I've just finished reading the book for the first time and can only echo what was said before; a MUST read! If you happen to be able to read german I would strongly recommend that you read
the most up to date original here, since it covers things that were left out in the english versions. And as usual, some things get lost in the translation that can hardly be transported into another language.
Haffner's ability to pierce through and focus on the underling psychological conditions that led and fueled the madness are just incredible (both on a personal and collective level). It is one of those books in which you will find more than just one "Aha!" moment. The book is of tremendous value IMO and shines a piercing clear light on questions like "how was it possible that pretty much a whole country was turned into NAZIS?" and even those who were opposed to all of it? It also makes pretty clear that the usual saying of germans in that generation, of saying "but we couldn't see what was happening" was basically a lie from the get go, that relied on willful ignorance on every corner.
Especially his description of the historical psychological context and the steps of how a pathological system was able to subvert, step by step, even the most opposed people, is utterly fascinating and insightful. What especially struck me here is his description of the nefariously clever way (in a demonic sense) the NAZIS went about indoctrinating basically the whole society, so that even those who thought they were against Hitler were actually trained to become NAZIS, while believing that they did the exact opposite, till the bitter and. Even though the book was never finished, it already provides so much data that I've never seen so brilliantly written out about the whole development of this phenomena. As the german version makes clear, he probably wrote the book in 1939, so quite a time before the worst even started. What also struck me is the devilish clever way the NAZIS used the human instinct of camaraderie/fellowship to turn people into NAZIS, step by step, eating away their souls and humanity. It is also clear that very early on in 1933 the agenda of the NAZIS was pretty clear to see.
It should also be remembered that Haffner's description at the end of how he himself got indoctrinated through this camaraderie manipulations wasn't just something the NAZIS did to the male population. They did the same things to woman ("
National Socialist Women's League" for example) and children in things like the "
League of German Girls" (for girls) and "Hitler Youth" (for boys). Basically the whole population, from man to woman to children, was deeply indoctrinated, chiefly through camaraderie manipulation. It basically amounts to what Jordan Peterson would probably call "Tribalism" enforced on every sector of society by Psychopaths. What struck me especially is the devilishly clever way the NAZIS went about programming non-violent anti NAZI future judges like himself into full armed and trained NAZI soldiers through "camaraderie", by carefully instilling in them the illusion that they fight against Hitler, while in fact they did the opposite. Basically; the best prisoners are those who don't realize they are in prison.
The description on how the chain of command changed after the first two weeks in the indoctrination camp, from full, stark and open NAZI types, into "benevolent military officials" who even encouraged making fun of Hitler and the NAZIS and furthered "open discourse against Hitler" is also very interesting. This very well thought through and planned psychological manipulation only really started/took root at that point, when they trusted the "good military commanders" who "replaced the bad ones" when the "good commanders" cleverly started to play on the humiliation feelings most if not all germans had distilled in them decades earlier through the lie of a lost war that was actually won. Without the lost first world war and all the illusions and lies that were instilled in innocent children back then, who for the most part saw the war as some sort of mechanically exiting sports play, in which germans had to win, the NAZIS would have had a much harder time. The NAZIS basically used the already pathologically infused psychological makeup that most germans were inflicted with before, during and after the first war, also by things like the hyperinflation and the "Revolution", to manipulate even anti NAZI germans to become NAZIS by playing on raw and unconscious emotions that were felt by those people in their childhoods back then. Taking it all together, it smells strongly like a "higher hand" was at play here, aka 4D STS, manipulating/programming a whole society over decades or even centuries.
Also, especially interesting is his description how the first thing that changed in those "camaraderie" camps was the language that they had to use. Instead of "Sie" people had to address echother with "du". For non germans; in german we normally use "Sie" instead of "du" when we talk to strangers and/or authority figures or elders which carries respect in it. This doesn't exist in many other languages. "Du" means "you" in english, while "Sie" has not really a counterpart in english. „Sie“ is a distanced way of addressing someone instead of "du", and we mostly us it when talking to strangers, authority figures, old people and respectable people in general. "Sie" also carries quite some meaning of respect toward the other person with it.
Not only that, the whole language got childish, simple minded and obscene, instead of rich in meaning, decency and thought. Interestingly, again we see a parallel to today, where globally language has been dumped down and obscenities have become the norm. By the way, today in germany, "Sie" is also used increasingly seldom, especially by the younger generations. Also, the behavior of grown up future judges quickly reverted back to childish behavior in those camps. We can see the same today as well.
I could go on and on, the book is so rich.
