{"id":33604,"date":"2019-11-08T03:40:13","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T11:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=33604"},"modified":"2019-11-06T22:26:28","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T06:26:28","slug":"critical-short-look-at-nazism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2019\/11\/08\/critical-short-look-at-nazism\/","title":{"rendered":"Critical, short look at Nazism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oxford University Press launched the first of its \u201cVery Short Introductions\u201d in 1995. Since then, the series has reached more than 600 volumes, which have been translated into 45 languages. To write the most recent in this series, Nazi Germany: A Very Short Introduction<\/em> (2019), OUP made the happy choice of venerated Oxford historian Dr. Jane Caplan.<\/p>\n

In what seems like an almost insurmountable challenge, Caplan succeeds in describing the details of the \u201chorrifying\u201d main events of this historical catastrophe, and identifying its main criminals, without simplifying. And she writes with an \u201cedge\u201d that is missing in many history narratives: thus, she speaks of the \u201cinsolence\u201d of the Nazis\u2019 manipulation of language into \u201csickening euphemisms\u201d; of the \u201cfraudulent artifice\u201d of Nazi political and social institutions; and of the \u201cultimate disgrace\u201d Nazism proved to be, to the Germans and their country.<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>In describing how ordinary citizens lived through \u201cthe horror of Nazism,\u201d Caplan offers many quotations from speeches, newspapers, memoirs, journals and diaries to demonstrate the reich\u2019s totality of control over German culture and communications. This total control led to \u201ca redefinition of automatic habits of thought and behaviour,\u201d from clothes to be worn, to facial expressions to be shown, to the demands for \u201cHitlerschnitt<\/em>\u201d (forced sterilization), and even to the details of the \u201cHitlergrusse<\/em>\u201d (that is, \u201cHeil Hitler\u201d) and what happened to those who didn\u2019t raise their arms in the prescribed way and time.<\/p>\n

More than 20% of this compact volume is given over to details of the Holocaust, which Caplan describes with both insight and anger, although rightly insisting that a study of Nazism must not be \u201cconfined\u201d to this \u201cultimate horror.\u201d For there are other lessons to be learned from Nazi Germany, especially for citizens of the 21st century, with its alarming return to populist beliefs and behaviours. Nazism reminds us, she says, of the dangers of \u201cthe exploitation of popular fears and resentments, the retreat of confidence in public institutions, the structural power of economic and political elites, the weaponization of prejudice, and the eternal temptation to turn a blind eye.\u201d<\/p>\n

In brief, anyone who likes history served at the traditional historian\u2019s arm\u2019s-length would be well-advised to avoid this caustic, openly judgmental, short, but long-remembered volume.<\/p>\n

Graham Forst,<\/em><\/strong> PhD, taught literature and philosophy at Capilano University until his retirement and now teaches in the continuing education department at Simon Fraser University. From 1975 to 2010, he co-chaired the symposium committee of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oxford University Press launched the first of its \u201cVery Short Introductions\u201d in 1995. Since then, the series has reached more than 600 volumes, which have been translated into 45 languages. To write the most recent in this series, Nazi Germany: A Very Short Introduction (2019), OUP made the happy choice of venerated Oxford historian Dr. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[3076,53,9447,2051,9448,9449],"class_list":["post-33604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-education","tag-holocaust","tag-jane-caplan","tag-nazism","tag-oup","tag-oxford-university-press"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}