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    Travelers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism: 1919-1945
    Travelers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism: 1919-1945
    Travelers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism: 1919-1945
    Audiobook13 hours

    Travelers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism: 1919-1945

    Written by Julia Boyd

    Narrated by Christa Lewis

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    This fascinating and shocking history of the rise of the Nazis draws together a multitude of expatriate voices-even Charles Lindbergh and Samuel Beckett-into a powerful narrative charting this extraordinary phenomenon.

    Without the benefit of hindsight, how do you interpret what's right in front of your eyes?

    The events that took place in Germany between 1919 and 1945 were dramatic and terrible, but there were also moments of confusion, of doubt-even of hope. How easy was it to know what was actually going on, to grasp the essence of National Socialism, to remain untouched by the propaganda, or predict the Holocaust?

    Travelers in the Third Reich is an extraordinary history of the rise of the Nazis based on fascinating first-hand accounts, drawing together a multitude of voices and stories, including politicians, musicians, diplomats, schoolchildren, communists, scholars, athletes, poets, fascists, artists, tourists, and even celebrities like Charles Lindbergh and Samuel Beckett. Their experiences create a remarkable three-dimensional picture of Germany under Hitler-one so palpable that the listener will feel, hear, even breathe the atmosphere.

    These are the accidental eyewitnesses to history. Disturbing, absurd, moving, and ranging from the deeply trivial to the deeply tragic, their tales give a fresh insight into the complexities of the Third Reich, its paradoxes, and its ultimate destruction.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJan 10, 2019
    ISBN9781977336767
    Travelers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism: 1919-1945
    Author

    Julia Boyd

    Julia Boyd is the author of Travelers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism through the Eyes of Everyday People. Her previous books include A Dance with the Dragon: The Vanished World of Peking's Foreign Colony; The Excellent Doctor Blackwell: The Life of the First Woman Physician; and Hannah Riddell: An Englishwoman in Japan. As the widow of a former diplomat, she lived in Germany from 1977 to 1981. She now lives in London.

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    Reviews for Travelers in the Third Reich

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    • 4/5
      Myopia of the Moment

      Time and the critical eye of historians brings perspective often lacking at the time events occur. That is one of the takeaways from Julia Boyd’s intriguing exploration of the rise and fall of Nazi Germany through the eyes of visitors from 1919 to 1945. These visitors included British and American citizens, as well as one Chinese graduate student. Visitors were vacation goers who loved the landscape and culture of Germany, as well as the value it represented right up to the start of WWII. For the most part, though, visitors were politicians, intellectuals, and students, individuals you would hope to have been more acute observers, people attuned to the politics of a country, and thus able to tell when they are being seduced and hoodwinked. Not so in most cases, especially prior to at least 1938, when Hitler’s and Germany’s march to war became more apparent, and the persecution of the Jews outright and undisguised.

      If you’ve read the history of the period and of Germany in particular, you understand how Hitler used the anger of Germans over WWI and its aftermath, as well as Germany’s long volkish history that included a very strong current of antisemitism, to beguile them with visions of greatness to surpass that of the past. (Readers might like to try George Mosse’s The Crisis of German Ideology: Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich, one of the best studies of the subject.) These resentments come through loud and clear in the conversations related by travelers. Too, the level of antisemitism might startle some modern types, especially that expressed by the travelers, politicians, intellectuals, and students alike.

      That observers quoted in this volume could not see German military intent even before 1936 will strike readers as surprising, especially when you read about a population in uniform, people, young and older, marching here, there, and everywhere, while singing patriotic songs. You would have to ask yourself: what were they practicing for, what would this uniformity of behavior lead to? Often, you’ll read accounts of young people holidaying in the mountains encountering troops of Hitler youth groups practicing military techniques, including stealth assault employing camouflage.

      While this book has garnered a large international readership, here in the U.S. it appears little read. Yet, it should be better known to Americans, because it’s loaded with information on the power of propaganda, the myopia of observation in the moment, how quickly people can fall prey to totalitarians who promise to restore the past, and make the future even better, and how readily the dominant populace can succumb to scapegoating. Even casual readers will find themselves drawing parallels to our own current situation.

      Recommended to all readers, and as a welcome addition to the bookshelves of readers of German history and the Nazi era.
    • 5/5
      More from my Odyssey into the Third Reich.

      A bunch of firsthand accounts of what was happening in Germany from the 30s right up to the war.

      Also highlights how much Hitler was admired by the British Establishment both low and high born. In fact by almost all Establishments.

      I got a palpable sense of what gripped Germany and how it gave new life to broken nation. What they did with that is something else. It is amazing how all those proponents of Hitler developed amnesia after the war both low and high born. You’d think that he alone was the culprit and that he succeeded as far as he did in spite of the towering opposition he faced.

      The truth is he had wide support from all sides and it was only the Russians that stopped him.

      If it wasn't for Stalin we'd all be speaking German and me and my entire family would have been cleansed into non-existence.

      One of the points made strongly in this book is how visitors to Germany were taken in by his propaganda machine or simply refused to see what was right in front of their eyes.

      I think it also opens up the idea that many people shared his ideas about the Jews. Something borne out in David Cesarani’s definite book, Final Solution: The Fate of the Jews 1933–1949. In fact anyone interested in this period should read David Cesarani’s book to get over the misinformation from all sides about where they all stood both at this point in history and later.

      Informative without being preachy.
    • 4/5
      There are countless books on World War 2, from serious and weighty tomes, stories of daring do and detailed explanations of pivotal moments that changed the course of a continent. Whilst there has been lots of analysis about the failings of the post-World War 1 reparations and oppression by the victors led to the problems that Germany found itself in, there has been very little written about the way it was rapidly changing from the perceptive of holidaymakers and visitors to the country.

      In Travellers in the Third Reich, Julia Boyd has documented the turmoil that Germany was in as seen through the eyes of the people that visited the country in the interwar period. Collecting together their stories and accounts we learn how the particular set of circumstances led to the political rise of an obscure Austrian, who had once been tried for treason. As Hitler gained in popularity, the twisted message that he was broadcasting became a cult movement. This fervent following he had at the huge rallies to hear his vitriolic speeches, scared some visitors and yet others from the British establishment were embracing this dystopia.

      After gaining political power, it didn't take long for him to seize total control and begin to roll out the nationalist policies across the country. The people that were drawn to Germany at this time came from all walks of life and saw the way that it was changing, but there were glimpses of the persecution that was starting to happen across the country as the vision of the Aryan ideal was implemented. The Olympics were the point where the Third Reich could showcase itself on the world stage and athletes and visitors where shown a sanitised country. Those that managed to peer behind the scenes though, were startled and horrified by what they saw.

      This book has stories from a diverse range of people, schoolchildren, musicians, tourist and the political classes that were in and travelling through Germany in the 1930's. At the time there was a certain amount of complacency as to what was happening there, but with hindsight it is easy to see the way things were going, the secret war preparations, buses that could be converted into armed troop carriers, arrests and the terrifying events that were unfolding if they had taken a few moments to look beyond the veneer. It is the human angle that makes this such a fascinating book, the family from Bournemouth on holiday who bump into Hitler whilst on a walk and take a snap, the couple who are moved to take the disabled child of a Jewish mother out of the country to give her a chance of life and two lads realising that they were cycling very close to the concentration camp of Dachau by accident. It is a fascinating book, full of detail on a country that stepped into the abyss and almost took the whole of Europe with it. There are echoes in here that have a resonance today and we would be wise to remember.
    • 4/5
      This book is full of individual impressions both private and public. It's notable for the breadth of of its scope, and the range of travellers and resident non-Germans whose contemporary impressions are featured. It covers a period from 1919 through to 1945: the starting section for the immediate post-World-War-1 and Weimar republic period is just as revealing as anything else. Julia Boyd relates personal reactions to things you might expect - The Nuremberg rallies, Kristallnacht and persecution, The 1936 Berlin Olympics, the Austrian Anschluss, the Munich agreement. She also includes events with a lower profile - the Winter Olympics, cultural events and the personalities involved, fleeting impressions of visitor reaction to the exhibition of "Degenerate Art", many personal appearances by Hitler witnessed throughout the country. Those are only the high-profile parts - there are many more accounts of individual encounters and experiences - and of everyday life, where travellers stayed, what people wore, what they ate, who they met. Sometimes the more striking things crop up in in passing - an observation that bailiffs have been stopped from seizing radios, or travellers having to decide if "To Heil or not to Heil" is a matter of social etiquette or personal conviction. Well worth the time it takes to read.
    • 5/5
      Travellers in the Third Reich – Germany Invites YouJulia Boyd has written what has to be one of the most fascinating books of the using new material for private collections and archives around the world. She also asks the poignant question of without the benefit of hindsight, how do you interpret what’s right in front of your eyes? Clearly not an easy question to answer, but one Julia Boyd sets out to do with Travellers in the Third Reich.Looking back as we do, it is hard for people today to understand why anyone would want to visit Germany, the Great War was over, the perception was Germany was to blame, the economy was weak and had collapsed, yet people still visited. During the 1930s Germany was a popular destination for British and American tourists, which also inspired people such as WH Auden and Christopher Isherwood.What this book does do is describe what happened in Germany between the wars, and is based entirely on first-hand accounts written by foreign visitors to the country. There is also a sense of what it was actually like to visit the country, both physically and emotionally. As Boyd points out a large array of celebrities passed through such as Charles Lindbergh, Francis Bacon, Samuel Beckett and David Lloyd George. Add to this war veterans, academics, journalists, artists, Olympic athletes and the England football team.From the poverty that the Germans were living in, and this includes a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria, Princess Margaret of Prussia to the ordinary German. With witnesses to how the pain for the Germans got worse especially with the riots and revolutionary behaviour. After the Munich Beerhall Putsch, the French asked about the National Socialist Party and an Aloysius Hitler, and the British response was there was nothing to be alarmed about. There are also the wonderful descriptions of some of the adventures and encounter some of the travellers had, and as Boyd note “There was no question that Berlin offered its visitors – especially the Anglo-Saxons – sexual and intellectual adventures unobtainable in their own countries”. It must also be remembered that Rupert Brooke wrote Grantchester in Berlin at this time.What does come through the book is that if the British and Americans were relatively popular visitors to Germany, especially in the Weimar years, the French were not. There are also descriptions of President Hindenburg, who was half hidden by a curtain after he had inaugurated Hitler as Chancellor, as he received the plaudits from below while saluting the crowd. There are some wonderful descriptions of that day. Weeks after an English journalist notes that they were confronted everywhere by election propaganda. Throughout the book there are excellent portraits of Germany pained by the travellers including the old soldiers, the literary set and those from academia. There are some interesting descriptions in the chapter that deals with Germany as it became an Academic Wasteland, with the exclusions and the lack of rights for the Jews.This really is an interesting book, looking at Germany without the use of hindsight is a challenge, and sometimes makes you want to scream about not being able to see what is right in front of you, to many of the visitors. This will fascinate readers and is well written and well researched and oddly a great read, in spite of the subject matter.