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![Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)](/uploads/profile_image/0d3/061aa851-0c75-42dd-90b7-d14b42c380d3.jpg?m=1527794647)
Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Movie
Count Dracula moves from Transylvania to the German city of Wismar, where he sets his vampiric...
Phantom der Nacht Phantom of the Night West German Vampire
![40x40](/uploads/profile_image/0e3/630e4ff5-bfdf-4760-9e37-29f3ad9090e3.jpg?m=1522362006)
ClareR (5637 KP) rated Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945-1955 in Books
Feb 1, 2022
This is such an informative, interesting book about a period in German history that I know little about: 1945-1955. It shows that German cities were pretty much decimated by the end of the war, that ex-Nazi party members were forced to clean up the rubble and that most importantly, many Germans thought that they were hard done by, by the end of the war - their country in ruins, no industry and no food. But what’s most startling, is how quickly the German recovery was. Jähner states that this was in large part due to the return of the Germans who had been living in occupied countries.
The black market was also a huge earner for many German citizens: one teenager is described as having thousands of Marks worth of cigarettes in his house. Money was there to be made for the improvising, bold, German!
What probably resonated with me most, was the lot of the German woman. They had been expected to be the perfect German Female during National Socialism, then experienced a kind of social and sexual liberation after the end of the war. However, when their husbands and men returned from captivity (or just made their ways home), they found themselves being expected to revert to the stereotypical role of the housewife. But they wanted more. They wanted to continue in careers, they wanted equality, and they didn’t necessarily want to deal with broken, defeated husbands (as cruel as this may seem).
What really surprised me, was how was how former Nazi party members still worked in positions of influence, both politically and in industry - and this was the case in both East and West Germany. Even though the Allies made a point of ‘educating’ German citizens about the holocaust, National Socialists seemed to largely escape punishment and carried on with their lives. Their children may have had their doubts as to their parents innocence, and the real movement to ‘out’ the national guilt didn’t really get going until the 1960’s, but there was dissent in the 1950’s already.
I could go on. This is such an interesting book, and written so accessibly. It didn’t read at all like a dry history book, and the photos and posters from the time are well chosen and really add to the book as a whole. This isn’t just a history book for history buffs.
The black market was also a huge earner for many German citizens: one teenager is described as having thousands of Marks worth of cigarettes in his house. Money was there to be made for the improvising, bold, German!
What probably resonated with me most, was the lot of the German woman. They had been expected to be the perfect German Female during National Socialism, then experienced a kind of social and sexual liberation after the end of the war. However, when their husbands and men returned from captivity (or just made their ways home), they found themselves being expected to revert to the stereotypical role of the housewife. But they wanted more. They wanted to continue in careers, they wanted equality, and they didn’t necessarily want to deal with broken, defeated husbands (as cruel as this may seem).
What really surprised me, was how was how former Nazi party members still worked in positions of influence, both politically and in industry - and this was the case in both East and West Germany. Even though the Allies made a point of ‘educating’ German citizens about the holocaust, National Socialists seemed to largely escape punishment and carried on with their lives. Their children may have had their doubts as to their parents innocence, and the real movement to ‘out’ the national guilt didn’t really get going until the 1960’s, but there was dissent in the 1950’s already.
I could go on. This is such an interesting book, and written so accessibly. It didn’t read at all like a dry history book, and the photos and posters from the time are well chosen and really add to the book as a whole. This isn’t just a history book for history buffs.
![40x40](/uploads/profile_image/741/760d7d67-3bb8-48a5-b0da-a4888f64c741.jpg?m=1613990171)
Dennis Lehane recommended M (Movie) (1931) in Movies (curated)
![Rommel's Spy: Operation Condor and the Desert War](/uploads/profile_image/aae/956a2462-4601-4411-96d5-fd441ee69aae.jpg?m=1522330899)
Rommel's Spy: Operation Condor and the Desert War
Book
In 1942, John Eppler was one of two German spies inserted behind British lines in Egypt after an...
TM
The Men Who Breached the Dams
Book
Alan Cooper writes about an operation which at the time and ever since has captured the imagination...
![Went The Day Well? (1942)](/uploads/profile_image/e42/c4b15c9c-0768-48a7-b978-51ef9d0a6e42.jpg?m=1613981477)
Went The Day Well? (1942)
Movie
An English village is occupied by disguised German paratroopers as an advance post for a planned...