Travellers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism Through the Eyes of Everyday People: The Rise of Fascism Seen Through the Eyes of Everyday People

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Most of the travelers introduced here depart with the same impression, favorable or suspicious, that they started with. What’s more, the country was full of attractive blonds, of both sexes: “Over 10 million packets of hair dye were sold in 1934. There are countless books on World War 2, from serious and weighty tomes, stories of daring do and detailed explanations of pivotal moments that changed the course of a continent. She also asks the poignant question of without the benefit of hindsight, how do you interpret what’s right in front of your eyes? What this book does do is describe what happened in Germany between the wars, and is based entirely on first-hand accounts written by foreign visitors to the country.

Travellers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism Through the Eyes of Travellers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism Through the

Kay, who had been reading articles in the American press condemning Nazi philistinism, was now, on this issue at least, entirely in sympathy with the Führer. So what this book is, is a series of letters, diary entries, reflections, magazine and newspaper articles - or portions from them - which go on and on about the joys of visiting Germany, and how all that brown shirt, Nazi stuff will just go away - give it time! E]ven those suffering under the new regime continued to support Hitler because they regarded the Nazis as the only alternative to Bolshevism. On 19 May 1943 he spent several hours with the literary-minded minister for propaganda at the latter’s house in Berlin.Several aristocratic or otherwise famous visitors adored Berlin and the Nazi Party - Unity Mitford is perhaps the most striking and well-known example - and others hated it; Vita Sackville-West 'spent as little time there as possible during her husband's posting to the British Embassy, while Virginia [Woolf] declared [Berlin] to be a "horror" and one she would never visit again. Throughout the interwar years many people believed the Nazis’ reassuring mendacities because they wanted to. Hitler got his way again and again until he was convinced the West was so weak and degenerate it would never challenge him. As Hitler gained in popularity, the twisted message that he was broadcasting became a cult movement. Many of the letters Boyd quotes are from these ordinary travellers, as well from visiting politicians, academics and their families.

Travelers in the Third Reich, by Julia Boyd review - The Washington Post Travelers in the Third Reich, by Julia Boyd review - The

The core question asked in Travellers in the Third Reich is as follows: 'Without the benefit of hindsight, how do you interpret what's right in front of your eyes? It’s always been a mystery post WWII why intelligent people could not grasp the threat that NAZI’s posed to the world. Many academics “chose to travel in the Third Reich because Germany’s cultural heritage was simply too precious to renounce for politics, however unpleasant those politics might be. Nazi evil permeated every aspect of German society yet, when blended with the seductive pleasures still available to the foreign visitor, the hideous reality was too often and for too long ignored.

It is assumed that before picking up this book, readers already know the progression of events that occurred during the Second World War. One young American woman, studying music in Munich and staying with a family, sneaked with her host brother into a speech by Julius Streicher, the Nazi propagandist. He received much of his education there and revered its history and culture, and appreciated that it had been a respite from the endemic racism he had faced in the United States.