And that is why they call me Rolf.

September 30, 2013 5:43 PM

Please suggest books, ideally fiction, about everyday life of common people in wartime Nazi Germany, or other people who ended up on the wrong side of history.

I am not looking for books primarily about military action or the lives of tragically affected populations. I am also not looking for books about characters who, for reasons of narrative convenience, hold the correct opinions and sympathies. I'm curious how authors have handled the subject of banal people who minded their own business until one day they woke up in Nazi Germany or some other actively reprehensible regime. One caveat: I am not looking for books about life in the USSR. Thanks.

posted by Nomyte to Media & Arts (35 answers total)

2666 has an extended portion take place during this time period in this region, but it's sandwiched between hundreds and hundreds of pages about Juarez, Mexico. The parts about Nazi Germany are very, very good.
posted by one_bean at 5:49 PM on September 30, 2013

The Tin Drum, sort of fits the bill.
posted by timsteil at 5:52 PM on September 30, 2013

The Last King of Scotland is a pretty good example of this. Sort of one of those frog-boilers. The guy knew Amin was not that awesome but he stayed working for Amin far longer than he probably should have. The last part of the book is about him trying to extract himself when he's already way too far in. Lively and the movie is good.
posted by jessamyn at 5:53 PM on September 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

I know this isn't ideal as it is nonfiction, but The Jews and Germans of Hamburg was written by a prof of history specifically about common people in wartime Nazi Germany and how they lived side by side cooperatively for so long. I mean, it was written to answer your question. Fascinating stuff. Yes, very expensive, as it is being used as a textbook. But oh boy is it worth it.
posted by janey47 at 6:06 PM on September 30, 2013

I've enjoyed the movie Swing Kids. Wikipedia describes it as follows: "In pre-World War II Germany, two high school students, Peter Müller (Robert Sean Leonard) and Thomas Berger (Christian Bale), attempt to be swing kids by night and Hitler Youth by day, a decision that acutely impacts their friends and families."
posted by Nickel at 6:06 PM on September 30, 2013 [3 favorites]

The Ogre, by Michel Tournier, later made into a film by Volker Schlöndorff. It's about a mildly cognitively disabled man who recruits children to the Nazi Party.

He does do a "right thing" at the end, though.
posted by Sticherbeast at 6:07 PM on September 30, 2013

Copperhead, based on a book by the same name, is about a farmer living in upstate New York during the American Civil War. He's not an abolitionist (though he's not exactly pro-slavery, either), not quite a pacifist, but he opposes Lincoln and the war and thinks the South should be allowed to go.

The book was written in 1893, so it's somewhat contemporary to the events it's depicting.
posted by lharmon at 6:11 PM on September 30, 2013

Ursula Heigi's Stones from the River
posted by chapps at 6:38 PM on September 30, 2013 [4 favorites]

I can't tell from your question whether the various films about Sophie Scholl (which I refuse to watch despite the best efforts of Netflix) fit the bill.

There's Das Versprechen, but it might be verging into 'Life in the USSR' territory.

There's some German movie that takes place in a small town where a woman starts asking questions about what people actually did during the war. I keep thinking it's Das Versprechen, but that doesn't fit the plot at all. I'll see if I can jog a friend's memory.

Oh, and there's Heimat, all billion hours of it.
posted by hoyland at 6:56 PM on September 30, 2013

Hitler's Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War and the Nazi Welfare State is not a fictional narrative but it does focus on the common folk, everyday, ordinary people, people who were not Nazi activists or members of persecuted groups and how the Nazi regime was able to buy their loyalty during the war.
posted by jason's_planet at 7:03 PM on September 30, 2013

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society takes place in the aftermath of a German occupation of Guernsey Island. Fictional sweet novel which takes place in this backdrop. Great read, highly recommended.
posted by hydra77 at 7:09 PM on September 30, 2013

City of Women by David Gillham might fit the bill. Many of the characters are ultimately on the right side of history, but most of them start from a place of indifference at best, and their position on the right side of things is often tenuous, in my opinion. It's also totally engrossing--well-written and well-researched, and terrifying in its banality.
posted by MeghanC at 7:13 PM on September 30, 2013

Mal Peet's novels Tamar and Life: An Exploded Diagram would sort of work. Tamar is set during WWII and while some of the characters are involved in the Resistance, a lot of the book is about daily life in Holland, love affairs, farm stuff, whatever. It's good. People do mostly have the right political sympathies but a lot of them are also otherwise terrible, which is an interesting angle.
posted by goodbyewaffles at 7:22 PM on September 30, 2013

The Reader by Bernard Schlink explores this kind of thing. Although the character 'on the wrong side' is not innocent, her culpability, and the idea of collective guilt is a key idea in the book.
posted by jojobobo at 7:22 PM on September 30, 2013

Böll's Group Portrait with Lady fits the bill nicely. Also, almost all of Grass' work, as has been mentioned before. I also highly rcommend Siegfried Lenz, for instance his novel Heimatmuseum, in English The heritage. Lenz isn't well known in the English speaking world, but in Germany, he is considered to be (almost) on the same level as Grass and Böll.
posted by tecg at 7:28 PM on September 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

seconding 2666. It's a phenomenal book, and the nazi germany parts are life-changing.
posted by serif at 7:37 PM on September 30, 2013

In the event that you might be interested in a historical approach, Mothers in the Fatherland is a fascinating look at the lives of women, families, and children (and how these spheres were politicized) during the Third Reich.
posted by scody at 7:37 PM on September 30, 2013

Those Who Save Us fits the bill, I picked it up by chance at a used book store and was pleasantly surprised.
posted by julie_of_the_jungle at 7:49 PM on September 30, 2013

The recently republished Transit by Anna Seghers is about the hell the civilian population of occupied Europe went through to try to escape. Ultimately, political beliefs melt away in the face of endless, stultifying bureaucracy. It's a wonderful novel that reads like Kafka's Casablanca.
posted by Bromius at 8:00 PM on September 30, 2013

Mischling, Second Degree is a memoir, but reads like a novel, about a young woman growing up in Nazi Germany. Her grandmother is Jewish, but she lives as an Aryan and actually becomes a leader in the Nazi Youth. I haven't read it since I was a kid, but it definitely left a strong impression.
posted by lunasol at 8:27 PM on September 30, 2013

Time's Arrow by Martin Amis.
posted by alms at 8:49 PM on September 30, 2013 [3 favorites]

Perhaps The Book Thief fits the bill? It's a really good novel set in Nazi Germany featuring ordinary people, and it's also really well-written and plotted.
posted by acridrabbit at 8:58 PM on September 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

The St-Cyr and Kohler Mysteries by J. Robert Janes.

"Marilyn Stasio, of the New York Times, very kindly stated on 8 Oct. 2009: 'Who's left to give the brides away? Who investigates civilian crimes like robbery and murder? Those are the kinds of questions posed by J. Robert Janes in a brilliant series of policiers set in Vichy France during the German Occupation.' "
posted by mlis at 9:33 PM on September 30, 2013

Non-Fic recommendation: The works of Gitta Sereny.
posted by Artw at 10:55 PM on September 30, 2013

'Every Man Dies Alone' aka 'Alone in Berlin' by Hans Fallada.
posted by misteraitch at 11:48 PM on September 30, 2013

The Remains of the Day. so good.
posted by changeling at 11:53 PM on September 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

Victor Klemperer's diaries of life in Nazi Germany (Dresden): 1933-1941, 1942-1945. Tough reads but very well worth it.
posted by orrnyereg at 1:42 AM on October 1, 2013

Seconding Heinrich Bell's Group Portrait With Lady. Marvellous novel for which the author won the Nobel Prize.
posted by goo at 1:45 AM on October 1, 2013

everyday life of common people in wartime Nazi Germany

As I understand it, The Remains of the Day doesn't really fulfil the OP's requirements, except very tangentially. But i think you are right, it is a good read.
posted by Mister Bijou at 2:43 AM on October 1, 2013 [1 favorite]

Non-fiction: Erik Larson's "In the Garden of Beasts," a quick and interesting read about William Dodd, the US Ambassador to Germany beginning in 1933. The Nazis were in power, but not in total power, so he and his adult daughter Martha (and adult son, but his narrative is brief as he didn't do a lot of writing that found its way into the book) were the witnesses to the rise of the brownshirts, the destruction/absorption of the SA by the SS, the "Night of the Long Knives," and so on. Martha Dodd was in denial about the threat of the Nazis in Germany in part because of her observations of apparent normalcy for the early years of this period.

It's not quite on point, but it came to mind instantly on your question.
posted by Sunburnt at 6:48 AM on October 1, 2013 [2 favorites]

An Artist of the Floating World is a novel set in Japan after World War II, and the main character is an artist who drew military propaganda during the war, and comes to terms with his past. I loved it.

You might also be interested in Milton Mayer's book "They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45," which is a study of ten members of the Nazi party in a small German town. Really interesting and really, really troubling.
posted by Rinku at 7:48 AM on October 1, 2013

Two series of mystery novels set in this period:

Philip Kerr's written a string of novels with German detective Bernie Gunther, all excellent. The action takes place before, during and after the war.

Not quite as good, David Downing's station books feature Anglo-American journalist John Russell, stuck in Berlin for the duration because of his German girlfriend and son.
posted by Rash at 9:45 AM on October 1, 2013 [1 favorite]

Not a book, but Letters from Iwo Jima.
posted by Ndwright at 12:03 PM on October 1, 2013

You may like The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood, which deals with people's lives during the rise of the Nazis. I certainly did.
posted by zorseshoes at 5:17 PM on October 1, 2013 [1 favorite]

Diary of a Man in Despair is like the Diary of Anne Frank written by a depressed middle-aged German. He knows Hitler is evil and feels that his entire country has failed him. It's non-fiction but very readable.
posted by shii at 8:49 PM on October 1, 2013 [1 favorite]