The gripping stories of ordinary Germans who lived through World War II, the Holocaust, and Cold War partition-but also recovery, reunification, and rehabilitation

Broken Lives is a gripping account of the twentieth century as seen through the eyes of ordinary Germans who came of age under Hitler and whose lives were scarred and sometimes destroyed by what they saw and did.

Drawing on six dozen memoirs by the generation of Germans born in the 1920s, Konrad Jarausch chronicles the unforgettable stories of people who not only lived through the Third Reich, World War II, the Holocaust, and Cold War partition, but also participated in Germany's astonishing postwar recovery, reunification, and rehabilitation. Written decades after the events, these testimonies, many of them unpublished, look back on the mistakes of young people caught up in the Nazi movement. In many, early enthusiasm turns to deep disillusionment as the price of complicity with a brutal dictatorship--fighting at the front, aerial bombardment at home, murder in the concentration camps-becomes clear.

Bringing together the voices of men and women, perpetrators and victims, Broken Lives reveals the intimate human details of historical events and offers new insights about persistent questions. Why did so many Germans support Hitler through years of wartime sacrifice and Nazi inhumanity? How did they finally distance themselves from this racist dictatorship and come to embrace human rights? Jarausch argues that this generation's focus on its own suffering, often maligned by historians, ultimately led to a more critical understanding of national identity-one that helped transform Germany from a military aggressor into a pillar of European democracy.

The result is a powerful account of the everyday experiences and troubling memories of average Germans who journeyed into, through, and out of the abyss of a dark century.

About the Author
Konrad H. Jarausch is the Lurcy Professor of European Civilization at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His many books include Out of Ashes: A New History of Europe in the Twentieth Century and Reluctant Accomplice: A Wehrmacht Soldier's Letters from the Eastern Front (both Princeton). He lives in Chapel Hill and Berlin.

Reviews
"One of Kirkus Reviews' Best Nonfiction Books of 2018"
"Smithsonian: Best History Books of 2018"
"One of Choice Reviews' Outstanding Academic Titles of 2018"
"A revealing study of the lives of 'ordinary Germans' under the Third Reich and its aftermath. . . . A provocative addition to a vast literature: Jarausch's history complicates our understanding of German society during the early decades of the 20th century." * Kirkus *
"It's a wide-ranging, panoramic, revealing treatment, and for the most part, it's very dark. . . . For those who seek to understand the German experience in the twentieth century, Jarausch has done a tremendous service."---Cass R. Sunstein, New York Review of Books
"[A] fascinating study."---Neil Gregor, Literary Review
"Well written, well researched, and analytical, this publication provides considerable insight into comprehending how it is possible for a phoenix to rise from the ashes and how resilience can be a national virtue."---Stuart McClung, New York Journal of Books
"Jarausch is a class act as a researcher. Every pronouncement is carefully weighed and underpinned with evidence. His thorough, considered approach epitomises social history at its very best. . . . Through the medium of memoirs, Broken Lives offers an explanation for Germany's dramatic reversal of fortunes from catastrophe to civility."---Hester Vaizey, Times Higher Education
"Jarausch's steady technique gives the story continuity, as he traces the experiences of . . . young people coping with their inclusion into Nazi life."---Jonathan Steinberg, The Spectator
"Broken Lives . . . shows how World War I defeat did not lead to repentance in a country that had become theologically liberal or atheistic, but plans for revenge. For several years ordinary non-Jewish Germans rode high and thrilled to accounts of military victory, but their comeuppance was severe. All Germans suffered for a decade starting in 1942, and for those in the east torment lasted for nearly a half-century."---Marvin Olasky, World (25 Good History Reads)



Book Information
ISBN 9780691174587
Author Konrad H. Jarausch
Format Hardback
Page Count 464
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publisher Princeton University Press