The Good Germans, Catrine Clay
The Good Germans, Catrine Clay
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
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The Good Germans
Resisting the Nazis, 1933-1945

Author: Catrine Clay

Narrator: Karen Cass

Unabridged: 15 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/03/2020

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

After 1933, as the brutal terror regime took hold, most of the two-thirds of Germans who had never voted for the Nazis - some 20 million people - tried to keep their heads down and protect their families.

They moved to the country, or pretended to support the regime to avoid being denounced by neighbours, and tried to work out what was really happening in the Reich, surrounded as they were by Nazi propaganda and fake news. They lived in constant fear. Yet many ordinary Germans found the courage to resist. Catrine Clay argues that it was a much greater number than was ever formally recorded. Her ground-breaking book focuses on six very different characters. They are not seen in isolation but as part of their families. Each experiences the momentous events of Nazi history as they unfold in their own small lives - Good Germans all.

About Catrine Clay

Catrine Clay is an author and documentary film maker. She first met Trautmann while making a documentary of his life. They are good friends and regularly see each other.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ingrid on February 01, 2021

This is a most extraordinary book - full of detail, several really strong characters as main players and the whole background of Nazi Germany and Hitler. I kept reading, expecting to lose track as I do, (I'm very good a turning the page, and going "who the hell are you?") but not once. The author wr......more

Goodreads review by Fay on April 14, 2021

3.5 stars - marked down for mainly some confusion with narration from multiple POV. It was a slow burner (quite slow at times), but picked up the pace towards the end, party as the evil committed by the Nazi party and its leader increased and people became more desperate to rid the world of them. Th......more

Goodreads review by Margarett on February 20, 2021

As interesting as this book is I found it dense and confusing with too many characters and the back and forth writing. I have to admit I gave up half way through. I kept having to check the names [in the forward] as I got lost in all the characters. It's a shame as those who resisted [at terrible co......more

Goodreads review by Patrick on June 12, 2021

A very interesting read, follows six people and their families through the rise of the Nazis. It shows how ruthless the state became in crushing any and all opposition, so resistance was a very risky undertaking and many lost their lives. It’s easy to lump a whole country into one stereotype and thi......more

Goodreads review by Michael on December 29, 2021

Fascinating insight in the lives of those from various backgrounds living under the fascist Nazi regime.......more


Quotes

Historians have long grappled with the question of how popular the Nazis really were ... The Good Germans suggests that there was much more resistance than was ever formally recorded ... The Good Germans shines the spotlight on people who didn't opt for the path of conformity, but instead made often small but nonetheless defiant choices in their everyday lives that put them at risk ... [Clay] is a great story-teller who proves adept at conjuring her characters straight off the page BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE

A brilliant and deeply disturbing account of six individuals, ranging from Prussian aristocrat to law student to factory hand, who risked, and in some cases lost, their lives to oppose Hitler THE SPECTATOR 'Books of the Year'

Timely, intriguing and extremely well informed SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 'Pick of the Week'