Growing Up in Hitler's Germany

[dsetzer]

I have added new content to Werner Mork's account of life in Germany during the Weimar Republic and Hitler's Germany.

Mr. Mork's detailed descriptions of the everyday life and the political milieu are honest and engaging. They help us understand how a sophisticated and civilized people could so easily transition into the national catastrophe that was the Nazi Era.

His story can be found here: http://home.comcast.net/~dhsetzer/Mork/youth/

Those interested in his memoirs of the war years and his life as a private in the Wehrmacht can find those chapters here:

http://home.comcast.net/~dhsetzer/Mork/

[Maxschnauzer]

Very interesting reading, dsetzer. Thanks for posting it.

[Recoome]

Very nice. Do you have anything from between 1933-1942?

[dsetzer]

Yes. There is considerably more to come. Mr. Mork's memoirs comprise over 2,000 pages. He turned 18-yrs old two months before the war started. He immediately tried to enlist, but was turned down by the SS which was overloaded with young men trying to sign up. He eventually got into the regular army in 1939 and was on the English Channel around the time of the Blitz. His ambition was to join the Afrika Korps, was stationed in Italy and Sardinia eventually making it to North Africa where my translations of his wartime experience begins. I do plan to go back and catch up the entire story. Stay tuned....

[JustinYT]

It always surprised me that people have trouble understanding how the German people could let Hitler dupe them an follow him in to total destruction. I once heard a saying that in extreme situations like post WW1 Germany it opens the gate for extremism. A lot of people have said if it werent for Hitler starting the war and what he did to the Jewish people he may have gone down in history as one of the greatest leaders and politicians ever. Another good thing to check out on living in Germany under Hitler is a 2 part documentary the History channel did a couple years ago called the Rise of the Thrid Reich which was the first part and The Fall of the Third Reich second part. It's all archived footage home movies, and other footage from different sources before during and after WW2, along with narration of from what I believe were people's journals, Some of the footage they had on had never been seen on US tv before the show and a lot of it isnt allowed to be showed in Germany today.

[GregSingh]

If somebody is interested in a life story of a young German who was not duped, did not want to enlist and later fight, I recommend memoirs of Bruno J Trappmann - I Deserted Hitler.

A lot of people have said if it werent for Hitler starting the war and what he did to the Jewish people he may have gone down in history as one of the greatest leaders and politicians ever.

That only confirms fact, that majority is usually too lazy to get basic facts right (or read Mein Kampf, for example).
There was no Adolf Hitler without a hatred of the Jews...

[JustinYT]

I think your missing what the point of what I said was, when you look at what Hitler did prior to the war economically, pulling Germany out of the ruined state it was putting people back to work even to the point where everybody got a vacation paid by the state once a year. I think you may have misunderstood what was said, these were historians who said if you take what Hitler did prior to the war an before he went after the Jews, meaning to get Germany back on track he could of gone down as one of the best politicians/leaders. How many others could take a country that was ruined an broken an gotten it back on its feet an to do well probably not many. To understand it you have to look through the lens of what good did he do before he did all his evil an had he not done what he did like starting the war an attempting to kill all Jewish people how does history view him.

[Timmy]

I think your missing what the point of what I said was, when you look at what Hitler did prior to the war economically, pulling Germany out of the ruined state it was putting people back to work even to the point where everybody got a vacation paid by the state once a year. I think you may have misunderstood what was said, these were historians who said if you take what Hitler did prior to the war an before he went after the Jews, meaning to get Germany back on track he could of gone down as one of the best politicians/leaders. How many others could take a country that was ruined an broken an gotten it back on its feet an to do well probably not many. To understand it you have to look through the lens of what good did he do before he did all his evil an had he not done what he did like starting the war an attempting to kill all Jewish people how does history view him.

Even before the war had started the Jews were still persecuted, ranging from the Nuremberg Laws to the Kristallnacht.

Yes, Joachim Fest in his biography of Hitler at the start of the book puts forward the question how the world would view Hitler if he had died in 1938.

Some people don't think Hitler was evil. Evil is subjective, like all description words.

It's not just as black and white as to say "Hitler started the war", sure he invaded Poland and that was the trigger but there was more to it than that, you should know this already. Some historians even call the war a phoney war since the British and French did not even help the Poles at all during the whole invasion, so much for their assistance and aid.

Some historians question the notion that Hitler wanted a war in the first place:

"The last thing Hitler wanted was to produce another great war. His people, and particularly his generals, were profoundly fearful of any such risk - the experiences of World War One had scarred their minds." - Sir. Basil Liddell Hart, The History of the Second World War

"Of all the Germans, Believe it or not, Hitler is the most moderate as far as Danzig and the Corridor are concerned." - Sir, Neville Henderson, British Ambassador to Berlin, 16th August, 1939

"The state of German armament in 1939 gives the decisive proof that Hitler was not contemplating general war, and probably not intending war at all." (Prof AJP Taylor, The Origins of the Second World War, p. 267)

Many other quotes follow the same thought.

[wm]

There was only one true miracle, the post-war German recovery.
Germany was in trouble before Hitler's time but wasn't ruined, and the economy was recovering when he became Chancellor of Germany. He exploited that recovery, borrowed heavily on the future of Germany, and he (or rather Hjalmar Schacht) quite ingeniously optimized the economy for autarky.
But Germany didn't need the borrowing and autarky - both were short term, unsustainable remedies.
Evermore, the new wealth was sank in weapons, and weapons from an economic point of view are unprofitable, pure loss - unless sold or used...

Below the postwar miracle compared with the Hitler's recovery (the red line - after 1933). Hitler's recovery is visibly less steep than the postwar one, and not that much different from the earlier, in the 1920s.

germany.jpg (21.19 KiB) Viewed 1952 times

[JustinYT]

Yes the Jews were persecuted before any fighting broke out, but in many countries you have had people who were persecuted like black people here in America, they were segregated, lynched an other terrible things, the jim crow laws, it wasnt illegal to lynch black people till like the 50's which just is crazy. But none of the great US Presidents like Wilson Roosevelt Truman have been looked down up on for not changing how things were here in the states, or had their achievements overshadowed by it. So governments and leaders can do whats viewed as good or great things and allow or do other things that are just bad an not be looked down upon. Even America and some of the Allied countries like Britain have some stake in what happened to the Jews, I know an ocean liner with at least 2,000 Jewish refugees who fled Germany were turned away from coming here an eventually had to return to Germany. I can see how the invasion of Poland was considered a phoney war since no body came to help, it wasnt until the Germans invaded Belgium on their way to France that it became serious to the others. What helped Hitler win the German people over when it came to war was the strong and complete victories they had achieved in Poland and especially against France who made it their prime to humiliate Germany after the first war, I guess you could say it was those early victories that ultimately sealed their defeat, because I wonder would Hitler had pushed on if they didnt achieve those sound victories and the German people would of bucked against the idea of more fighting?

Hi WM thanks for the info on that, that definitely sheds a new light on things, but from what I've seen read etc.. the people of Germany still saw him as the savior of Germany even if they didnt see the true facts, but when you control what people hear and read you can pull the wool over their eyes.
You guys should check out the Rise and the Fall of the Third Reich seeing those home movies and other footage redone in HD was like stepping back in time in pre WW2, during, an post WW2 Germany

[Timmy]

Indeed JustinYT, the German people were not at all happy about the outbreak of the war in 1939 but following Hitler's quick victories the Germans thought of him as some sort of God (this is mentioned in the documentary "The fatal attraction of Adolf Hitler"), when he defeated France and came back to Germany it was like a religious ceremony with flowers everywhere etc and the crowds just couldn't believe it... they did not think he could ever be defeated or do no wrong.

With regards to growing up in Hitler's Germany, one person comes to mind... Alfons Heck he does two books which are Child of Hitler: Germany in the Days When God Wore a Swastika and The Burden of Hitler's Legacy, both are great reads and give you a true insight in what it felt like to be a member of the Hitler Youth and actually listen to Hitler speak in real and not just over the internet, it becomes very evident how he could get the whole nation behind him.

"For minutes on end, we shouted at the top of our lungs, with tears streaming down our faces: "Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil!"

[JustinYT]

Timmy, yeah I think I've seen Alfons Heck in a documentary before not 100% sure if it was him, but the man was a Hitler youth member he was at the Nuremberg rally grounds recalling the huge rallies they'd have, an he was attempting to try an explain the power Hitler had over people. The man said he now could not understand how Hitler was able to put them under the spell he did but that at that time there was nothing they wouldnt do for him, which is very much what I've read an seen in other documentaries that people always say he had this kind of power over people that was indescribable

[Timmy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC3QCkg_WUc

Hitler Youth and Alfons Heck start 7.20+ on the video.

Alfons Heck even admits he still believed in Hitler and the Third Reich long after the defeat in 1945.

I think a lot of people recognise that Hitler had a mysterious look about him, he was able to spell bound people just by his speeches alone. I can't think of many other leaders who have been able to capture a whole nation like Hitler. Millions upon millions adored him, in that documentary later on one man even says he wanted to die for him and seen him as some sort of God sent by Providence (this is what Hitler believed himself).

There's quite a few books written by people who grew up during the Hitler Germany period.

[JustinYT]

Yeah I don't know of too many other leaders or any other leader period that was able to wrap a country around his finger the way Hitler did. Hitler also did things prior to the beginning of the war that put him in a good light in the eyes of the German people, some can say he took credit for a recovering economy that was supposedly on the rise in Germany, but living in the US even after our great recession in 07 08 09 even when the economy began to recover it didnt always look like it. With that said, what Hitler did or took credit for in the economy as well as other things that he was able to do in re-installing in being proud to be a German post WW1, which many people after the first war lost due to loosing how they did and the humiliation they suffered from the treaty of Versailles, and many believed Germany would never recover. Then those quick an overwhelming victories in 39 40 an even early 41 in Russia obviously cemented his sent from God savior status

[Timmy]

Yeah I don't know of too many other leaders or any other leader period that was able to wrap a country around his finger the way Hitler did. Hitler also did things prior to the beginning of the war that put him in a good light in the eyes of the German people, some can say he took credit for a recovering economy that was supposedly on the rise in Germany

"In 1932, one year before Hitler's rise to power, unemployment had been at over five and a half million, but by 1938 Germany was producing at record levels, and unemployment was below 200,000 and real wages were up for the first time since authoritarianism."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_%22Hit ... h#Overview

Before the war Hitler did indeed bring back Germany out of the depression.