As an increasingly polarized America fights over the legacy of racism, Susan Neiman, author of the contemporary philosophical classic Evil in Modern Thought, asks what we can learn from the Germans about confronting the evils of the past In the wake of white nationalist attacks, the ongoing debate over reparations, and the controversy surrounding Confederate monuments and the contested memories they evoke, Susan Neiman’s Learning from the Germans delivers an urgently needed perspective on how a country can come to terms with its historical wrongdoings. Neiman is a white woman who came of age in the civil rights–era South and a Jewish woman who has spent much of her adult life in Berlin. Working from this unique perspective, she combines philosophical reflection, personal stories, and interviews with both Americans and Germans who are grappling with the evils of their own national histories. Through discussions with Germans, including Jan Philipp Reemtsma, who created the breakthrough Crimes of the Wehrmacht exhibit, and Friedrich Schorlemmer, the East German dissident preacher, Neiman tells the story of the long and difficult path Germans faced in their effort to atone for the crimes of the Holocaust. In the United States, she interviews James Meredith about his battle for equality in Mississippi and Bryan Stevenson about his monument to the victims of lynching, as well as lesser-known social justice activists in the South, to provide a compelling picture of the work contemporary Americans are doing to confront our violent history. In clear and gripping prose, Neiman urges us to consider the nuanced forms that evil can assume, so that we can recognize and avoid them in the future.

This volume summarizes recent scholarship on German-American relations in the field of education until World War I. The articles prove the various influences of German scholarship and institutions on the development of the American system of education from kindergarten to university. The book provides an overview for the benefit of scholars, students and the interested general reader. As a cooperative effort of German and American scholars the volume is intended to stimulate further exploration of these themes on both continents.

National Book Award Finalist: Never before has the mentality of the average German under the Nazi regime been made as intelligible to the outsider.” —The New York TImes They Thought They Were Free is an eloquent and provocative examination of the development of fascism in Germany. Milton Mayer’s book is a study of ten Germans and their lives from 1933-45, based on interviews he conducted after the war when he lived in Germany. Mayer had a position as a research professor at the University of Frankfurt and lived in a nearby small Hessian town which he disguised with the name “Kronenberg.” These ten men were not men of distinction, according to Mayer, but they had been members of the Nazi Party; Mayer wanted to discover what had made them Nazis. His discussions with them of Nazism, the rise of the Reich, and mass complicity with evil became the backbone of this book, an indictment of the ordinary German that is all the more powerful for its refusal to let the rest of us pretend that our moment, our society, our country are fundamentally immune. A new foreword to this edition by eminent historian of the Reich Richard J. Evans puts the book in historical and contemporary context. We live in an age of fervid politics and hyperbolic rhetoric. They Thought They Were Free cuts through that, revealing instead the slow, quiet accretions of change, complicity, and abdication of moral authority that quietly mark the rise of evil.

Educating the Germans examines the role of the British in the 'reconstruction' of education in occupied Germany from 1945 to 1949. It covers war-time planning for a future role in overseeing education at all levels in Germany, looks at policy and its implementation, describes the British personnel involved and their interaction with German authorities, and assesses the lasting effects of the British effort in securing the future development of education from Kindergarten to university in the emerging Federal Republic. Thoroughly researched and employing a wide range of sources in Britain and Germany, this is an important study for anyone looking to further their understanding of Germany, and Britain's relationship with Germany in the immediate post-war era.

In 1920, at the age of thirteen, Irmgard Gebensleben first traveled from Germany to The Netherlands on a "war-children transport." She would later marry a Dutch man and live and raise her family there while keeping close to her German family and friends through the frequent exchange of letters. Yet during this period geography was not all that separated them. Increasing divergence in political opinions and eventual war between their countries meant letters contained not only family news but personal perspectives on the individual, local, and national choices that would result in the most destructive war in history. This important collection, first assembled by Irmgard Gebensleben's daughter Hedda Kalshoven, gives voice to ordinary Germans in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich and in the occupied Netherlands. The correspondence between Irmgard, her friends, and four generations of her family delve into their most intimate and candid thoughts and feelings about the rise of National Socialism. The responses to the German invasion and occupation of the Netherlands expose the deeply divided loyalties of the family and reveal their attempts to bridge them. Of particular value to historians, the letters evoke the writers' beliefs and their understanding of the events happening around them. This first English translation of Ik denk zoveel aan jullie: Een briefwisseling tussen Nederland en Duitsland 1920-1949, has been edited, abridged, and annotated by Peter Fritzsche with the assent and collaboration of Hedda Kalshoven. After the book's original publication the diary of Irmgard's brother and loyal Wehrmacht soldier, Eberhard, was discovered and edited by Hedda Kalshoven. Fritzsche has drawn on this important additional source in his preface.

Among the most controversial of Nazi publications was a book for children, published in 1938 under the title Der Giftpilz-or, The Poisonous Mushroom. Here, the Jewish threat to German society was portrayed in the most simplistic and elemental terms. The author, Ernst Hiemer, put together 17 short vignettes or morality stories intended to warn children of the dangers posed by Jews. Jews were depicted as conniving, thieving, treacherous liars who would do anything for personal gain. 'Avoid Jews at all costs, ' was Hiemer's underlying message. Though aimed at children aged roughly 8 to 14, Hiemer's lessons were intended for all readers-older siblings, parents, and grandparents. Following Hitler's lead, and not without justification, Jews were presented as a profound threat to German society; they had to be shunned and ultimately removed from the nation, if the German people were to flourish. Long out of circulation, and banned in Germany and elsewhere, this new edition reproduces a work of historical importance-including full color artwork by German cartoonist Philipp Rupprecht ("Fips"). The book was repeatedly cited at the Nuremberg Trials as evidence of 'Nazi cruelty', and was used by prosecutors to justify a death sentence for its publisher, Julius Streicher. If only for the sake of history, the reading public should have access to one of the more intriguing and notorious publications of the Third Reich.