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Sebastian Haffner
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Defying Hitler: A Memoir Paperback – August 1, 2003

by Sebastian Haffner (Author), Oliver Pretzel (Translator)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 938 ratings
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Written in 1939 and unpublished until 2000, Sebastian Haffner's memoir of the rise of Nazism in Germany offers a unique portrait of the lives of ordinary German citizens between the wars. Covering 1907 to 1933, his eyewitness account provides a portrait of a country in constant flux: from the rise of the First Corps, the right-wing voluntary military force set up in 1918 to suppress Communism and precursor to the Nazi storm troopers, to the Hitler Youth movement; from the apocalyptic year of 1923 when inflation crippled the country to Hitler's rise to power. This fascinating personal history elucidates how the average German grappled with a rapidly changing society, while chronicling day-to-day changes in attitudes, beliefs, politics, and prejudices.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    320 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Picador
  4. Publication date
    August 1, 2003
  5. Dimensions
    5.37 x 0.93 x 8.33 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0312421133
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0312421137
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“An astonishing memoir...vividly convey[s] the texture of life under an emerging totalitarian regime... [a] masterpiece.” ―The New York Times Book Review

“A masterpiece...has more to say about the enduring enigma of Hitler's Reich than almost anything else in the voluminous modern literature on the subject.” ―Commentary

“Haffner is like the guide of Dante's Inferno, tracing the slow descent into Nazism in intimate detail...Compelling... Fresh, immediate, and wonderfully personal...An absorbing book.” ―Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“The prophetic insights of a fairly young man...help us understand the plight, as Haffner refers to it, of the non-Nazi German.” ―The Denver Post

About the Author

Sebastian Haffner was born in Berlin in 1907, and died in 1999. In 1938, he was forced to flee to Britain, where he worked as a journalist. In 1954, he returned to Germany and became a distinguished historian and commentator.

Oliver Pretzel, Sebastian Haffner’s son, is the translator of this work.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Picador; Reprint edition (August 1, 2003)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0312421133
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312421137
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.37 x 0.93 x 8.33 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 938 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

Teacher of Teachers
5.0 out of 5 stars Frank and insightful, with an informal, personal style.
Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2017
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The title might make a person (as it did me) initially think this was the memoir of an overlooked resistance member, or perhaps a government or party worker who ended up aiding the fight against Nazism. Rather, it is one man's very personal, and very chilling - yet very analytical - observations of what was happening around him and how it caught up with him and his circle of friends, changing lives, destroying friendships, and causing some, like himself, to finally leave Germany.

He finds that the Nazi phenomenon was made possible by patterns in German history, particularly of the militaristic sort. He describes the excitement of the outbreak of war in 1914 among children like him, and reminds the reader that these children would be adults in their prime as the Nazis grew in significance and promised to rekindle that excitement.

Other topics include Luxemburg and Liebknecht, Rathenau, Bruening, how foreign leaders' appeasement of Hitler repeated German politicians' attempts to tame him the same way, and how some in Germany thought the Hitler chancellorship wouldn't last because he always seemed to be his own worst enemy.

But there are lots of books on all these subjects. What makes this one unique is who wrote it - a fairly ordinary German at the time. He has first-hand encounters with brownshirts, his friends are affected by the new laws and indeed some are endangered by the new regime. But another of his friends morphs into a committed Nazi. (Indeed this aspect of the memoir made me think of the Eugene Ionesco play, Rhinoceros.)

He defends the value of his memoir by once or twice reminding the reader that it is precisely because his experiences were common that it is important that someone write them down. Later in the book he writes:

"If you read ordinary history books...you get the impression that no more than a few dozen people are involved...According to this view, the history of the present decade is a kind of chess game among Hitler, Mussolini, Chiang Kai-Shek, Roosevelt, Chamberlain, Daladier, and a number of other men whose names are on everybody's lips...It may seem a paradox, but it is nonetheless the simple truth, to say that on the contrary, the decisive historical events take place among us, the anonymous masses. The most powerful dictators, ministers, and generals are powerless against the simultaneous mass decisions taken individually and almost unconsciously by the population at large."

The book does cut off rather suddenly. He never finished it.

Incidentally, this modest little book indicates that the reality of Hitler's murderous intentions toward the Jews was obvious to even an ordinary person.

The book is exceptionally well written, with an informal, personal style that sometimes addresses the reader directly. Frank and insightful. Highly recommended.
49 people found this helpful
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Portnoy the Complainer
5.0 out of 5 stars A classic that fits our times.
Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2024
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A plain language account of the growth of Naziism in Berlin in the 30s that sparkles with the kind of social, political and moral insight America in 2024 lacks.
One person found this helpful
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J C Hamlett
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read
Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2022
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Excellent read.
If you have interest in the events in pre nazi Germany
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Mr. Z
5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful Memoir on Hitler's Rise to Power
Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2013
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I once read this memoir back in 2008, using a friend's copy, and over the years, I have been meaning to read it again because of its remarkable observations and enduring insights, so recently, I purchased it as my very own copy. Growing up, I often learned about the Second World War and a very evil man who goes by the name of Hitler and his ruthless gang of Nazis, but I had never really learned why or how Nazis came into being. Why did they do the things that they did and why weren't they stopped or resisted by the common German people? There was no sense of psychological understandings or insights into such people until I read this memoir by Sebastian Haffner. Not only is it an autobiographical but also a political analysis of Germany before the Second World War.

This book was written in 1939 in order to make a living in England after leaving Germany, but Haffner abandoned it to write a new book on the subject of the Nazi Germany during the outbreak of war. That new book was titled  Germany: Jekyll and Hyde: An Eyewitness Analysis of Nazi Germany . It wasn't until after Haffner's death in 1999 that this 1939 book was discovered by his son, Oliver Pretzel, who eventually translated and published this book (forty chapters; around 300 pages). I am very glad that he did.

Haffner began his memoir with the year 1914 up to 1933 to which his eyewitness account gives us a very real picture of Germany in periods of changes: the Great War, Revolution of 1918-19, the Weimar Republic, the inflation, the rise of the Nazis and the Hitler Youth movement, the Reichstag fire, the increasing hatred of Jews, and Hitler's rise to power. It is a story of a duel, as the author wrote in his prologue - a story of struggles between an individual and the state during these years. Even though he was classified as an "Aryan" by the Nazis, he despised the Nazi regime. The name of the title may be referred to the idea of keeping his mind free of Nazi ideology, refusing participation in the senseless crimes, and helping those being victimized by the regime - all of which considered to be defying Hitler himself.

Several descriptions of social changes and extremely rapid and violent breakdown of personal freedoms and laws are profoundly disturbing to read because when thugs are in charge, a resistance becomes a non-existence. It's also very difficult to avoid seeing the obvious comparative similarities with certain countries of today.

The writing style is fairly easy to read (even though it can be wordy at times) with such clarity. This memoir sheds a remarkable light on the most horrendous and insidious period in German history. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone whose interests are in German history or in the Second World War as well to understand what happens when one is living under a totalitarian state. It's truly a rare read.

This memoir can be read along with Arendt's  The Origins of Totalitarianism , Lobaczewski's  Political Ponerology  and two films:  The Nazis: A Warning From History  and  V for Vendetta .
10 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Mr. D. James
5.0 out of 5 stars 'Don't let's be beastly ...'
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 20, 2019
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Haffner, Sebastian. Defying Hitler.

Defying Hitler is the most penetrating examination of the rise of the Nazi movement, written secretly by a German citizen who survived the horrors of living in Germany throughout the Second World War. This book, published ultimately by the author’s son, has, since 2001, become available in English. The story is of a most unpromising Austrian youth who ultimately held the fate of millions in his hands and it has long craved further explication. At last we have reached the heart of the matter. We close the book gasping ‘If only ...’

This memoir avoids the author’s real name, Raimund Pretzel, and was covertly begun in 1939 just before the Second World War got really underway, and the book was first published under the name of Sebastian Haffner, with notes to explain the political situation existing in pre-1933 Germany. I doubt very much if the German nation’s seeming conversion to Angela Merkel’s charitable invitation to foreigners can possibly wipe out or even mitigate what seems to have become a national characteristic – the German devotion to an ideal of power and self-aggrandisement, but I could be wrong. After all, it is always unwise to generalise about national traits, but nevertheless we are all inclined to do this, and ‘fighting anti-Semitism’ as we call it is likely to be a perpetual battle, almost as deeply grounded as sporting insults that begin with the innocent wearing of team colours.

Be that as it may, Haffner is remarkably honest in having plenty of harsh words to say about his own people. He is bold enough to say, ‘Most Germans are subjugated, “comraded” and self-satisfied, terribly happy but demeaned, but so terribly loathsome, so proud and yet so despicable and inhuman.’ And further on in the book, ‘The idealisation of proficiency for its own sake is a German vice, the Germans think it is a German virtue.’ (Now I think I can perhaps understand Boris Becker’s need to make a comeback on the tennis court). Maybe more than a grain of truth in it, but I can also understand Haffner’s point of view, while at the same time I’m not sure I can agree with the reasoning behind it. We are all human enough to enjoy victory but become bored or even disgusted at excessive marching and victory parades. The Triumph of the Will is not exactly our favourite movie, while extending its message to a whole nation and beyond seems to me somewhat excessive.
4 people found this helpful
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C. MacCallum
5.0 out of 5 stars THE book to read on the rise of Nazism in Germany
Reviewed in Canada on March 14, 2015
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I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's the most insightful personal memoir of what it was like to live through the slow but relentless transformation of German society as Hitler rose to power. Haffner traces his childhood into young adulthood, living through the first world war, seeing in it the seeds of the trauma which made Germany so vulnerable to Nazi ideology. It is a terrifying read, as the threads of these developments can easily be seen in Western society today. They will lead to the same disastrous outcome. A MUST read for anyone concerned about today's world. Forewarned is forearmed. Get it today!
2 people found this helpful
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Mica
4.0 out of 5 stars slight problem with my book
Reviewed in France on June 6, 2015
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Extraordinary book - lively style, amazing lucidity. Unfortunately, 30 missing pages in the middle (my book must have been a reject) and it is an unfinished work. I feel cheated.
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riverrun
5.0 out of 5 stars A memoir describing the rise of fascism that should be read now more than ever
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 2, 2022
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This is one of the most interesting and compelling books I have read. Haffner describes his experience of the First World War as a child in Germany, and his years growing up witnessing the rise of Hitler and fascism. His analysis of the why and the how as his life develops is absorbing and fascinating. This is a gripping personal story, not a history book, and it doesn't take long to read - give it a go!

His personal journey is always interesting, but for me - as a reader in the 2020s - the most striking things about this book are his observations on how Hitler, despite being a nasty joke figure initially, took power: by vilifying a minority in harsh and violent language, by bending, changing or subverting the constitution to gain control, by applauding the violent deeds of sympathetic spirits without recrimination, but above all by promising something (something terrible for the world) that filled a wound in the soul of the people and establishing all of that by eliminating opposition by creating a (well-justified) fear of speaking out. This book is as relevant today as it was on the day it was written.
One person found this helpful
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Lech Lesiak
5.0 out of 5 stars Germany between the wars
Reviewed in Canada on June 16, 2020
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Great read.
It 's the memoir of a German who was a law student and then lawyer in the 30's in Germany.
He was opposed to what what happening and left the country.
One person found this helpful
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