BOOK. It's not that often we get to hear about WWII from a German citizen perspective. But here's your chance!
From the viewpoint of a German
So, these days we celebrate that it is 75 years since WWII ended and I thought it was a fitting moment to put something on the blog that related to those dark years in the world’s history. ‘Cause I agree with people who say that no matter how terrible it was or how many times it has been discussed already (and it certainly has), it is still very important for us never to forget about it.
But! What to choose among the thousands and thousands of books, movies, tv-series, exhibitions, podcasts - you name it - there are on the subject out there?
Well, the reason why I landed on this particular book was that it has some qualities that fit my blog’s down-to-earth approach to ‘history’ very well. For instance, it mixes a personal telling of the wartime with a view on the overall history as it unfolds.
Also, the story is told from the viewpoint of a German…well, two Germans actually: The main character, Heinz Drossel, and the Jewish woman he ends up marrying after the war, Marianne Hirschfeld.
This I find really interesting since I believe it is not t h a t often we get to hear how it was like to live a life as a German citizen in the country whose leader sent the whole world to war.
All is good until…
I guess most of us know roughly what happened in the years around and during WWII, right? But…what happened when - more precisely? When it comes to dates and years I certainly get a little lost, and also I have to admit that there are happenings I’ve forgotten all about. Also, there are quite a lot of details on a more personal level that I’ve never been told, but after reading “Staying Human” I know a whole lot more in this department.
Stegelmann’s book is a telling not only about the wartime itself, but also about the time before and after, and so we start following the main character, Heinz Drossel, in the 1920s. Drossel is born in Berlin in 1916 and as a boy, he spends most of his time running errands for his father who owns a linen shop. Also, he is busy making new friends with the people in the ‘Tempelhof’ neighbourhood, a place where quite a lot of orthodox Jews from Eastern Europe lived at the time.
All is good more or less…or, well, at least until the world economy starts falling to pieces and a certain Adolf Hitler officially enters the political scene.
1933 is a landmark year in this context. On a national-political level the Nazi party is not only the biggest party in Germany, but also its leader, A. Hitler, succeeds in getting appointed a Chancellor (this happens in January 1933).
And from here it is full speed ahead, so to speak. Here are a few headlines:
1933 - February: The parliament building in Berlin, the “Reichstag”, burns, and as you can see in the photo below the fire spread violently. Hitler accuses the Communist party of being behind, and immediately he puts a so-called “Emergency Regulation for the Protection of the People and the State” into effect. The way Hitler chose to “protect the people and the state” was, for example, to ban basic rights such as freedom of the press and the right to gather and form societies.
[Burning of the Reichstag, Berlin, February 1933]
1933 - late February: 40.000 men from the SA and the SS - two of the most well known militaristic groups in Nazi Germany which were created in order to intimidate or exterminate their rivals - were appointed as assistant policemen by Berlin’s Police Chief. The new team was demanded the “indiscriminate use of guns”.
1933 - late February: During the campaign leading up to the German general election of 1933, 1000s of Communists were arrested.
1933 - March: At the general election the Nazi Party got 44% of the votes. Four weeks later Hitler pushes through a law that allows him to rule the country around the parliament.
1933 - March: A number of actions happened, like: The Communist Party was banned, and numerous officials were suspended and replaced by Nazi party members.
1933 - April: The new rule turn their attention towards the Jews: A mass firing of Jewish doctors, professors, teachers, etc takes place. Also, Jews could no longer frequent cafés, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, sports events, and so on, and neither was it possible for Jewish children to go to public schools anymore.
The terror had begun.
The world’s largest concentration camp
Through the years Heinz Drossel had seen the changes coming with his own two eyes. In the streets of Berlin, noisy protests and fights occurred, noses were bloodied and streetcars were tipped over. Communists fought against SA squads and Nazis against Social Democrats. Some of the turmoil happened right in front of the Drossel family’s linen shop, and when the year turned to 1933 Heinz himself, now c. 17 years old, was ready to take some action.
First, he formed a book club that only read authors whose books had been ordered burned during May that same year. Also, he wished to join a resistance group, but as it turned out people were too scared of being revealed by the secret police, so the group was never organised. At this time some of the first concentration camps had already been built and horrifying reports about the conditions in these places started to spread.
[Book burning, Germany 1933]
When we reach 1938, Heinz Drossel knows that the political situation is so tense that war is unavoidable. That year he returns from Italy after having visited one of his aunts and he remembers saying to himself: “Now you go back into the world’s largest concentration camp which is called Germany, you stupid dog”.
And so the war began, and 1 December 1939, Heinz Drossel enters the military.
Severe scars on mind and soul
Alongside the story of Heinz Drossel, we also hear about a young Jewish woman, Marianne Hirschfeld. The two of them meet during dramatic circumstances when Drossel saves her from committing suicide as she was preparing to jump off a bridge in Berlin during the war.
Through Hirschfeld’s story, we are told about the situation of the German Jews in Berlin, and how she experiences this on a personal level. Which, of course, is not a pretty read. For instance, she lets us know how Jews were only permitted to buy certain types of products (only the basic goods). In order to prevent anyone from cheating, they were handed out German Marks marked with a ”J”, however, now and then Marianne succeeded in getting hold of unmarked Marks which gave her access to the ‘forbidden’ groceries such as sugar, eggs and fat. But acting against the rules was a dangerous affair…which you can read more about in the book.
[Nazis urging Germans not to buy from Jews]
After endless struggles - including Marianne being arrested several times by the secret police, the Gestapo, and a whole lot more - she survives the war. But not without severe scars on her mind and soul.
Shortly after the war is over she and Heinz coincidentally bumps into each other - and they even end up getting married.
Always stay human
Now, while Marianne Hirschfeld is doing the best she can, navigating the dangerous streets of Berlin, Heinz Drossel is busy staying out of the line of fire on the battlefield.
First, he is sent to the Luxemburg border, then Belgium, then France. Next is Poland, and in late 1941 he is fighting somewhere between St Petersburg and Moscow. The situation was hopeless, mildly put, including the weather. The Russian winter offered low temperatures, as low as minus 40C (104F), and when one of his superiors applied to the army’s main headquarters for permission to retreat, this was declined. “The Führer demanded that the position be held to the last man” they were told. However, shortly after, his commander in chief decided to allow his men to withdraw, even without permission from Berlin. But the withdrawal was disastrous. Of 360 men only 37 survived, among which Heinz Drossel himself.
[Heinz Drossel at the front]
At this point, Heinz Drossel truly hated the Nazis, Stegelmann writes. Not only had Drossel and his men been abandoned on the Eastern Front, but he had also, earlier that same year, seen a mass grave in Lithuania. And he had witnessed how SS officers had ordered German soldiers to execute a group of civilians into this grave. Even a 6-year-old boy was among the victims. Rumours among the German people said that these massacres of civilians only was propaganda, but Heinz Drossel now knew that it was actually true.
The war arena sure was an ugly place and it was not easy for a man like Drossel who, ever since he’d been a young child, had learned that the most important thing to do was to stay human. “Always stay human, my boy”, the priest in his local Catholic Church had told him, “even in hard times. And even when a sacrifice is demanded of you”. During the war, we hear how Heinz not only helps his future wife, Marianne but also how he manages to rescue several Russian soldiers from being executed - even though he puts his own life at risk by doing so.
Hitler’s army was not undefeatable
I vaguely remember being taught at school about “German soldiers being trapped in Russia” and that the extreme Russian winter had a role to play in the defeat of the Germans. Perhaps you do too?
The overall world history tells us that in November 1942 - c. one year after Heinz Drossel and his battalion experienced the disastrous retreat on the Eastern Front - 220.000 German soldiers were trapped in Stalingrad after a Soviet counteroffensive had been launched. A high positioned German general recommended Hitler that an attempt to escape should be made - but, similar to Drossel’s situation, Hitler refused. The result was that over 200.000 German soldiers lost their lives whilst, on the Soviet side, over 1 million people had died.
[The Battle of Stalingrad]
In Stegelmann’s book, a personal perspective is added to the big picture, ‘cause we learn that even though the Germans were defeated at the Battle of Stalingrad, Heinz Drossel and several other of his anti-Nazi countrymen actually saw it in a rather positive light. Not the fight itself, but they started hoping that the defeat marked a swift end to the war and to the fall of the Nazi-regime.
“German soldiers hoping for the fall of the Nazi-regime”. This is not the first thing that comes to my mind when thinking of WWII. However, I do know that there were a number of anti-Nazis among the German population during the war, so perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised.
Anyway, after the defeat of Stalingrad in late 1942 / beginning of 1943, Heinz Drossel and his mates no longer believe that Germany can win the war. Hitler’s army was not undefeatable, as they had witnessed themselves. Actually they now knew that it was relatively poorly prepared and poorly provisioned too.
But as we all know, from late 1942 / early 1943 there were still more than two years of war ahead of them and so Heinz continued his life as a soldier. Terrible things happen around him - and to him - all of which you can read more about in the book.
The German people felt betrayed
While there were joy and celebration in most of the world’s countries after the end of the war had been announced, the situation in Germany was understandably quite different. “During the first post-war months, the majority of the population was overwhelmed by existential questions, material needs, hunger, and ‘moral blues’”, Stegelmann writes. Germany had lost the war, and the Nazi propaganda - which had promised victory all the way to the end - was uncovered as a great lie. Of course, everyone was relieved that the horrible times were over, but “The people felt betrayed”, Stegelmann tells us. Also, many of them were afraid that they would be punished.
In the bombed-out city, Heinz met Marianne, and as you already know they soon after get married. The dark days of the war were over all right, but the times that lay ahead were not exactly trouble-free either.
[Marianne and Heinz]
In the last third of the book, we are told about the post-war situation which not only involved the scarcity of food and the political tensions between the USSR in the East and America, Britain, and France in the West. It also had to do with how Germany, as a nation, managed - and not managed - to move on from there.
De-Nazification
Shortly after the war, Heinz completes his legal studies, and some years later he manages to get a position as an associate judge in a regional court in Berlin. Getting hold of a job was really difficult, so you’d think he was absolutely thrilled, and probably he was. But not for long, ‘cause soon he witnessed how many of the lawyers he worked with - persons who, during the post-war years, had officially declared themselves to be “de-Nazified” - had opinions and perspectives that had not changed the least since the war. “One of the preceding judges even wore a uniform (without insignia) and boots under his robes”, Drossel tells us. He couldn’t understand this. And neither could he understand how the others just accepted this without protest.
This uniform-and-boots experience happened in 1954 and it was not a one-off. Only two years earlier - in 1952 - the first Chancellor of West Germany, Konrad Adenauer, had publicly admitted that c. 65% of the higher-ranked officials in the foreign office and c. 80% of the political division chiefs were former Nazi members. Actually this re-employment of former prominent individuals in the Nazi state had begun already in 1951.
[De-Nazification]
Heinz Drossel was, mildly put, depressed by the whole situation, and so was his wife, Marianne. They decided to seek permission to emigrate, and how that turned out you’ll have to read in the book.
A SHORT NOTE ABOUT DE-NAZIFICATION
👉 De-nazifikation was an Allied initiative to rid Germany and Austria of the National Socialist ideology (Nazism) - in society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics.
👉 It was carried out by removing those who officially had been supporting the Nazis - like Nazi Party members, SS, etc - from their positions of power and influence.
👉 In late 1945 and early 1946, the western powers and the United States, in particular lost their interest in the program. Reasons for this were the emergence of the Cold War, the economic importance of Germany, and a lack of Allied manpower to run the de-nazification effort.
👉 The de-nazification project was officially being abolished in 1951.
👉 The program was hugely unpopular in (West) Germany and was opposed by the new West German government of Konrad Adenauer.
(Source: Wikipedia)
The shadows of the war
The question: “How to deal with war and - not least - with a post-war period, if you want to make things right?” is indeed a difficult one to answer.
In her description of the years from the 1940s till the 1980s Katharina Stegelmann touches some sore spots. Like when she describes how Marianne Hirschfeld had a most difficult time dealing with the shadows of the war: “Perhaps it would have helped her if the social climate had been other than it was, if the public had been willing to discuss the Nazi past more openly and honestly”, Katharina Stegelmann points out. Also, she reports that it took a long time before the German society truly was willing to distance itself from the perpetrators of the past. According to her, it was not until May 8, 1985, on the 40th anniversary of the end of the war, that the first public voice spoke of the “Nazi tyranny”.
These years more and more books, movies, articles, etc about WWII are made and the whole world continues to speak about it. More details see the light of day, more perspectives are added to the picture. Katharina Stegelmann’s “Staying Human - The Story of a Quiet WWII Hero” is one of them, and definitely one I recommend.
In my opinion
What I really like about “Staying Human” ⭐
I like how the personal story of WWII is mixed with the overall history. This way of telling makes you understand the war situation on a personal level. Suddenly you can relate to the people who lived back then, and in that sense, WWII is not “just” history, but also a situation we all potentially could experience ourselves.
Katharina Stegelmann tells you about the war, but also about the time before and after. In this way, you get a better understanding of the war itself, and of the post-war years. Reading the book you sense that the “handling of the post-war” still is something that is discussed - at least to some extent - in Germany today.
All in all, I like that Stegelmann has written this book about the “quiet WWII hero”, Heinz Drossel. He was not a leader, not a person who is mentioned in the big history books, but still, his contribution to the war and the post-war was important to many people. I wonder how many other ‘Drossels’ there are (were) out there…it certainly would be interesting to know!
Some notes I made 📝
Stegelmann walks down some historical side roads and touches upon themes that relate to the main story. For example the theme of the inequality that existed between men and women in the 1950s and onwards. It’s really interesting to read about this, but I’d say that some of these side roads deserve a separate book.
If Stegelmann had added a timeline to her book where the events of Heinz Drossel and Marianne Hirschfeld were marked alongside the big events in history I’d be very happy. Also, a map showing some of the places that are mentioned would be nice.
F U N F A C T S
📇 The author, Katharina Stegelmann, is a German journalist. She works for “Der Spiegel”, a German weekly news magazine.
📰 She first wrote an article about Heinz Drossel, but soon she decided that she wanted to tell his story in more detail. Heinz Drossel agreed to help her.
🥾🕰 In the book, Heinz Drossel shares an optimistic WWII memory. In early 1943, he and his company are sent to Ukraine. They are positioned c. 100 meters from the Soviet enemy, but for many days it is all very quiet. After a while Heinz Drossel finds out why: The Soviet and the German soldiers were interacting with each other. Boots were exchanged for watches, and also they played chess - even a small chess tournament was arranged. Of course, the peace ended, the Soviets attacked, and eventually the Germans fled the area.
🏆 In 1999 Heinz Drossel was named one of the Righteous Among the Nations, shared with his parents, for helping Jews escape persecution. In 2004 he received the “Raoul Wallenberg Medal” from the University of Michigan for his active opposition to the Nazis.
📽 If you want to dive a little deeper: Here’s a video showing Heinz Drossel giving his Wallenberg Lecture in 2004 👇
See you next time
Majken xx
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P.P.S. I would love to hear from you! Comments on this blog post, recommendations in the historical non-fiction department...anything you like to share. Please send me a message
This book review is based upon the book "Staying Human - The Story of a Quiet WWII Hero" by Katharina Stegelmann, Skyhorse Publishing, 2015.
Other sources:
Wikipedia
‘The Rise of the Nazis’, tv-series, BBC
German Federal Archives
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