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

A must read if you want to compare and contrast the Germans in the 30's and 40's to the USA after 9/11/01. delfring Everyone should read this. Written in the 1950's, but provides a view toward how the common German dealt with the Nazis. The title is much more relevant today because we in the USA have our liberties being slowly taken away, just like the Nazis did to the German people from 1932 to 1945.. "Excellent book very insightful" according to ROBERT RICHTER. Excellent book very insightful, it was very interesting to be told by those who were actually there and saw the evolution of evil and until they looked back they did not understand what had happened. It is remarkable that a small group of powerful people can move an entire nation form democracy to monstrosity without the citizens even knowing how it happened. First the press goes along, then the schools begin to teach the prescribed history, then there is only one party in power, then they get the guns, then they close the meeting halls, then the police enforce the curfews and gathering limits. Eye-opener about how the Nazi Party took over and controlled people Kitty Axelson-Berry Interviews with 10 older Germans who explain why they were supported the Nazis before and during World War II clarify, for me, much of how the German government took over the minds and hearts of "the little people." The Party improved the day-to-day lives of "regular Germans": jobs, safety, healthcare, recreation, positive group identity, positive self-identity. Everyone lived in their own daily lives, focussed on their own families. The methods used included: anti-academic, anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-gypsy, anti-gay propaganda; fear of recrimination, insularity, control of information,

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.. Milton Mayer's book is a study of 10 Germans and their lives from 1933-45, based on interviews he conducted after the war when he lived in Germany. First published in 1955, They Thought They Were Free is an eloquent and provocative examination of the development of fascism in Germany