They Thought They Were Free : The Germans, 1933–45

“When this book was first published it received some attention from the critics but none at all from the public. Nazism was finished in the bunker in Berlin and its death warrant signed on the bench at Nuremberg.” That’s Milton Mayer, writing in a foreword to the 1966 edition of __They Thought They Were Free__. He’s right about the critics: the book was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1956. General readers may have been slower to take notice, but over time they did—what we’ve seen over decades is that any time people, across the political spectrum, start to feel that freedom is threatened, the book experiences a ripple of word-of-mouth interest. And that interest has never been more prominent or potent than what we’ve seen in the past year. __They Thought They Were Free__ is an eloquent and provocative examination of the development of fascism in Germany. Mayer’s book is a study of ten Germans and their lives from 1933-45, based on interviews he conducted after the war when he lived in Germany. Mayer had a position as a research professor at the University of Frankfurt and lived in a nearby small Hessian town which he disguised with the name “Kronenberg.” “These ten men were not men of distinction,” Mayer noted, but they had been members of the Nazi Party; Mayer wanted to discover what had made them Nazis. His discussions with them of Nazism, the rise of the Reich, and mass complicity with evil became the backbone of this book, an indictment of the ordinary German that is all the more powerful for its refusal to let the rest of us pretend that our moment, our society, our country are fundamentally immune. A new foreword to this edition by eminent historian of the Reich Richard J. Evans puts the book in historical and contemporary context. We live in an age of fervid politics and hyperbolic rhetoric. __They Thought They Were Free__ cuts through that, revealing instead the slow, quiet accretions of change, complicity, and abdication of moral authority that quietly mark the rise of evil. National Book Award Finalist: Never before has the mentality of the average German under the Nazi regime been made as intelligible to the outsider." — The New York TImes They Thought They Were Free is an eloquent and provocative examination of the development of fascism in Germany. Milton Mayer's book is a study of ten Germans and their lives from 1933-45, based on interviews he conducted after the war when he lived in Germany. Mayer had a position as a research professor at the University of Frankfurt and lived in a nearby small Hessian town which he disguised with the name "Kronenberg." These ten men were not men of distinction, according to Mayer, but they had been members of the Nazi Party; Mayer wanted to discover what had made them Nazis. His discussions with them of Nazism, the rise of the Reich, and mass complicity with evil became the backbone of this book, an indictment of the ordinary German that is all the more powerful for its refusal to let the rest of us pretend that our moment, our society, our country are fundamentally immune. A new foreword to this edition by eminent historian of the Reich Richard J. Evans puts the book in historical and contemporary context. We live in an age of fervid politics and hyperbolic rhetoric. They Thought They Were Free cuts through that, revealing instead the slow, quiet accretions of change, complicity, and abdication of moral authority that quietly mark the rise of evil. Contents 12 PART 1. TEN MEN 14 KRONENBERG 16 November 9, 1638 16 November 9, 1938 24 1. TEN MEN 30 2. THE LIVES MEN LEAD 57 3. HITLER AND I 76 4. "WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE?" 84 5. THE JOINERS 97 6. THE WAY TO STOP COMMUNISM 108 7. "WE THINK WITH OUR BLOOD" 117 8. THE ANTI-SEMITIC SWINDLE 127 9. "EVERYBODY KNEW," "NOBODY KNEW" 138 10. "WE CHRISTIANS HAD THE DUTY" 149 11. THE CRIMES OF THE LOSERS 157 12. "THAT'S THE WAY WE ARE" 165 13. BUT THEN IT WAS TOO LATE 179 14. COLLECTIVE SHAME 187 15. THE FURIES: HEINRICH HILDEBRANDT 200 16. THE FURIES: JOHANN KESSLER 222 17. THE FURIES: FUROR TEUTONICUS 240 PART II. THE GERMANS 248 HEAT WAVE 250 18. THERE IS NO SUCH THING 252 19. THE PRESSURE COOKER 259 20. "PEORIA UBER ALLES" 267 21. NEW BOY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD 272 22. TWO NEW BOYS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD 278 23. "LIKE GOD IN FRANCE" 288 24. BUT A MAN MUST BELIEVE IN SOMETHING 292 25. PUSH-BUTTON PANIC 296 PART III. THEIR CURE AND CURE 300 THE TRIAL 302 November 9, 1948 302 26. THE BROKEN STONES 308 27. THE LIBERATORS 312 28. THE RE-EDUCATION RE-EDUCATED 317 29. THE RELUCTANT PHOENIX 324 30. BORN YESTERDAY 330 31. TUG OF PEACE 334 32. "ARE WE THE SAME AS THE RUSSIANS?" 340 33. MARX TALKS TO MICHEL 343 34. THE UNCALCULATED RISK 351 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 358 AFTERWORD BY RICHARD J. EVANS 360 Ten men -- The lives men lead -- Hitler and I -- "What would you have done?" -- The joiners -- The way to stop communism -- "We think with our blood" -- The anti-semitic swindle -- "Everybody knew." "Nobody knew" -- "We Christians had the duty" -- The crimes of the losers -- "That's the way we are" -- But then it was too late -- Collective shame -- The furies: Heinrich Hilderbrandt -- The furies: Johann Kessler -- The furies: furor teutonicus -- There is no such thing -- Pressure cooker -- "Peoria uber alles" -- New boy in the neighborhood -- Two new boys in the neighborhood -- "Like God in France" -- But a man must believe in something -- Push-button panic -- The broken stones -- The liberators -- The re-educators re-educated -- The reluctant phoenix -- born yesterday -- Tug of peace -- "Are we the same as the Russians?" -- Marx talds to Michel -- The uncalculated risk. Ten men The lives men lead Hitler and I "What would you have done?" The joiners The way to stop communism "We think with our blood" The anti-semitic swindle "Everybody knew." "Nobody knew" "We Christians had the duty" The crimes of the losers "That's the way we are" But then it was too late Collective shame The furies: Heinrich Hilderbrandt The furies: Johann Kessler The furies: furor teutonicus There is no such thing Pressure cooker "Peoria uber alles" New boy in the neighborhood Two new boys in the neighborhood "Like God in France" But a man must believe in something Push-button panic The broken stones The liberators The re-educators re-educated The reluctant phoenix Born yesterday Tug of peace "Are we the same as the Russians?" Marx talks to Michel The uncalculated risk. Interviews with ten former Nazis comprise the core of this penetrating study of the psychological causes of Nazism and their implications for modern Germany.