Life and Death in the Third Reich

Life and Death in the Third Reich by Peter Fritzsche is a nonfiction, chronological account of the rise and fall of Nazism and an exploration into the motivations and complacency of German citizens in WWII. Diaries and letters from the period provide context for Fritzsche's analysis. Harvard University Press published the book in 2008.

Fritzsche focuses first on the question of whether or not German citizens were complicit in the anti-Semitism that formed the Nazi party. He argues that the "doctrines of race guided German policies from the start" and that full German sovereignty was the goal. With train stations shipping Jews to concentration camps and gas chambers, the citizens had an inkling of what was taking place, whether they understood the breadth of the genocide or not. "Jews had largely disappeared, and had they not lost the war, the Germans in the Third Reich would never have seen Jews again."

Fritzsche goes on to describe how the mayor of Auschwitz was aware that a concentration camp was in his territory and that the Jews taken there did not survive. He offers different accounts from German citizens, including one who is resistant to the new regime, one who welcomes it and one who is "surrendering himself [at times] to the embrace of the national community."



Support for the Nazi party, Fritzsche believes, initially came from a combination of things, including coercion, fear, professional ties, and a misunderstanding of the Nazi party's politics. Diaries written during the period confirm that the citizens rationalized the actions of Nazis using "racial coordination of social life." Still, Fritzsche believes that had German citizens been privy to the details of the Final Solution, things might have turned out differently. He writes: "Without specific knowledge of Auschwitz, the killings could be regarded as events and episodes... in a brutal war which did not have the character of systematic or patterned extermination and which could conceivably leave many departed Jews alive."

Following World War I, Nazism, which "promoted an ideal of German life," rang of nationalism at a time when morale was low. The country united against a common "enemy," the contrived "other" of Jewish Germans. This emphasis developed into a need to create a racially-pure Germany and eliminate the "other" within. The acceptance of Nazism was first met with reluctance. A combined discontent with the Weimar Republic, a need for national solidarity, the humiliation leftover from their defeat in WWI, and an extensive propaganda campaign eventually led to the German majority's support of National Socialism. Propaganda was spread through marches and radio broadcasts, and the Third Reich enabled people of lower social classes to obtain positions of power.

To live in Nazi Germany was a perceived balance on the brink of life and death--a side effect of National Socialist beliefs. Jews were portrayed as the cause for German humiliation in WWI and as their imminent failure as a country going forward.



Even as Germans learned more of the fate that was befalling the Jews, they turned inward and protected themselves as the Allies closed in. Many German citizens took an active role in depleting the Jewish population, turning Jews in, stealing and selling Jewish property, and justifying violence against Jews as though they were spies for the Allied forces that were bombing German cities. The absence of Jews later in the war added to the narrative that Jews were to blame for the destruction caused by the war. Fritzsche writes: "When it came to the Jews, many Germans let themselves be bombed into a clear conscience."

When the majority began accepting what Fritzsche calls "racial grooming," the 1935 Nuremberg Laws were put in place to racially categorize German citizens, and literature touting eugenics and genocide was produced. "Genetic reconstruction," the literature claimed, would purify war-torn Germany and create a strong, Aryan race. This led to ideas of colonizing other countries, such as Poland and France.

The Germans were turned into Aryans via projects enacted by ordinary citizens. The Hitler Youth and older youths went to camps meant to mold them into upstanding Aryans, while communists, socialists, "asocials," and disabled youths were separated and sent away.



The German soldiers, too, were fully involved in genocidal tactics. Fritzsche believes that the soldiers must've had an "ideological commitment" rather than just an "ethic of comradeship" as the latter would not warrant the systematic killing of Jews that the soldiers committed. He cites desensitization and a sense of "victory euphoria" in combination with their ideological commitment as the cause of their actions.

The result of the Holocaust changed the world's understanding of mass murder and genocide. Fritzsche also provides documents written by Jewish Germans, letters from soldiers, and anti-Semitic propaganda. He gives a brief glimpse of life in concentration camps.

Some critics note that the book is lacking in its discussion of non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust and that it doesn't take note of any resistance efforts.