Defying Hitler

If you have never read a book about Nazi Germany before, or if you have already read a thousand, I would urge you to read DEFYING HITLER. It sings with wisdom and understanding * MAIL ON SUNDAY *
An astonishingly effective and well-written explanation of how the Nazis managed so easily to exploit Germany’s psychological weaknesses * DAILY TELEGRAPH *
As gripping as any thriller I’ve ever read – Miriam Gross * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *
Nothing less than a clear-eyed autobiographical analysis of the German character as it appeared to the writer, and who experienced it, in his own heart and mind … Raw, revelatory stuff … Haffner distils the essence of the Weimar Republic: its snapshot scenes are little nuggets of pure sensation informed by sensibility – Iain Finlayson * THE TIMES *
Raw, passionate … Reads as compellingly as a top-class thriller. The outstanding impression you get as Haffner takes you from day to day through early 1933 is how easy it was for Hitler, beginning in such small ways, to turn a civilised, intelligent people into a helpless, penned-in flock of sheep – Peter Lewis * DAILY MAIL *
Each of us sometimes asks what we would have done if we had been young and German in 1933. There could scarcely be a better way to explore this question than to read Haffner’s book … He is vivid, concise, lucid, penetrating, humane, brave, playful and profound: a representative of the German civilisation which thuggish German nationalists tried to destroy – Andrew Gimson * EVENING STANDARD *
Brilliant, moving and terrifying * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *
An unforgettable memoir of life in Germany during the rise of the Nazis, a mesmerising study of the way a generation surrendered to Hitler * OBSERVER *
Haffner’s outstanding gifts of observation and imagination enabled him to reconstruct, vividly and convincingly, the state of mind of the German people during the tumultuous decades before 1933 * TLS *
As a memoir of life in Germany during the Nazi rise to power, it is unsurpassable * LITERARY REVIEW *
A riveting story * SPECTATOR *

Sebastian Haffner (originally Raimund Pretzel) was born in Berlin in 1907. He emigrated to England in 1938 and changed his name to protect his relatives in Germany from persecution. He wrote for The Observer for many years and became a British citizen in 1948. He returned to Germany in 1954, where he was a prominent journalist and historian, writing for Die Welt and Stern. He died in 1999.

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