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Seduced By Hitler: The Choices of a Nation and the Ethics of Survival by Adam LeBor
Drawing on new research & declassified documents, LeBor, author of Hitler's Secret Bankers, & Boyes, The Times of London correspondent in Berlin, reveal a tapestry of ordinary lives lived under extraordinary circumstances-ranging from subversion & confrontation to passive acceptance & eager complicity. Seduced by Hitler details how almost every waking hour of Hitler's reign offered insidious choices-from degrees of compromise to outright resistance-to the average German in their interactions with each other & the regime, whether at work, home or leisure. It may seem impossible to explain how an entire nation could allow itself to be seduced by a man such as Hitler. By examining the everyday lives of Germans under Nazi rule, the authors propose an explanation more complex, strange & morally ambiguous than one might imagine. In doing so, they bring to life the steady decline in national morality in the 3rd Reich as the German people let themselves be taken in by Hitler. "A macabrely fascinating work...recommended."-BooklistFrom cradle to graveThe Fuehrer & his peopleThe Fuehrer & his women The Fuehrer & his generals The triumph of kitsch From boardroom to BirkenauOccupiers & occupiedRescuers & rescued Neutral collaboration Impossible choices
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First published January 1, 2000
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August 1, 2015
Page 116 (my book) Ernst Junger
“The nineteenth century was a century of reason, the twentieth century is a century of cults.”
Overall I felt this book lacked unity. However, it did make many incisive observations. I thought it was to be about how the German people were seduced and mesmerized by Hitler. The first half covers this – but the last half discussed in rather cursory fashion the occupied countries and the Holocaust, where there was brutal compulsion, not seduction. So in that sense the book was disjointed with unrelated topics. And these topics are discussed at length in many other books (Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944, Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust...).
The authors do bring up in the first half several points on the personality cult of the Fuehrer. After the war thousands of adoring letters from women to Hitler were discovered in the files in the bunker - it is not for nothing that Hitler refrained from marriage until the very end. There were thousands of postcards and pictures of Hitler – like a fan club. Hitler transformed Germany and gave it vigorous meaning to the main bulk of the German people. IG Farben (the maker of Zyklon B) had Jewish members on staff in the early 1930’s. They were removed as part of the seduction – much worse was to come. Thousands of Germans scrambled to profit from the evictions of Jewish people. Doctors evaded the Hippocratic oath.
There are inroads made as to why the German people were, as the authors say, “seduced” by Hitler. Then it veers off this topic and becomes somewhat rambling.
“The nineteenth century was a century of reason, the twentieth century is a century of cults.”
Overall I felt this book lacked unity. However, it did make many incisive observations. I thought it was to be about how the German people were seduced and mesmerized by Hitler. The first half covers this – but the last half discussed in rather cursory fashion the occupied countries and the Holocaust, where there was brutal compulsion, not seduction. So in that sense the book was disjointed with unrelated topics. And these topics are discussed at length in many other books (Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944, Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust...).
The authors do bring up in the first half several points on the personality cult of the Fuehrer. After the war thousands of adoring letters from women to Hitler were discovered in the files in the bunker - it is not for nothing that Hitler refrained from marriage until the very end. There were thousands of postcards and pictures of Hitler – like a fan club. Hitler transformed Germany and gave it vigorous meaning to the main bulk of the German people. IG Farben (the maker of Zyklon B) had Jewish members on staff in the early 1930’s. They were removed as part of the seduction – much worse was to come. Thousands of Germans scrambled to profit from the evictions of Jewish people. Doctors evaded the Hippocratic oath.
There are inroads made as to why the German people were, as the authors say, “seduced” by Hitler. Then it veers off this topic and becomes somewhat rambling.
November 1, 2020
I picked this one up at an EBay store in East Dundee, Illinois while staying with my dad. He, being a veteran of both theatres of WWII, is a major reason for my interest in the war. My mother, having grown up in occupied Norway, is another reason, especially for being interested in the Nazi regimes. This book addresses aspects of both.
Boyes and LeBor repeatedly state that their intention in this book is to examine the perimeters of ethical choice under the Nazis, both in greater Germany itself and in the occupied and/or allied states. Their own ethical position, never described systematically, seems to be what passes as 'normal' in the Western 'democracies', namely, a belief in legal equality, representative govenment and unspecified individual rights. In other words, they think the Nazis were exceptionally unethical across the board--even worse than the worst of the Stalinist regimes.
To accomplish their task they divide the subject up, distinguishing between countries and periods of time. Thus, so far as occupied countries go, Holland and other more western areas had it relatively easy while eastern areas like Poland and the occupied areas of the USSR had it relatively hard. As a consequence, it was generally easier to behave ethically in the west than in the east. So, too, as the defeat of Germany and its allies become inevitable, certain previously convenient, but unethical, behaviors--such as the oppression of democratic socialists, communists, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma, gays etc.--became increasingly imprudent and behaviors tended to change.
The book is made up of stories and anecdotes, roughly organized about themes. Most don't speak well of ordinary people, most of whom seem all-too-capable of moral enormities when it becomes profitable to do so, few of whom are willing to resist when it comes at a risk. Thus they begin by asking why Hitler and Nazism became popular enough to seize state power in Germany, discussing the accommodations made with them by such groups as the corporate capitalists, the collaborating countries (Denmark, Slovakia, Italy, Croatia, Hungary, Bulgaria, France, Rumania), the occupied countries (too numerous to list, some of the collaborators ending up as occupied), even some of the Jewish communities themselves. Amidst all these depressing tales are some heartening ones, they ranging from occasional small acts of mercy, even by members of the SS, to death-defying heroism, such as that of the Jewish communists of Warsaw.
Although some of the stories, good and bad, were new to me, most of the material in this book was familiar. Still, the prose is good and often evocative and the recollection of such tales is salutary. Young people only vaguely familiar with the war would certainly benefit from this book as a first, easily accessible, course in Nazi atrocities.
What's missing in this calculus of decision-making, however, is any clear hermeneutic. More contemporary enormities such as the war in Bosnia are glancingly mentioned, but nothing is introduced that would challenge the unthinking patriotism of citizens of the UK or USA whose states have their own crimes to answer for.
Boyes and LeBor repeatedly state that their intention in this book is to examine the perimeters of ethical choice under the Nazis, both in greater Germany itself and in the occupied and/or allied states. Their own ethical position, never described systematically, seems to be what passes as 'normal' in the Western 'democracies', namely, a belief in legal equality, representative govenment and unspecified individual rights. In other words, they think the Nazis were exceptionally unethical across the board--even worse than the worst of the Stalinist regimes.
To accomplish their task they divide the subject up, distinguishing between countries and periods of time. Thus, so far as occupied countries go, Holland and other more western areas had it relatively easy while eastern areas like Poland and the occupied areas of the USSR had it relatively hard. As a consequence, it was generally easier to behave ethically in the west than in the east. So, too, as the defeat of Germany and its allies become inevitable, certain previously convenient, but unethical, behaviors--such as the oppression of democratic socialists, communists, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma, gays etc.--became increasingly imprudent and behaviors tended to change.
The book is made up of stories and anecdotes, roughly organized about themes. Most don't speak well of ordinary people, most of whom seem all-too-capable of moral enormities when it becomes profitable to do so, few of whom are willing to resist when it comes at a risk. Thus they begin by asking why Hitler and Nazism became popular enough to seize state power in Germany, discussing the accommodations made with them by such groups as the corporate capitalists, the collaborating countries (Denmark, Slovakia, Italy, Croatia, Hungary, Bulgaria, France, Rumania), the occupied countries (too numerous to list, some of the collaborators ending up as occupied), even some of the Jewish communities themselves. Amidst all these depressing tales are some heartening ones, they ranging from occasional small acts of mercy, even by members of the SS, to death-defying heroism, such as that of the Jewish communists of Warsaw.
Although some of the stories, good and bad, were new to me, most of the material in this book was familiar. Still, the prose is good and often evocative and the recollection of such tales is salutary. Young people only vaguely familiar with the war would certainly benefit from this book as a first, easily accessible, course in Nazi atrocities.
What's missing in this calculus of decision-making, however, is any clear hermeneutic. More contemporary enormities such as the war in Bosnia are glancingly mentioned, but nothing is introduced that would challenge the unthinking patriotism of citizens of the UK or USA whose states have their own crimes to answer for.
March 24, 2013
This is an odd book. The author explains his thesis early, but neither develops nor supports it very well. Moreover, the thesis almost entirely disappears from the latter two-thirds of the book. There are numerous vignettes and anecdotes throughout the book which are engaging and enlightening, but thematically disconnected. The book is not entirely a rehash of well known stories, but very much of it is familiar to those who have read much about the social history of WWII. Essentially, this struck me as a book that might have been serialized in a 1980 version of People magazine.
November 7, 2018
This is not a pleasant book and is not meant to be. As the author stated, this book is about the exercise of choice in a dictatorship, the seduction of a nation. It is about survival ethics and the choices they demand, and the range and depth of moral conflicts within the corrupt third reich. There were pages I was unable to read due to the descriptions of nazi depravity. Did the average German citizen know about the extermination camps? Without a doubt. Were there brave people right in Berlin who hid Jews? Yes, there were. What were their choices and their complicity? This is an unusual book about choice and ethics. (Note: by choosing to use lower case letters I, perhaps childishly, make an effort to deny these groups the position of authority and respectability they strove for.)
May 21, 2025
This book needs an editor. It's factually correct, but there isn't really anything fresh or novel about it, and it is severely disorganized. I did learn some things for sure, but they weren't the things I came to this book hoping to learn. I went in based on the title (full disclosure, I bought this book ~20 years ago and am just now getting around to reading it) and wanting to learn more about what people considered appealing at the time about Hitler's policies. Or even what kind of choices did people make about how to comply or resist? What of resistance movements existed? What did Hitler's Germany look like to people in Germany in the early 1940s? Instead I got pieced-together snapshots of how Jews were treated and several strategies employed for escaping from Hitler's rule - some more ethically dubious than others.
Chapters Eight and Ten were the most interesting to me. That was where I learned more about resistance tactics and Jews who gained protection and/or escape. This was the first time I ever learned of the Jugutis, for example (here is an article for those equally unfamiliar: https://www.israelhayom.com/2024/12/0...). I still think there was a weird amount of gore included just for the shock factor, and I would hope by now there is a relatively universal acceptance of how horrible the Holocaust was, to a degree that we do not need to go into detail on the individual deaths of Jews subjected to some of the worst treatment humans can inflict on each other. But overall, I think if the whole book had stayed more consistently on that topic, I would have better appreciated it.
This book also doesn't seem like it is written for adults - maybe high schoolers? It had weird paneled sections throughout, kind of like a textbook, and seems to be around an eighth grade-ish reading level. I bought this book in tenth grade I think and I would have liked it better if I had read it then. It was interesting, but I've read many much more interesting books about Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.
Chapters Eight and Ten were the most interesting to me. That was where I learned more about resistance tactics and Jews who gained protection and/or escape. This was the first time I ever learned of the Jugutis, for example (here is an article for those equally unfamiliar: https://www.israelhayom.com/2024/12/0...). I still think there was a weird amount of gore included just for the shock factor, and I would hope by now there is a relatively universal acceptance of how horrible the Holocaust was, to a degree that we do not need to go into detail on the individual deaths of Jews subjected to some of the worst treatment humans can inflict on each other. But overall, I think if the whole book had stayed more consistently on that topic, I would have better appreciated it.
This book also doesn't seem like it is written for adults - maybe high schoolers? It had weird paneled sections throughout, kind of like a textbook, and seems to be around an eighth grade-ish reading level. I bought this book in tenth grade I think and I would have liked it better if I had read it then. It was interesting, but I've read many much more interesting books about Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.
August 28, 2018
History classes paint so many things in black and white. Colonists brave and true, British king evil. North good, South racist. All Germans bad, all French and everyone else good. This book peeks into the nooks and crannies of a million shades between black and white. Victims, heroes, villains, the brave, the cunning, the self-serving, the collaborators, the capitulators, the resistors... can it even be said that anyone "won" this war, with so many millions annihilated? Did any nation, or any person, come through it unblemished, or blameless? Excellent book that leaves more questions than answers, as any good historian should do. Thanks for your research and for asking the tough questions.
March 17, 2022
A rough read asking why could the everyday German could look the other way, when Hitler came to power, started World War II, changing the world forever, while sending the Jewish population to the gas chambers.
There is a great deal of knowledge that we know, but still more that is shocking and horrific. Certainly a book to add to anyones World War II collection. Not for the faint of heart and not a military history per say. Just a look behind the scenes of a man and a country gone mad.
There is a great deal of knowledge that we know, but still more that is shocking and horrific. Certainly a book to add to anyones World War II collection. Not for the faint of heart and not a military history per say. Just a look behind the scenes of a man and a country gone mad.
April 13, 2019
Purchased this book to understand why the people under Nazism did not stand up to Hitler? How is it that they stood by and tolerated the murder of millions of jews. what were they thinking. sad day for humanity, this book give me a peek into their psyche and the non jews of Europe under fascism.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 13, 2019
A different look on the third Reich and how people did help and did not help the Jews, even Jews against Jews. Sad but eye opening
January 29, 2013
A fascinating study of the people and companies who were taken in by Hitler. The mastermind of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels along with the perfect storm ingredients of a nation in financial ruin and psychological peril, allowed the rabble-rouser, Hitler, to woo a mass population into submission and unwavering loyalty to their supreme leader. Fear and uncertainty illicit the need and desire for someone to take control and appear to have the answers to right the wrongs and reclaim pride and superiority. This book looks at the everyday lives of the German people and how, with limited or no access to accurate information as to the true intentions of Hitler and the Third Reich, more and more people were seduced into submission. Greed played a big factor in the fall of morality and the profiteering of Jewish property. Public auctions of Jewish goods were held every working day in Hamburg between February 1941 and April 1945. While the profits went directly into the bank account of the Gestapo, citizens from other nations gobbled up these works of art, antiques, jewels and furs that were confiscated during the round-ups. This breach in morality became more widespread as more and more citizens of Germany and surrounding European countries felt victimized by the Allied bombings. A need for material things was a common ploy in winning over the masses. During Hitler's rise to power, the German people were lured in with programs designed to reward the working class with yearly vacations, family cars and other durable goods. Becoming a member of the party brought with it a status symbol of belonging to an elite group of powerful people. Women soon saw it as their duty to their Fuhrer to have more children to further strengthen the Aryan race and better ensure the survival of a 1000 year Reich. Families were rewarded financially through shopping vouchers based on the number of children born into the family and mothers were awarded medals, The Mother's Cross, when the family reached 4 or more children. The role of parenting was soon handed over to the leaders of the Hitler Youth. But not everyone blindly followed Hitler and the Third Reich. This book also explorers the resistance in occupied countries as well as within Germany itself. Overall a broad look at the psychology behind the success and then ultimate failure of Hitler and the German Reich.
September 24, 2012
A disturbing book. It looks at the flip side of the Third Reich - not at the people who uniformly suffered under it, but at the people who lived under it, and who had to come to some sort of accommodation with it.
The authors argue that the Third Reich was never a monolithic enemy to all at all times, but interacted both internally and externally with a see-saw act of seduction and threat. The Reich tried to seduce its own population, and induce cooperation from others, with a mixture of threats, bribes and lies. This jumbled environment held a measure of sea-room for ambiguity and decision-making – room that was, more often than not, simply left unused.
The book looks at the roles and actions of citizens, artists, academics, companies, collaborators, occupied countries, and neutral countries. It ranges over the actions of a whole spectrum of people. It goes beyond the usual simple picture of good versus evil, and presents a far more murky chart of moral decisions, survival ethics, and insidious steps, in a time when every sphere of life was being cast on its head.
The authors argue that the Third Reich was never a monolithic enemy to all at all times, but interacted both internally and externally with a see-saw act of seduction and threat. The Reich tried to seduce its own population, and induce cooperation from others, with a mixture of threats, bribes and lies. This jumbled environment held a measure of sea-room for ambiguity and decision-making – room that was, more often than not, simply left unused.
The book looks at the roles and actions of citizens, artists, academics, companies, collaborators, occupied countries, and neutral countries. It ranges over the actions of a whole spectrum of people. It goes beyond the usual simple picture of good versus evil, and presents a far more murky chart of moral decisions, survival ethics, and insidious steps, in a time when every sphere of life was being cast on its head.
November 28, 2016
I've always had this nagging question of how the Nazis came to take over Germany and several surrounding countries. There is no definitive answer, but in this book LeBor and Boyes sensitively explore the many ways that Hitler and his henchmen "seduced" a generation of citizens.
Their thesis is that it happened gradually and there were many steps along the way when Hitler could have been stopped. Some supported the Nazi Regime because they were evil, but for the ordinary citizen, it was a creeping ability to look the other way. Some industrialists had a financial stake in producing war materials and weighed the profit against what they pretended was not happening.
I've always kind of thought the men who plotted to assassinate Hitler were heroic, but the authors point out that they didn't attempt to kill him till July 1944, when they could see Germany was losing the war, and they wanted to salvage some good will from the victors. Who knows.
This well written and researched book does a good job of putting you in the middle of a disturbing time, and it blows my naive belief that "it could never happen here."
It could.
Their thesis is that it happened gradually and there were many steps along the way when Hitler could have been stopped. Some supported the Nazi Regime because they were evil, but for the ordinary citizen, it was a creeping ability to look the other way. Some industrialists had a financial stake in producing war materials and weighed the profit against what they pretended was not happening.
I've always kind of thought the men who plotted to assassinate Hitler were heroic, but the authors point out that they didn't attempt to kill him till July 1944, when they could see Germany was losing the war, and they wanted to salvage some good will from the victors. Who knows.
This well written and researched book does a good job of putting you in the middle of a disturbing time, and it blows my naive belief that "it could never happen here."
It could.
November 20, 2008
Well researched although a little disorganized in presentation. Chronicles various forms of resistance and compliance.
This book compellingly makes the case for showing the choices that most in Germany made but also shows that where Hitler met resistance. Certainly counters the "Gee we never knew" stories. Hitler's death machine was all encompassing. The history told of the war forgets the children he simply starved and euthanized in special asylums. Parents began to protest and he officially ended it while making sure that it continued quietly. Those doctors never answered for their crimes. History addressed the medical experiments on children in the camps but overlooked the special "homes" where children never returned. That practice started long before he came to power and was actually openly advocated by certain elements in German society beginning in the prior century. The German wives who actually saved their Jewish husbands by openly and publicly protesting their detention was an amazing story included in this book that I had never heard before.
This book compellingly makes the case for showing the choices that most in Germany made but also shows that where Hitler met resistance. Certainly counters the "Gee we never knew" stories. Hitler's death machine was all encompassing. The history told of the war forgets the children he simply starved and euthanized in special asylums. Parents began to protest and he officially ended it while making sure that it continued quietly. Those doctors never answered for their crimes. History addressed the medical experiments on children in the camps but overlooked the special "homes" where children never returned. That practice started long before he came to power and was actually openly advocated by certain elements in German society beginning in the prior century. The German wives who actually saved their Jewish husbands by openly and publicly protesting their detention was an amazing story included in this book that I had never heard before.
June 18, 2010
The most lasting idea I took away from this is what they called "relative prosperity." Basically, it was easier for the Germans to justify mistreating the Jews because it meant the Germans didn't feel like the lowest class anymore...there was someone more despicable to look down upon, relatively worse-off than themselves.
The book could have been a bit more organized. Sometimes I'd read something interesting but think to myself, "Doesn't this really belong in that other chapter?"
The book could have been a bit more organized. Sometimes I'd read something interesting but think to myself, "Doesn't this really belong in that other chapter?"
January 2, 2013
Amazing because of the insight the book gives about the choices people made during a horrible time. Always have wondered why Hitler was able to do what he did, and this book helps this reader understand a little, but still . . .; I guess I wonder what I would have done, and hope I would have made better choices than many others had.
April 13, 2010
Too chilling to "really like", and while the author was attempting to address and illuminate the darker question of why were so many Germans ready to believe a lie (or two), it was not an easily readable treatment.
May 3, 2021
This book goes into all the ways that the German population helped to create and support the Nazi regime and Adolf Hitler. I thought the ideas and information was presented in interesting and informative ways. I enjoyed this book a lot.
May 29, 2008
Attempts to answer the question: How could normal people be sucked into something so evil? With all the money, power and pride involved, it's not that hard, as it turns out.
May 23, 2011
very intresting and information filled. :)
September 24, 2015
Events leading up to Hitler's rise to power and the forces that helped him achieve power. The author looks at every day life in Germany at the time as well as some world events.
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September 14, 2018didn't really enjoy it
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