cover image Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition, and Racism in Everyday Life

Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition, and Racism in Everyday Life

Detlev J. K. Peukert. Yale University Press, $50 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-300-03863-7

In this quirky survey of daily life in the Third Reich, Peukert, who teaches at the University of Essen, attempts to help readers ""understand better a generation which it would be unjust (and unhelpful for learning lessons for the future) to condemn . . . .'' The raw material he presentssuch as circulation statistics in libraries following the public book-burnings and a judge's official view of ``negative human material'' and what should be done about ``it''is more useful to historians than to general readers. Although he discusses the origins of the Nazis' deadly enmity toward homosexuals and ``the facists' stereotyped fantasies of violence,'' quoted citations make the deeper impression: Himmler's decree banishing ``young swing fans'' to a concentration camp, for example, or diary records of dreams by German citizens intent on avoiding conscious confrontation with the sinister effects of National Socialist policies. Illustrations. (May)