What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder, and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany: An Oral History [Hardcover]

Eric A. Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0465085717 | ISBN-13: 978-0465085712

What We Knew offers the most startling oral history ever done of life in the Third Reich. Combining the expertise of a German sociologist and an American historian, it draws on both gripping oral histories and a unique survey of 4,000 people-both German Jews and non-Jewish Germans-who lived under the Third Reich. It directly addresses some of the most fundamental questions we have about the Nazi regime, particularly regarding anti-Semitism, issues of guilt and ignorance, popular support for the government, and the nature of the dictatorship itself.Johnson and Reuband's original research confirms that both Germans and Jews were aware of the mass murder of European Jews as it was occurring. From the responses of Jewish survivors, German anti-Semitism wasn't universal among their neighbors and colleagues, even as they experienced official mistreatment. Additionally, the authors' research suggests that Hitler and National Socialism were genuinely popular among ordinary Germans, and that intimidation and terror played no great part in enforcing loyalty. Refuting long-held assumptions, the discoveries revealed in What We Knew are key to our understanding of life in the Third Reich, and make this book a central work for scholars of the Holocaust, World War II, and totalitarianism.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The refrains in Germany for many years after WWII were "we didn't know" about the Holocaust, and "if we had known and had tried to do something, we too would have been killed by the Nazis." These claims have not stood up to historical scrutiny. Large numbers of ordinary Germans were involved in carrying out the mass murder of Jews, and knowledge of it was widespread among the population at home in Germany. Moreover, the Nazi elite ruled primarily by consensus, not terror; it was a popular dictatorship. Central Michigan University historian Johnson and German sociologist Reuband confirm these interpretations in their wide-ranging study based on hundreds of interviews and surveys they conducted with both Jewish and Christian Germans. Johnson (Nazi Terror) and Reuband don't add much that is new to what we know about the Nazi dictatorship and the Holocaust, but the materials they have gathered are interesting. Roughly two-thirds of the book consists of transcripts of interviews with Jews who had a range of experiences (going into hiding, leaving Germany before Kristallnacht, suffering in the camps) and Germans (those who heard about the murder of Jews, those who didn't, those who participated). The analysis in the book's final third is sober and sobering. But it's the gripping immediacy of the interviews, laced as they are with anger, guilt, sadness and, still among some Christian Germans, pride, that carries the book. (Feb.)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* The authors interviewed nearly 200 people--Holocaust survivors and perpetrators--in researching the book, and more than 3,000 people--Jews and non-Jews--were surveyed in writing about their experiences during the Hitler years. Johnson and Reuband began their research in 1993; 40 interviews were selected for this book (20 were Jews and 20 were non-Jews). The authors posit that "far from living in a state of constant fear and discontent, most Germans led happy and even normal lives in Nazi Germany." They believe that the Holocaust could not have been possible without the complicity of the majority of the German population. Johnson and Reuband conclude that many Germans were quick to concern themselves only with their private lives and tended not to think about what was happening to the Jews. Despite the regime's efforts to keep the mass murder of Jews a secret, news of the atrocities reached a large portion of the German public by the end of the war. The authors insist that about one-third of the population became aware of the murder of Jews while it was taking place, and it is evident that many Germans did not want to know about what was being done. This scholarly work is a major contribution to the understanding of life in Nazi Germany and a compelling narrative that is certain to be the standard work on the subject. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465085717
• ISBN-13: 978-0465085712
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,159,665 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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73 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent, February 12, 2005

By 

Joerg Colberg (Northampton, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder, and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany: An Oral History (Hardcover)

I was born and raised in Germany, many years after the end of World War II and the Nazi period. There is a tremendeous amount of information available about the Third Reich, the war, and the Holocaust; but for me, there was always something lacking: How could all that happen? How was it possible? And what did people really know?

The standard answer, which I was given a lot when I aksed people about it, was that they didn't know anything about the Holocaust until after the war. I never found that very convincing. There is just no way that a country can organize the killing of millions of people, many of who were their own citizens, with the vast majority of people being absolutely clueless. It simply doesn't make any sense. Didn't people notice how their neighbours disappeared? And wouldn't soldiers on visits home mention things they had seen? Given the involvement of the German Army in many of those crimes - a fact that is still hotly contested in shamefully large circles to this date - I have never found the claim credible that "we didn't know anything".

Finally, there is a way to get better information. "What We Knew" contains the results of a decade long scientific study about what people - Jewish and non-Jewish - knew and experienced. A large part of the book consists of interviews, separated into different categories. Of course, the picture is infinitely more complex than "we didn't know anything" or "they all knew" - but now finally, it is starting to make sense.

I admit that even having read so many voices I am still at a complete loss as to how this all was possible. But at least now we know what people knew, how many people knew etc. This book is a masterpiece, and it's a must-read for anybody interested in what was going on almost 70 years ago.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What Did They Know?, December 30, 2007

By 

P.K. Ryan "The Ryan Identity" (Albany, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder, and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany: An Oral History (Hardcover)

`What We Knew' is both a compelling and somber read. The authors sent out surveys to hundreds of people who had experienced life under the Third Reich. This book is a collection of the subsequent interviews with those who responded. The book is divided into groups of interviewees such as; Jews who left before Kristallnacht, Jews who were deported, non-Jews who claimed to know little about the mass murder, and non-Jews who knew everything. As the title implies, the book sets out to explain how much was known by ordinary Germans about the horrors of the Nazi regime, and most specifically the mass murder of Jews. Aside from this point, the interviews also reveal a vivid description of life in Nazi Germany, many of which contain some fresh insight that was somewhat surprising. Naturally, it is impossible to verify much of the testimony given, but the authors transform the stories into a statistical data analysis that uncovers a certain pattern in their experiences.

For instance, it seems that a large amount of Jews either knew of, or suspected that their brethren were being systematically killed as early as 1941. For Germans, the number of people who knew or suspected was much smaller, but steadily increased as the war went on. Most Jews did not experience significant anti-Semitism before National Socialism. Even well into the NS years, many Jews relate how many of their neighbors did not turn on them and remained opposed to anti-Semitism, at least in theory. There seemed to be a geographical aspect to the anti-Semitism as well. For instance, Jews in Cologne experienced far less anti-Semitism than Berlin. Keep in mind that these were just the majority opinion, and that virtually every one of these statements was contradicted by one interviewee or another. Several Jews felt that the average German sincerely believed in Hitler's anti-Semitic policies and knew everything. It should also be noted that the Jews who emigrated before or shortly after Kristallnacht had slightly more benign experiences, obviously confirming that things gradually got worse as time went on.

For the Germans, the stories were slightly more conflicting. One former soldier for instance, claims how he personally witnessed the murder of hundreds of men, women, and children, but was sworn not to tell anybody about it. Another soldier says that he told friends and family about what he witnessed on the Eastern front while he was on leave, and that the killings of Jews were common knowledge. Most of the Germans claimed that there were rumors of such things, or perhaps heard of specific instances of killings, but did not believe that Jews were being systematically murdered. One thing that did seem consistent was the fact that for non-Jews, Nazi Germany was not a terror state. Most Germans enjoyed a relatively normal and pleasant life under the Third Reich and they did not live in fear of the Gestapo. They supported Hitler for various reasons, most commonly because he got rid of unemployment, reinstilled nationalistic pride, etc.

Overall, this book seems to prove that people's experiences varied greatly under the Third Reich, and there is no real way to prove definitively who knew what and when. That being said, `What We Knew' definitely gives the reader a good cross section of both Jewish and non-Jewish experiences and thus a good general idea of what life was like in Nazi Germany. It will probably never be known exactly who knew what, but this book comes closer than any other that I have read, and for that, I recommend it highly.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A book for the academic., May 15, 2007

By 

Tim Johnson (Fremantle, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder, and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany (Paperback)

I just finished this book after some weeks of reading and putting it down then reading again, etc. In short, it was a difficult read but having made that qualifier, it was also positive and surprisingly interesting and valuable. For any person, primarily students, who are researching with an intention of writing a paper about Nazi Germany and any subtopics therein, this is a must-read book.

The first two thirds of the book are fascinating primary sources--interviews with people who experienced various aspects of being caught up in this horrendous machine that was Nazi state power. The conclusion makes the premise that virtually everybody at the time knew what the Nazi state was working to accomplish. The authors lay waste to the old claim that "we didn't know". Almost every person knew of the collections and the deportation because it happened in daylight and no attempt was made to hide the event. The "network information" that came from stories told by soldiers on leave and by undercover BBC broadcasts contributed to this general knowledge. The plethora of work camps in Germany itself provided evidence of major wrong-doing. The size of the operations and the number of people involved preclude any reasonable denial that major parts of the Nazi Party's Manifesto was being acted upon.

The general reader and I certainly include myself among this group, will particularly get bogged down in the last section. The authors take their data and display it in numerous charts and conduct a precise analysis of this raw information. It is all terribly useful if you are footnoting a research paper but considerably less so if you are trying to have a quiet read. Therefore, be warned. This is a book containing many pearls of information but the water where they are located is deep and sometimes murky.