Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.

What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder, and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany 0th Edition

4.4 out of 5 stars 39 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0465085729
ISBN-10: 0465085725
Why is ISBN important?
ISBN
This bar-code number lets you verify that you're getting exactly the right version or edition of a book. The 13-digit and 10-digit formats both work.
Scan an ISBN with your phone
Use the Amazon App to scan ISBNs and compare prices.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Buy used On clicking this link, a new layer will be open
$9.11 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open
Buy new On clicking this link, a new layer will be open
$15.14 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open
More Buying Choices
25 New from $8.23 49 Used from $3.23
Free Two-Day Shipping for College Students with Prime Student Free%20Two-Day%20Shipping%20for%20College%20Students%20with%20Amazon%20Student


Pre-order "Settle for More"
Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly writes a revealing and surprising memoir detailing her rise. Learn more | Kindle book
$15.14 FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books. Only 17 left in stock (more on the way). Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
click to open popover

Frequently Bought Together

  • What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder, and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany
  • +
  • The Good Old Days: The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders
  • +
  • Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
Total price: $41.71
Buy the selected items together

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

  (What's this?)

NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
New York Times best sellers
Browse the New York Times best sellers in popular categories like Fiction, Nonfiction, Picture Books and more. See more

Product Details

  • Paperback: 464 pages
  • Publisher: Basic Books (February 28, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0465085725
  • ISBN-13: 978-0465085729
  • Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.8 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #415,546 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

  (What's this?)

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

By Joerg Colberg on February 12, 2005
Format: 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.
Comment 123 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
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.
Comment 24 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
Format: 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.
Read more ›
11 Comments 33 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder, and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany
Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway
This item: What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder, and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany