Web Links
- Bauhaus.de – The Bauhaus Archive is a museum and research institution in Berlin dedicated to documenting, studying, and presenting the history and influence of the Bauhaus school.
- Cabaret-Berlin – Exploring the Entertainment of the Weimar Era. It is a wealth of knowledge for all things cabaret. There are portraits of entertainers and musicians and the impact it had on society.
- German Propaganda Database – Third Reich and East German propaganda images, essays, articles, plans, even which radio stations were banned. Honestly the best archive I’ve found online. Two thumbs up!
- German History Docs & Images – German History in Documents and Images. It takes the entirety of German history from the Thirty-Years War to the present Federal Republic. Excellent resource for research!
- Project Alladin – Promoting understanding of the Holocaust in the Muslim world and explore Jewish-Muslim historical relations.
- Walter Frentz Collection – Worked with Leni Riefenstahl during the 1936 Olympic Games. He served as Hitler’s personal cameraman. Today his collections are all online.
- Yad Vashem – The World Holocaust Remembrance Center official website.
Books & Literature
The Twelve Year Reich: A Social History of Nazi Germany by Richard Grunberger
This is a must-have for any historian studying the Nazi period. It examines the institutions of education, the family, business, and many more.
“In chilling detail, this social history brilliantly demonstrates the awesome power of a brutal government to corrode the human spirit.”
Wall Street Journal
Find it on Amazon here.
The Origins of the Second World War by AJP Taylor.
Notable journalist tackles the sticky subject of Hitler and the Nazis with a fresh perspective. His conclusion that Hitler was a reckless opportunist without a grand plan of conquest was controversial in when first put forward.
“…an almost faultless masterpiece, perfectly proportioned, perfectly controlled.”
The Observer
Find it on Amazon here.
The Inextinguishable Symphony by Martin Goldsmith.
Two young Jewish musicians navigate love, marriage, and life amid the rise of the Third Reich. The story is written by their son, Martin.
“A fascinating insight into a virtually unknown chapter of Nazi rule in Germany, made all the more engaging through a son’s discovery of his own remarkable parents.”
Ted Koppel, ABC News
Find it on Amazon here.
Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer.
This is another must have for anyone curious about the Nazi Period in Germany. Told by the lead CBS foreign correspondent in Berlin from 1937 until his exile in 1940. He tells the story of the Nazis and their rule in exciting, vivid, detail.
“A monumental work, a grisly and thrilling story.” Theodore H. White
Find it on Amazon here.
Travelers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd
Thousands of people from America, Britain, and France visited Germany on holiday during the Nazi period. Many were dazzled by what they saw.
“A compelling historian narrative…both flatters and challenges our hindsight.”
Daily Telegraph
Find it on Amazon here.
Defying Hitler: A Memoir by Sebastian Haffner
This young man grew up in Berlin during the chaos and buzz of the Weimar Republic before fleeing the Nazi regime to Britain. A well written insight of life in Germany before the Second World War.
“A short, stabbing, brilliant book…”
The Sunday Telegraph
Find it on Amazon here.
Germany: Memories of a Nation by Neil MacGregor
Twice unified into a single political state, MacGregor takes the unusually messy and fragmented history of Germany and finds the commonality in culture and experience over a thousand years of German life.
“MacGregor [is] our greatest cultural polymath. . . . Anyone who wants to understand Germany should read this book.”
Antony Beevor to The Observer
Find it on Amazon here.
Germany 1923 by Volker Ullrich
A comprehensive look at the political, economic challenges Germany faced in this one year. It also addresses the societal changes and the culture of the young Weimar Republic.
“…Ullrich brings order to the historical chaos of a year that fascinates as well as frightens.”
Norman Ohler. Author, Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich.
Find it on Amazon here.
Munich Playground by Ernest R. Pope
A unique look at life in the Nazis favorite city. We get a first person perspective of the Nazis at play.
“Ernie Pope was the only American correspondent in the Bavarian capital…at no little risk to himself watched them…seeing a side of Naziism that his colleagues in Berlin knew little of.”
William Shirer, author of Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
Find it on Amazon here.
Watching Darkness Fall by David McKean
American diplomats in Europe documented the rise of Hitler to President Roosevelt. This book follows four: Breckenridge, Bullitt, Dodd, and Kennedy Sr. Each influenced US policy in their reports to FDR.
“A fast-paced, deftly written, exhaustively researched tale.”
–Washington Independent Review of Books
Find it on Amazon here.
They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945 by Milton Mayer
Using personal interviews, Milton Mayer dives into the experiences of ten average Germans as they live through the life of the Third Reich.
“Among the many books written on Germany after the collapse of Hitler’s Thousand Year Reich, this book by Milton Mayer is one of the most readable and most enlightening.” – New York Times Book Review
Find it on Amazon here.
KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps by Nikolaus Wachsmann
This is one of those heavy topics. The camps evolved from abandoned barracks and unused cellars into industrialized death colonies. Historian Wachsmann walks us through each phase with eyewitness testimony and official statistics. This Archivist gives it 5 stars!
“A comprehensive and ground-clearing work of research and a wrenching work of narrative. It’s gruesome reading, but you’re in masterful hands the entire time.” ― Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Monthly
Find it on Amazon here.
The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town 1922-1945
Nazism emerged from the shadows to blight a central German village. Historians can witness the long gradual consolidation Nazi power here as a microcosm for the whole of Germany.
“In Nazi Seizure of Power, Allen gives us a well-researched and enlightening study of mankind’s most repressive and cruel regime in history, down to the lowest level.” [Verified Amazon Purchaser].
Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Times 