In Backing Hitler, Robert Gellately shows us what a true police state looks like. The police state as it emerged in Nazi Germany starting in 1933 was very extreme, as is widely known. But there is much to learn by examining the details and coming to understand the dynamics of its operation and development.
Gellately’s initial theme has to do with Nazi concern for public opinion. Even while the Gestapo and other police organizations were on the rise, while police were increasingly given new authority to convict and punish without involving the courts, and while the courts were constantly under pressure to hand out only the stiffest of penalties, and the vast network of concentration camps was established and individual rights were on the steep decline, it was not terror alone that the Nazis utilized to gain domestic control. The Nazis were always concerned with public opinion, and to that end Nazi propaganda took shape. Hitler and his minions were always careful not to cross certain lines that the public might have a problem with, and were careful to justify their actions in the press. The extent to which the public bought into the Nazi racist and political propaganda over time was very extreme, and this was achieved through careful consideration of public relations.
Understanding the true nature of life in Nazi Germany has many purposes, and Backing Hitler sheds light on each of them, even those it does not directly address. It tells us who the victims were - and there were many different groups that suffered at the Nazis’ hands. The first were the opposing political leaders, especially the socialists and communists. The two socialist parties in Germany in 1933 together represented a majority. Things might have gone differently in Germany had these two parties been able to get along with each other. But when Hitler took over in 1933 the opposing political leaders were the first to see the inside of a camp. Later there was the rounding up of many under the Nazi racial ideology which included Poles and other Slavs, and of course there was always special treatment for the Jews. But the persecution was not just based on political and racial concerns. As the war progressed ideological purity was stressed it became illegal to listen to foreign radio broadcasts, and many were arrested for saying things, even in private, against the government or the army, even for saying anything pessimistic about the war. And so many Germans were arrested and put in the camps alongside Jews and Poles and so forth. And most Germans who were arrested had been turned in to the police by co-workers, neighbors, and even family members in response to calls for citizens to police those around them. Understanding the attack on human rights in the police state known as Nazi Germany helps us understand the complete nightmare that existed for anyone who held on to any sense of human decency.
There has been a growing literature of Nazi apologists and others who question some of the official historical narrative of WWII. Certainly, there is much that passes for history that is biased and written for reasons other than to portray the truth with all its blemishes. On the other side, there is much supposedly corrective literature that is also problematic. Backing Hitler is refreshing in that it tells the horrible truth that holds nothing back, but at the same time seems, at least, to contain a good measure of objectivity and is well founded in copious research. It makes holocaust denial seem quite pointless since, even if Auschwitz did not use a specific chemical with which to gas the inmates, the obvious response has to be: So what? The situation in Nazi Germany was horrible beyond imagination, and no one can deny that the Jews played a central role in the Nazi agenda.
Backing Hitler, as mentioned above, shows what a true police state is like. Going unchecked, a police force can terrorize a community. And going after one group at a time, like the Nazis did, does not mean they won’t come after you eventually. No one is safe in a police state. And by reading Gellately’s book we hopefully can get clued in to what the early stages of a developing police state looks like. What does it mean, for example, when an incarceration rate is extremely high, a court system is corrupt and too closely associated with the police, when children are being separated from their parents and put in corporate prisons that even members of Congress have a hard time gaining access to? If our own political and justice systems are in decline, then where are we headed?
A final word is this. The perfect book to follow up Backing Hitler with is Savage Continent by Keith Lowe. This book details the horrible aftermath of WWII. The horror did not stop with VE Day, but continued on for years afterwards. There was no infrastructure to speak of. There was no government. And everyone was out for vengeance. And the Marshall Plan was not instituted until several years after 1945. This is a chapter in history that is typically overlooked, but Lowe presents it in its horrible details. He is also a voice of reason in regards to certain controversial issues.
One of the horrible details of the time had to do with the millions of German POWs in American, British, Soviet, and even French prison camps. The Soviet camps were the worst, Russians having suffered most among the allies in WWII and therefore most intent upon revenge. But life in each of these camps was abysmal. And since the usual historical narrative glosses over this chapter in history, the issue is left prone to exploitation by those who would demonize Eisenhower and others. The reader may or may not be aware how hot a topic this is in some quarters, but for some it means that none of the history told can be trusted, and that Nazi atrocities are overstated. From this reviewer’s perspective Lowe is a voice of reason. He is explicit about how much guesswork and estimation is involved given how evidence is so often lacking, but he also has a good handle on the proper range of estimates within which statistics should be. From an objective point of view there are no participants whose hands are clean. War is a bloody mess. In Savage Continent as well as in Backing Hitler, the reader gets a much clearer picture of what Germany and the rest of Europe had to deal with in this most terrible or wars. If we don’t wake up to the realities of war, then we will remain asleep until it is too late to stop the next calamity.
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Top reviews from other countries
Amazon Customer
A truly excellent book. A bit of this
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 4, 2017stanretoma
very good look at those within Germany during the Nazi years ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 9, 2017