A Village in the Third Reich: How Ordinary Lives Were Transformed By the Rise of Fascism – from the author of Sunday Times bestseller Travellers in the Third Reich

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When we consider Nazi Germany most of the time, we think of the big picture – a crazed demagogue, his relentless warmongering and mass murder.

The thing is, this was a quota, and where there was a shortage of very disabled people, less disabled ones could have been selected for termination and in many cases they were. Reading about the good, the bad, and seeing the total humanity (or lack thereof) in the individuals within Obertsdorf and the surrounding area was enlightening. This one is a stunningly evocative portrait of Hitler’s Germany through the people of a single village. I would thoroughly recommend this book, which arrested my interest from the outset and held it throughout. Hidden deep in the Bavarian mountains lies the picturesque village of Oberstdorf—a place where for hundreds of years people lived simple lives while history was made elsewhere.

This proves to be a very effective prism through which to consider some of the most challenging questions about the Third Reich, in particular about how much ordinary German citizens knew - or cared - about the true atrocities of the Holocaust.

Only the highest of praise goes out to the authors and publishing team for bringing us this amazing book that really brought out my emotions. If you are a history buff, a WWII history enthusiast, or have an interest in the history of Germany and its people, I highly recommend this book to you. It was interesting to learn that several of the village leaders, including one Mayor, outwardly supported the NAZI cause but found ways to circumvent or ignore some of the more stringent dictats emanating from Berlin. We are in the habit of viewing history through the lens of our own culture, with little thought or insight into the lives of those on 'the other side'.The delicacy of his position as a moderate Nazi mayor is illustrated by an anecdote that recounts how during the war he publicly reprimanded a woman for criticising the regime but then privately advised her just to be careful not to say such things to him when others were present. Fink granted them residence permits and did not enforce full registration of their ethnicity, which meant their presence was less obvious to higher authorities. The popular mayor was replaced with a Nazi (who at least had a conscience) and free elections ceased to exist. A new council was imposed on the village with a majority of Nazi councillors, together with a young and ambitious Nazi mayor, one Ernst Zettler.