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cstefko's review against another edition
4.0
4 stars
As always happens when I read a book about history, I'm left saddened by how utterly inadequate my schooling was in that department. And as the author points out in her concluding chapter, such willful ignorance on the part of society has allowed fascism to begin taking root here in the US. It's not a coincidence that right-wing state governments are clamping down on teaching a holistic view of history in favor of promoting pro-America propaganda.
Anyway...
I would recommend this book if you want to learn more about the Holocaust, but especially how the complicity of everyday citizens allowed it to happen in front of them. Schwarz is writing from the perspective of being the descendent of grandparents who were such "mitläufer," and she is pretty realistic/honest when it comes to how much blame she attributes to them and others like them. She then moves on to her father's generation and the start of the "memory work" that continues to this day. Since Schwarz is French-German and was born in France, she is in the unique situation of having experienced both countries' post-war responses through her family and her personal schooling and work life. The French definitely don't come off innocent, let's put it that way. Finally, Schwarz examines the modern rise of fascism in other European countries, such as Italy, Poland, and Austria, as well as England's stubborn refusal to acknowledge its colonial past. I was not surprised to hear that Schwarz was inspired to write this book after the election of Donald Trump. You would have to have your head under a rock to not have noticed the parallels between Trump and past fascist leaders like Hitler, Mussolini, etc.
My only minor complaint about this book is that Schwarz can be repetitive at times, and went off on a few too many tangents about herself and about culture, including a weird paragraph about French vs German poets' conception of love. It wasn't relevant. There were also a few places where I felt like I was being dropped into a new stage of history without enough background information (particularly when she discussed former East Germany), but a lot of that is probably down to my gaps in knowledge. But for the most part, I think she supported her thesis well and certainly illuminated some harsh but necessary truths.
As always happens when I read a book about history, I'm left saddened by how utterly inadequate my schooling was in that department. And as the author points out in her concluding chapter, such willful ignorance on the part of society has allowed fascism to begin taking root here in the US. It's not a coincidence that right-wing state governments are clamping down on teaching a holistic view of history in favor of promoting pro-America propaganda.
Anyway...
I would recommend this book if you want to learn more about the Holocaust, but especially how the complicity of everyday citizens allowed it to happen in front of them. Schwarz is writing from the perspective of being the descendent of grandparents who were such "mitläufer," and she is pretty realistic/honest when it comes to how much blame she attributes to them and others like them. She then moves on to her father's generation and the start of the "memory work" that continues to this day. Since Schwarz is French-German and was born in France, she is in the unique situation of having experienced both countries' post-war responses through her family and her personal schooling and work life. The French definitely don't come off innocent, let's put it that way. Finally, Schwarz examines the modern rise of fascism in other European countries, such as Italy, Poland, and Austria, as well as England's stubborn refusal to acknowledge its colonial past. I was not surprised to hear that Schwarz was inspired to write this book after the election of Donald Trump. You would have to have your head under a rock to not have noticed the parallels between Trump and past fascist leaders like Hitler, Mussolini, etc.
My only minor complaint about this book is that Schwarz can be repetitive at times, and went off on a few too many tangents about herself and about culture, including a weird paragraph about French vs German poets' conception of love. It wasn't relevant. There were also a few places where I felt like I was being dropped into a new stage of history without enough background information (particularly when she discussed former East Germany), but a lot of that is probably down to my gaps in knowledge. But for the most part, I think she supported her thesis well and certainly illuminated some harsh but necessary truths.
laurenkd89's review against another edition
3.0
"I wasn't particularly destined to take an interest in Nazis. My father's parents were neither on the victims' nor the executioners' side. They didn't distinguish themselves with acts of bravery, but neither did they commit the sin of excess zeal. They were simply Mitläufer, people who 'followed the current.' Simply, in the sense that their attitude was shared by the majority of the German people, an accumulation of little blindnesses and small acts of cowardice that, when combined, created the necessary conditions for the worst state-orchestrated crimes known to humanity."
Géraldine Schwarz is a French-German journalist who takes it upon herself to reckon with her family's complicity in the Third Reich. She traces the progression of political, social, and cultural opinions after World War II, showing the tide slowly turning against Nazism. Shockingly, after the war, many "everyday" Germans were quick to deny culpability for the Reich and the Holocaust - they were simply Mitlaufer, a category in the U.S.-occupied section of Germany that meant they were just going along with the tide, supporting some of the NSDAP's beliefs but not taking any strong stance for or against the war. Schwarz is quick to refute this categorization. Although many Germans hid behind the idea that they would be punished for going against the Party and that they were supportive of the NSDAP simply for the economic revitalization and not for the anti-Semitism, countless Germans benefitted from the "Aryanization" of German businesses - the informal practice of boycotting Jewish-owned businesses until they had no choice but to sell to Germans for far below market price. Schwarz's own grandfather was one of these Germans, buying a mineral business from a German Jew at barely face value, then denying all blame when that same German Jew filed a reparations suit against Schwarz's grandfather after the war.
Schwarz's documentation of the history of immediate postwar German "reconstruction" was quite interesting. Most works I've read and watched about WWII basically stop after Potsdam, and hardly focus on the punishments that we all expected to be doled out after the war. You'll learn here that punishments were not doled out, not nearly as many as were deserved - people were scared of being implicated, even non-German officials in France and England.
However, after the first third of the book, I found the narrative to be quite meandering and the timeline a bit hard to follow. Schwarz often goes back and forth between pre-war and post-war history, which I understand is needed to show the gradual process of Aryanization and subtle cultural shifts - but the blending of these timelines makes the story slightly confusing. After going through her German grandparent's history, Schwarz enters into more recent history, discussing her father and aunt's upbringing, then introducing her French mother and her French grandparents' side of the story. I would have preferred it be arranged chronologically, with all of the grandparents' stories first, then her parent's generation, then hers. Schwarz goes quite in depth with the French occupation and collaboration with Germany (sometimes it seems that the French were worse than the Germans here!), but this story wasn't as compelling as the recounting of German history.
I enjoyed this piece of history that I haven't read about before - although it could be dense at times, it is a fascinating story, and one that I hope causes other Germans to interrogate their pasts and reckon with the scars in their family's histories. Thank you to Scribner for the ARC.
jrsbama69's review against another edition
2.0
I found this book to be interesting and to a degree thought provoking initially. However the further I read it began to read like a justification for how the author and the rest of Germany think. The author takes potshots at nearly every other country in the world and chides them for not doing things that German way. Her attack of President Trump is typical of the left wing media and their 4 year hatefest. I do not believe as she appears to that rewriting history through tearing down monuments that are no longer in favor is a good thing. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it is an understatement when compared to those who learn from revised history and act from ignorance. I will not recommend this book to others primarily because I disagree with so much of it.
deebee554's review against another edition
5.0
Could not put this one down. Having read numerous books, both fiction and nonfiction, on WWII I didn’t expect this one to be much different and I couldn’t have been more wrong. Ms Schwarz, in this well-written book, opened my eyes to the cruelties and devastation experienced by the German people as their towns were overtaken by the Nazis during the war.
With her grandfather’s artifacts and her research, she has created a memoir that is extremely interesting and often shocking while grabbing the reader and depositing them inside the apartment buildings as they were targeted by the Allies. I felt as though I were there and could visualize the destruction and emotional turmoil experienced by those who had no where else to go knowing that they could easily be killed while innocently walking down the street. It’s real, sometimes horrific, and needs to be read by every student before they leave high school and every adult who thinks they know what really happened in Europe during WWII.
It was requested that I not publish my review on social media until at least 2 weeks prior to its publication in May 2020.
With her grandfather’s artifacts and her research, she has created a memoir that is extremely interesting and often shocking while grabbing the reader and depositing them inside the apartment buildings as they were targeted by the Allies. I felt as though I were there and could visualize the destruction and emotional turmoil experienced by those who had no where else to go knowing that they could easily be killed while innocently walking down the street. It’s real, sometimes horrific, and needs to be read by every student before they leave high school and every adult who thinks they know what really happened in Europe during WWII.
It was requested that I not publish my review on social media until at least 2 weeks prior to its publication in May 2020.
scrimjm's review against another edition
5.0
I’ll be thinking about this and what it means to be a mitlaüfer for a long time. So much of this resonates in my thoughts about the lack of memory work we have done in the US to account for our own history, and it also makes me think about my own Grandma Inge’s deep shame and probably embarrassment about being German after immigrating to the US after the war.
nomadiclibrary's review against another edition
4.0
This lovely work-in-translation by French-German journalist & documentarian Géraldine Schwarz brands itself partly as a memoir, & it is, but it reads much more like a reference text in it’s clear conveyance of fact & analysis regarding the “Mitläufer” - the “middle people” who bear responsibility for the atrocities of the Second World War & Holocaust, no matter how passive their involvement, & perhaps because of it. Where the memoir bit comes in is through Schwarz’s exploration of this via the lense of her own grandparents, who, while not explicitly fanatical German Nazis, certainly aligned themselves with Nazism either out of naïveté, fear, opportunism, or a combination of these.
This book really surprised me - I was hooked about 30 pages in & read it cover to cover in under 24 hours. I was captivated by the personal family history represented in here, but too, in the clear parallels Schwarz’s study draws to both the American history and the American present - politically & sociologically.
Schwarz examines the Mitläufer of both past and present, including members of her own family, with a frankness & objectivity that lends the story further credibility, and presents with depth & clarity a warning of the dangers of the passivity of the majority of people who fall somewhere in the middle ground between hero and villain - those who may witness crimes against humanity, & turn away in shame.
I was left with a prescient urging to ensure care in examining what our economic systems are justifying by way of human atrocities & violations of life, a testimony to the power of the masses - for better or for worse, & perhaps most impressively, a hope for the balm that responsible & conscious memory work can provide for a society, provided we are diligent about taking it on & passing it on to future generations.
Would highly recommend to anyone seeking answers in the face of rising populist & nationalist movements worldwide, or to anyone interested in a more dynamic & fresh take on WWII & Holocaust History.
This book really surprised me - I was hooked about 30 pages in & read it cover to cover in under 24 hours. I was captivated by the personal family history represented in here, but too, in the clear parallels Schwarz’s study draws to both the American history and the American present - politically & sociologically.
Schwarz examines the Mitläufer of both past and present, including members of her own family, with a frankness & objectivity that lends the story further credibility, and presents with depth & clarity a warning of the dangers of the passivity of the majority of people who fall somewhere in the middle ground between hero and villain - those who may witness crimes against humanity, & turn away in shame.
I was left with a prescient urging to ensure care in examining what our economic systems are justifying by way of human atrocities & violations of life, a testimony to the power of the masses - for better or for worse, & perhaps most impressively, a hope for the balm that responsible & conscious memory work can provide for a society, provided we are diligent about taking it on & passing it on to future generations.
Would highly recommend to anyone seeking answers in the face of rising populist & nationalist movements worldwide, or to anyone interested in a more dynamic & fresh take on WWII & Holocaust History.
whatsnonfiction's review
3.0
I didn’t love this like I thought I would and I feel guilty about it because it seems like one of those books you really should appreciate and that has great historical and cultural significance. But it was just so dry in parts, it read like a textbook! I wasn’t sure I’d stick with it from the first few chapters alone. It does get better, but it was easy to lose the thread of who’s who from all the branches of her family — mother and father’s sides, grandparents from each, I don’t even remember who else. I was always confused. BUT it was completely worth it for the last couple of chapters, especially about the GDR/reunification of Germany and countries that haven’t done the memory work — everything she wrote about Austria is so true, I can’t believe what they’ve gotten away with and things I heard while living there. She writes that they “hid” behind Nazi germany’s crimes and the more unbelievable part of that is that it worked. Eventually they developed the FPÖ, a far-right party that currently governs in a coalition and helped give rise to a far-right party in Germany that’s the first to get as much support as it has since the nazis. When the FPÖ first gained seats in 2000, it drew negative attention worldwide; when they were re-elected in the coalition in 2017, hardly a stir. What she writes about the rise of right-wing populism across Europe, and of course, in America, which she also analyzed incisively, is very upsetting but important.
And her analysis of the refugee crisis and what Merkel had in mind when opening Germany’s borders was also excellent. Some of the bits describing her own experiences are lovely too, it’s just the majority that sort of walks through the Holocaust that was less captivating. I’ve read a lot in that area though, maybe if it’s a less explored subject it won’t feel as dull for others. I dunno. Aside from the last couple of chapters it felt like pretty standard, well-trodden ground history of this time.
And her analysis of the refugee crisis and what Merkel had in mind when opening Germany’s borders was also excellent. Some of the bits describing her own experiences are lovely too, it’s just the majority that sort of walks through the Holocaust that was less captivating. I’ve read a lot in that area though, maybe if it’s a less explored subject it won’t feel as dull for others. I dunno. Aside from the last couple of chapters it felt like pretty standard, well-trodden ground history of this time.
marrije's review against another edition
4.0
Poeh, zware kost. En actueel ook. Jammer dat de vertaling wel érg snel moest.
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