Books by Nathan Stoltzfus
Women Defying Hitler, 2021
Throughout history, marginalized groups have acted collectively from outside the system (where t... more Throughout history, marginalized groups have acted collectively from outside the system (where they have been banned) as the best or only path to some success also within #autocracy -not in every case of course, although it remains true that if you do not try you will never know the potentials of taking action..Women shut out not only from suffrage but also from even being heard took to the streets, and the women protesters on Berlin's Rosenstrasse in 1943 also appear as the avant garde of women protesting around the globe in recent years. Hitler comparisons are often considered inappropriate for understanding current politics and politicians although there are specific ways in which they are highly relevant. Popular autocracies forming in the 21st century are a form of government that fascists pioneered a century ago. Aldous Huxley commented that in George Orwell's book 1984 "people are controlled by inflicting pain" although in his book "Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure," and popular dictators as fascists showed do not rely on one of the other but use pain and enticements in tandem. #Putin has been a capable popular dictator although his attack on Ukraine shows the strain that war can place on his backing. Wanting to avoid the alienation of the German military government supporters he blamed on the privations of World War I, Hitler became especially wary during wartime of alienating his support, with his breathtaking goals actually causing him to be more willing to make compromises that accommodated popular traditions in the hopes that this would help sustain support. #Putin has been able to shut down almost all protests, although his attack on Ukraine has sapped support and alienated Russians. The impact of uprisings can take a while to become visible, as Chistopher Clark's majestic chronicle Revolutionary Spring: Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848-1849 (2023) demonstrates, and historians like others generally prefer to look for decisive successes.
You probably have not heard of the following quote from Hitler because it is so far from common conceptions that he simply turned up Gestapo terror to whatever level necessary to crush any dissent--also within the Reich among his own "race" where he jealously guarded his image as the key to popular consensus:
"Ruling the people in conquered territories is a psychological problem. One cannot rule them by force alone. True, force is decisive, but it is equally important to have that psychological something which the animal trainer needs to master his beasts. They must be convinced that we are the victors."
—Adolf Hitler, Address to Higher Leaders of the Eastern Army, evening of July 1, 1943
See attached article for citation
Hitler's Theory of Power from Resistance of the Heart , 0
Hitler is often paired with Stalin as a "classic" 20th-century dictator. Dictatorships this cent... more Hitler is often paired with Stalin as a "classic" 20th-century dictator. Dictatorships this century which have evolved from democracies through constitutional means with popular support, however, illustrate how Hitler pioneered such an evolution. Hitler choose to take power on the back of a mass movement recognizing his authority to lead, rather than through a coup.
Social History , 2020
An innovative look at the influence of Nazism internationally
Journal of Modern History, 2019
A review of Tom Weber's important and innovative new addition to Hitler biographies
Journal of American Ethnic history, 2019
Somewhat critical of the ballyhoo about Whitman's book, I have ambivalence about claims that Hitl... more Somewhat critical of the ballyhoo about Whitman's book, I have ambivalence about claims that Hitler learned from America. On the one hand, Sinclair Lewis’ great warning against complacency finally has compelling company. Yet no one including Whitman has argued that Nazi laws actually would have been different in any specifics had Nazi jurists never noticed American laws. Whitman draws attention to our history of white supremacism in a critical way, although Hitler was sure that he was deducing Nazi race doctrine from universal nature. America’s feeble measures, as Hitler called them, maintained some racial purity but were due to religious and political rather than just race ideas. American anti-miscegenation laws were “too extreme” for the Nazi Nuremberg Laws segregating German Jews, Whitman concludes. But the constraints the Nazis perceived there were not due to ideology or foreign relations so much as to entrenched norms at home. Populism and Hitler’s resolve to make his own “German blooded race” into fascists constrained him–for the moment--to maintain his prestige as a once-in-a-millennium Leader. Similarly, he rejected lynching because it could not achieve his radical aim of expelling all German Jews.
H-Net, H Society and Culture, 1998
Review of the place of the July 20, 1944 military attempt to assassinate Hitler as "The German Re... more Review of the place of the July 20, 1944 military attempt to assassinate Hitler as "The German Resistance."
Some historians now say that the "bottom up" paradigm for understanding the Nazi dictatorship has... more Some historians now say that the "bottom up" paradigm for understanding the Nazi dictatorship has run its course and interpretations that have gone too far in this direction are now being corrected by renewed attention to the totalitarian “top down” paradigm, which predominated for fifteen or twenty years after the war and emphasized Hitler's use of brute force to get what he wanted. Tracing the historiography on protests, this "Afterword" from Hitler's Compromises: Coercion and Consensus in Nazi Germany (Yale 2016) argues that the top down--bottom up paradigms are not so apt for taking account of popular protests by “German-blooded Aryans," which are particularly well suited to represent the ongoing negotiations between the Führer and Volk about how fast and in what ways Hitler could convince the people to follow him into thinking like he did, when this required transgressing venerated customs.
Papers by Nathan Stoltzfus
German History, 2016
History has focused on Hitler's use of charisma and terror, asserting that the dictator made ... more History has focused on Hitler's use of charisma and terror, asserting that the dictator made few concessions to maintain power. Nathan Stoltzfus, the award-winning author of Resistance of Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Germany, challenges this notion, assessing the surprisingly frequent tactical compromises Hitler made in order to preempt hostility and win the German people's complete fealty. As part of his strategy to secure a "1,000-year Reich", Hitler sought to convince the German people to believe in Nazism so they would perpetuate it permanently and actively shun those who were out of step with society. When widespread public dissent occurred at home which most often happened when policies conflicted with popular traditions or encroached on private life Hitler made careful calculations and acted strategically to maintain his popular image. Extending from the 1920s to the regime's collapse, this revealing history makes a powerful and original argument that will inspire a major rethinking of Hitler's rule.
German Politics and Society, 2020
The most significant World War II battle between Germans and Italians outside of Italy was the Se... more The most significant World War II battle between Germans and Italians outside of Italy was the September 1943 battle for the Greek island of Cephalonia, ending in the post-battle execution by German Mountain Troops of thousands of Italian soldiers. The recent clash between two German groups over what happened illustrates ongoing disputes about guilt and responsibility—how governments, historians, and civilians mobilize facts to write history. The Mountain Troops’ Veterans Association, which has influenced official German memory of the war, used the Cephalonia case to reassert the myth of Wehrmacht innocence, contrary to opinion-shaping Wehrmacht exhibits of the 1990s. In 2010, the federal government, backing a German judicial decision, reasserted the Wehrmacht Myth, despite opposition from Rome, Athens, and an international association of activists, as reports on right-wing extremism in the German police, judiciary, and military have become increasingly prevalent.
Social History
Nazism across Borders is an important global history examining mostly unexplored dimensions of th... more Nazism across Borders is an important global history examining mostly unexplored dimensions of the Nazi scheme of domination and the extinction of competition. Nazi plans extended beyond the destru...
Central European History, 2021
Since the late 20th century,, biographies have had a focus on antisemitism and the Holocaust. The... more Since the late 20th century,, biographies have had a focus on antisemitism and the Holocaust. They have omitted, however, the history of intermarried Jews, who comprised the overwhelming majority of German Jews who survived openly, and which can be understood through the requirements of Hitler's mass movement politics emphasized in early biographies including that of Alan Bullock. Even Hitler's "fundamental decision on the 'Jewish Question', an order issued in December 1938 dividing the some-30,000 intermarried Jews of the Reich into two categories – the privileged and the nonprivileged--has been omitted from Hitler biographies. Although nonprivileged intermarried Jews subsequently wore the yellow star marking them for deportation while the privileged did not, neither category was included in the mass deportations. Hitler’s order was supposed to make the difference between life and death, initially, but it made no difference. One Gestapo practice did remain in place: if a non-Jewish partner agreed to separate under increasingly unbearable pressures, the Jewish partner was deported—but this applied whether the marriage was privileged or nonprivileged.
Closely related to this story of “mixed race marriages” is an overlooked history of the differences that gender made: a German “Aryan” woman married to a nonprivileged Jew lived in a Nazi “Jewish Household,” marked by the yellow star by the front door and subject to arbitrary Gestapo searches. These couples also embodied the most serious form of Rassenschande, or racial defilement: Jewish man and non-Jewish woman. A Jewish woman married to an “Aryan” German on the other hand, lived in a privileged household and was not required to wear the star in public, except in the highly improbable case that the couple had children enrolled in a Jewish Community.
The fascist model for interpreting Hitler's power helps us understand the history of “mixed race marriages” including Hitler’s division of them into two categories and the survival of Jews from both categories equally. Deporting intermarried Jews was seen as possibly damaging to Hitler’s popular image and it could also draw unwanted attention to the fate of the Jews. Looking for the moment to deport intermarried Jews when adoration for Hitler was at a high point, the regime ran out of time in the concluding phases of the war.
Courageous resistance: the power of ordinary …, 2007
Central European History, 2012
The 1963 publication of her “Eichmann in Jerusalem” sparked a debate that still rages over its au... more The 1963 publication of her “Eichmann in Jerusalem” sparked a debate that still rages over its author’s motivations
The Journal of Modern History, 2011
... Stoltzfus, and Douglas R. Wei uer 1 Challenging Modernity: The Origins of Postwar Environment... more ... Stoltzfus, and Douglas R. Wei uer 1 Challenging Modernity: The Origins of Postwar Environmental Protest in the United States 13 Frank Zelko 2 Protecting Nature and Practicing Democracy in West Germany: A Case Study from the Black Forest 41 Sandra Lynn Chaney 3 From ...
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Books by Nathan Stoltzfus
You probably have not heard of the following quote from Hitler because it is so far from common conceptions that he simply turned up Gestapo terror to whatever level necessary to crush any dissent--also within the Reich among his own "race" where he jealously guarded his image as the key to popular consensus:
"Ruling the people in conquered territories is a psychological problem. One cannot rule them by force alone. True, force is decisive, but it is equally important to have that psychological something which the animal trainer needs to master his beasts. They must be convinced that we are the victors."
—Adolf Hitler, Address to Higher Leaders of the Eastern Army, evening of July 1, 1943
See attached article for citation
http://www.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/intros/StoltzfusProtest_intro.pdf
Papers by Nathan Stoltzfus
Closely related to this story of “mixed race marriages” is an overlooked history of the differences that gender made: a German “Aryan” woman married to a nonprivileged Jew lived in a Nazi “Jewish Household,” marked by the yellow star by the front door and subject to arbitrary Gestapo searches. These couples also embodied the most serious form of Rassenschande, or racial defilement: Jewish man and non-Jewish woman. A Jewish woman married to an “Aryan” German on the other hand, lived in a privileged household and was not required to wear the star in public, except in the highly improbable case that the couple had children enrolled in a Jewish Community.
The fascist model for interpreting Hitler's power helps us understand the history of “mixed race marriages” including Hitler’s division of them into two categories and the survival of Jews from both categories equally. Deporting intermarried Jews was seen as possibly damaging to Hitler’s popular image and it could also draw unwanted attention to the fate of the Jews. Looking for the moment to deport intermarried Jews when adoration for Hitler was at a high point, the regime ran out of time in the concluding phases of the war.
You probably have not heard of the following quote from Hitler because it is so far from common conceptions that he simply turned up Gestapo terror to whatever level necessary to crush any dissent--also within the Reich among his own "race" where he jealously guarded his image as the key to popular consensus:
"Ruling the people in conquered territories is a psychological problem. One cannot rule them by force alone. True, force is decisive, but it is equally important to have that psychological something which the animal trainer needs to master his beasts. They must be convinced that we are the victors."
—Adolf Hitler, Address to Higher Leaders of the Eastern Army, evening of July 1, 1943
See attached article for citation
http://www.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/intros/StoltzfusProtest_intro.pdf
Closely related to this story of “mixed race marriages” is an overlooked history of the differences that gender made: a German “Aryan” woman married to a nonprivileged Jew lived in a Nazi “Jewish Household,” marked by the yellow star by the front door and subject to arbitrary Gestapo searches. These couples also embodied the most serious form of Rassenschande, or racial defilement: Jewish man and non-Jewish woman. A Jewish woman married to an “Aryan” German on the other hand, lived in a privileged household and was not required to wear the star in public, except in the highly improbable case that the couple had children enrolled in a Jewish Community.
The fascist model for interpreting Hitler's power helps us understand the history of “mixed race marriages” including Hitler’s division of them into two categories and the survival of Jews from both categories equally. Deporting intermarried Jews was seen as possibly damaging to Hitler’s popular image and it could also draw unwanted attention to the fate of the Jews. Looking for the moment to deport intermarried Jews when adoration for Hitler was at a high point, the regime ran out of time in the concluding phases of the war.
https://www.spiegel.de/politik/der-fuehrer-darf-das-gar-nicht-wissen-a-c27e7961-0002-0001-0000-000046275329. Rather than taking this Spiegel report as a spur to investigate protest, historians have ignored them in a way that continues here -- with a call to recognize civil courage while ignoring these public protests. One possible reason is precisely that, as these police reports show, protests wee effective in winning concessions. And this is in direct contradiction to the great Federal Republic of Germany postwar myth that you could not openly resist the regime and escape punishment/death.
We also learn about human conscience here: "For Klausa, the aitudes of some conservative resisters support Alexander and Margaret Mitscherlich’s conclusion that the conscience of some was bloed out by the Hitler myth during the time of Germany’s blitzkrieg victories, and returned to duty again only with Germany’s defeat. One wonders at such a point whether lemmings or migratory animals in search of food may also be said to possess a conscience."
Closely related to this story of “mixed race marriages” is an overlooked history of the differences that gender made: a German “Aryan” woman married to a nonprivileged Jew lived in a Nazi “Jewish Household,” marked by the yellow star by the front door and subject to arbitrary Gestapo searches. These couples also embodied the most serious form of Rassenschande, or racial defilement: Jewish man and non-Jewish woman. A Jewish woman married to an “Aryan” German on the other hand, lived in a privileged household and was not required to wear the star in public, except in the highly improbable case that the couple had children enrolled in a Jewish Community.
The fascist model for interpreting Hitler's power helps us understand the history of “mixed race marriages” including Hitler’s division of them into two categories and the survival of Jews from both categories equally. Deporting intermarried Jews was seen as possibly damaging to Hitler’s popular image and it could also draw unwanted attention to the fate of the Jews. Looking for the moment to deport intermarried Jews when adoration for Hitler was at a high point, the regime ran out of time in the concluding phases of the war.