Confronting Hitler German Social Democrats in Defense of the Weimar Republic, 1929-1933

The stories of the individual men and women who led German Social Democracy's failed efforts to fend off the Nazi onslaught have largely been lost in the wake of the cataclysmic war, the Holocaust, and the division of Europe that followed Hitler's 1933 victory. Confronting Hitler recovers their stories and places them at center stage. In a series of biographical essays focusing on the experiences of ten leading Social Democratic activists, William Smaldone examines their defeat in 1933 from the perspective of individuals enmeshed in political struggle.

William Smaldone is professor of history at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, and author of Rudolf Hilferding: The Tragedy of a German Social Democrat.