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The Third Reich in 100 Objects: A Material History of Nazi Germany by Roger Moorhouse (view source)
Revision as of 14:37, 16 August 2020
, 14:37, 16 August 2020no edit summary
Some of the objects will be familiar to you - the Judenstern or yellow star that the persecuted Jews were forced to wear, a copy of Mein Kampf, the swastika flag, a Luger pistol - while others are more obscure - a forced labourer's work card, Hitler's moustache brush, a little toy figure - but together, they paint a detailed picture of the Nazi regime in both its overarching ideology and the little details of its endless intrusions into everyday life.
And there are surprises. It had never occurred to me, for example, that the jerrycan (object #46) - a fuel can of such perfect design it was immediately copied by both the British and American armies - was named because... well, you've got it. I'm sure many of you are scoffing as you read - ''how did she not know that?'' - but it's only obvious to we ingenues of military history once it's been pointed out. Moorhouse's choices of artefact include both the obscure and the quotidian and I guarantee there'll be something in there that strikes the same chime of surprise for you. The entry for the Wehrmacht mittens (object #87) - part of the winter combat uniform sent to German soldiers freezing on the Eastern Front - remarks grimly that the Eastern Front medal was nicknamed by its recipients as the ''Order of the Frozen Flesh''. These little details pervade the book and are enlighten enlightening just as they shock, even today.
A note - the book doesn't work well on Kindle format. Images and text don't align perfectly and some impact is lost. I'd originally downloaded ''The Third Reich in 100 Objects'' after happening across it being talked about on social media and reading Helen Dale's (immensely superior) [https://thecritic.co.uk/the-fascinating-objects-of-fascism/ review] but have now also bought the physical book, which I wish I'd done in the first place. I recommend you do too.
''The Third Reich in 100 Objects'' is both fascinating and unsettling, and both intimate and repulsive. The Nazis may have reigned for little more than a decade but the effort they put into the art and design underpinning their regime has left us with a store of objects that still fascinate and revolt us today.
More intimate reflections on the Nazi regime can be found in [[The Perfect Nazi: Uncovering My SS Grandfather's Secret Past and How Hitler Seduced a Generation by Martin Davidson]] - Davidson - an erstwhile commissioning editor of history documentaries for the BBC - did not find out about his grandfather's past in the SS until after his death, when his mother finally told him the truth. You might also appreciate [[What Have the Germans Ever Done for Us?: A History of the German Population of Great Britain by Susan Duxbury-Neumann]].
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