The Nazi State and German Society A Brief History with Documents

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.

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.

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, 19308. 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 Röhm22. 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, 199826. 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, 194228. 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 Laws31. 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 194036. 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