had originally planned to write about the years through 1938, but he abandoned the work when the Second World War broke out and never went back to it. The book was not published until 2000 after his son had discovered the manuscript following the author’s death. Haffner never knew that this work would be published and therefore did not have the opportunity to make any adjustments to the text based on events after 1939.

Why read this book? First, written as a narrative, it is easy to follow and not a dry historical text. It brings the history of this very important period to life. Second, the material pertains to more than simply German history, but rather provides timeless lessons. In many instances, the book anticipates future events that were unknown to the author when he wrote it. While I was reading Defying Hitler, I was stopped in my tracks many times by parallels to the present day. It reminded me of the quote: History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes.