Without the benefit of hindsight, how do you interpret what's right in front of your eyes? Hitler ruled Germany between 1933 and 1945 – and the most cultured and technologically advanced country in Europe tumbled into the abyss. But how easy was it to know at the time what was actually going on, to grasp the essence of National Socialism, to remain untouched by the propaganda or predict the Holocaust? Julia Boyd has trawled travellers tales from visitors to Germany in the 1930s – politicians and scholars, musicians and artists, athletes and tourists, celebrities like Charles Lindbergh and Samuel Beckett, and even our own Manning Clark. From the accounts of these accidental eyewitnesses to history, she creates a remarkable three-dimensional picture of Germany under Hitler. 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.
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