Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany: Confronting the Myths provides a concise and compelling introduction to the Third Reich. At the same time, it challenges and demystifies the many stereotypes surrounding Hitler and Nazi Germany.

• Creates a succinct, argument-driven overview for students by using common myths and stereotypes to encourage critical engagement with the subject
• Provides an up-to-date historical synthesis based on the latest research in the field
• Argues that in order to fully understand and explain this period of history, we need to address its seeming paradoxes – for example, questioning why most Germans viewed the Third Reich as a legitimate government, despite the Nazis’ criminality
• Incorporates useful study features, including a timeline, glossary, maps, and illustrations

List of Illustrations viii

Preface x

1 Germany before 1933 1

2 Hitler and the Nazi Movement 21

3 The Nazi Party-State 45

4 The Racial State 69

5 Nazi Germany in the 1930s: A Popular Regime? 97

6 War and Occupation, 1939–1941 123

7 Genocide 149

8 Total War, 1942–1945 179

Epilogue 211

Abbreviations and Glossary 223

Timeline 225

Index 229

CATHERINE EPSTEIN is Dean of the Faculty and Professor of History at Amherst College. She is the prize-winning author of Model Nazi: Arthur Greiser and the Occupation of Western Poland (2010). Her previous publications also include The Last Revolutionaries: German Communists and Their Century (2003) and A Past Renewed: A Catalog of German-Speaking Refugee Historians in the United States after 1933 (1993).

"Drawing on the very latest scholarship, Catherine Epstein offers a lucidly written, accessible, engaging account of Hitler and the Third Reich. Nazi Germany: Confronting the Myths is an ideal choice for the undergraduate classroom and will likely be the text that introduces many, many students to this most troubling chapter of modern German history." Robert Moeller, University of California, Irvine

"Among the many textbooks on Nazi Germany, Catherine Epstein's stands out both because of its persuasive combination of the most recent research on this subject interwoven with judicious discussions of continuing debates on unresolved historiographical questions and because of the skillful ways in which she draws the reader into this complex field. Students and teachers in advanced secondary as well as higher education will also find this book to be the best short guide to the history of the Nazi Holocaust." V. R. Berghahn, Columbia University

Nazi Germany: Confronting the Myths offers a succinct, compelling overview of the history of the Third Reich. Drawing on the most recent research in the field, Catherine Epstein provides a broad-ranging and up-to-date historical synthesis of Hitler's Germany and of historiographical debates concerning the Nazi regime. The book is structured around myths and stereotypes that dominate popular understanding of this era of German history. By analyzing and debunking those views, the author provides an argumentdriven approach to the study of the Third Reich, encouraging critical engagement with the period.

"Among the many textbooks on Nazi Germany Catherine Epstein's stands out both because of its persuasive combination of the most recent research on this subject interwoven with judicious discussions of continuing debates on unresolved historiographical questions and because of the skillful ways in which she draws the reader into this complex field. Students and teachers in advanced secondary as well as higher education will also find this book to be the best short guide to the history of the Nazi Holocaust."
—V.R. Berghahn, Columbia University

"Drawing on the very latest scholarship, Catherine Epstein offers a lucidly written, accessible, engaging account of Hitler and the Third Reich. Nazi Germany: Confronting the Myths is an ideal choice for the undergraduate classroom and will likely be the text that introduces many, many students to this most troubling chapter of modern German history."
—Robert Moeller, University of California, Irvine