Nazi Terror: The Gestapo, Jews, and Ordinary Germans

by Eric A. Johnson

Book Overview

Eric Johnson's exhaustive new history tackles the central aspect of the Nazi dictatorship - terror - head on. By focusing on the role of the individual and on the role of the society in making terror work, he is able to definitively and dramatically answer such questions as these: Who were the Gestapo officers? Were they merely banal paper shufflers, as Hannah Arendt depicted Eichmann, or were they recognizably evil? What tactics did they use? Were...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465049087
• ISBN13: 9780465049080
• Release Date: December 2000
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 664 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Scribbling all through the book.

I received this book and it is full of what looks like a child scribbling through the book. Some places are so bad you can’t even read it. Would like a replacement if possible. Very unhappy with this purchase.

Good

This is a book which was written over ten years by an Academic who traveled to Germany. He has tried to work out what it was like to live in Nazi Germany and how the organs of a police state would have affected day to day life. His methodology consisted of a number of surveys of people who lived through the Nazi period in two German cities and supplemented this by looking at Gestapo files and court records. The study is interesting for a number of reasons. Immediately after the war, large numbers of Germans used the excuse of living in a police state as a means of providing an explanation for war crime guilt. The reality is that the repressive mechanisms of the German state were reasonably modest. The number of Gestapo operatives in the city of Cologne was 14. The use of informers slightly increased that reach. In more recent years a number of books have come out which suggest that the German public were reasonably committed to the ideals of the Nazi regime, and as a result the notion of an all encompassing police state was something of a myth. (For instance Hilter's willing executioners for instance)This book describes the Gestapo in action. It would seem clear that initially most of the efforts of that agency were aimed at leftist opponents of the regime. Communists were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. After that the Jews and some of the Churches were targeted. The thesis of the writer is that the Gestapo had two different faces. To the German public it was reasonably benevolent. Although it had power to send people to concentration camps for offences such as listening to foreign broadcasts and being critical of the regime, it generally did not do so. In fact it warned most people and dismissed a number of cases. Further in matters in which informers were involved the Gestapo appeared to be reasonably judicial looking carefully at the strength of evidence and to what extent it might be tainted by person antagonism or other factors. With Jews and other groups which were the target of the regime things were different. The surveys undertaken by the author support this view of a reasonably benevolent state. That is a majority of the people surveyed were committed to the values of the state and did not feel a day to day unease about the security organs. All in all an interesting and provocative book which explains the mechanisms of a selective terror.

Sticking to the Facts

Johnson's book is clearly written and very informative. He puts other recent books on the Nazis, especially the Gestapo, in perspective, while providing a great deal of original information that he gleaned from Gestapo files and Nazi court records. He explains the source and nature his data and puts the reader in the position of drawing his own conclusions. He provides a clear, balanced view of the Gestapo and the German people under Hitler without downplaying the horror nor stereotyping any of the groups involved.

An academic book the general public should read

Professor Johnson has written an important academic book which should be read by more than academics. His book avoids some of the more common errors which make books of this type difficult or annoying for the general population to read. Most importantly, Johnson allows the evidence to lead him to conclusions rather than seeking out evidence for some preconceived notion. In addition, he humanizes the stories of victims. Instead of mere numbers, Professor Johnson forces us to see that the Nazis carried out their crimes against real people whose stories he relates with true emotion. Finally, the book attempts to display the range of responses evidenced by "ordinary Germans". Never painting with broad brushstrokes the book still poses uncomfortable questions for the German people about what could have been done had ordinary German citizens, and in particular their religous leaders, responded differently to the Nazis.

A true look at a terrible event in history.

In world history of the 20th century the one event that will forever standout is Nazi Germany and the attempted extermination of the Jewish people. This book takes on that very subject and the over 600 pages is simply one of the best books I have ever read on the subject.Johnson holds nothing back as he shows how one man took a country to the brink of world domination, mislead and lied to the German people and tried to rid the world of one religious group all in the name of power and control.The book details the Nazi Party and the fear tactics, the Nazi regime and the actions of the Gestapo. You'll read, in stunned horror, the atrocities inflicted on a group of people by the Third Reich, from first hand interviews by those who were there. While some of the stories are extremely graphic in nature, the overall book is extremely well written and well researched. I was deeply moved by this book and I am very proud to have had the chance to review it. An excellent book - well done Eric Johnson!

If you treat Goldhagen like a Bible you better read this too

Johnson, a Central Michigan professor and former member of Princeton's Inst of Advanced Study confronts the theses of Hannah Arendt and Daniel Goldhagen, and presents this detailed history of the Gestapo's war on Jews as well as the handicapped, Roma, Communists, Socialists, Sinti, Unionists, and opponents of the totalitarian regime. This is a must read for Holocaust scholars and WWII historians, and raises interesting issues on the role of ordinary Germans, what was known, why the population "ignored" the news, how "ordinary" were the members of the Gestapo, and the use of terror.