Books about WW2 from a German perspective

[Harp]

I would also offer a few additional suggestions:

At Hitler's Side: "The Memoirs of Hitler's Luftwaffe Adjutant", by Nicolaus Von Below, which is a 1st-person account of Hitler's Luftwaffe aid de camp who was constantly at Adolph Hitler's side during the war. It offers a great account of Hitler, his inner circle and the politics and day-to-day workings of Fuhrer HQ.

For another story from the perspective of the German Luftwaffe combat pilot, "DAY FIGHTERS IN DEFENCE OF THE REICH: A War Diary, 1942-45."

And for post-WW1 deterioration of German society and politics into Nazism particularly, I recommend "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy" by Eric Metaxas. In addition, those interested in Dietrich Bonhoeffer get a tremendous amount of insight into his beliefs and activities up through his imprisonment and execution "for crimes against the Nazi state."

Bonhoeffer almost slipped the executioner's noose, compounding the tragedy of his martyr fate.

 

[Turnip]

Along with others, Canaris, Oster, Sack, Dohnanyi and Gehre, who have been sentenced to death on the same drum head court martial tour featuring Walter Huppenkothen.
Not to forget those many other, less prominent resistants like Georg Elser...the regime still had access to.

 

[Cornelius]

My apologies if this has already been mentioned, but I would consider W. G. Sebald's On the Natural History of Destruction (originally "Luftkrieg und Literatur: Mit einem Essay zu Alfred Andersch") to be required reading in any survey of the war.

 

[1961MJS]

I recommend Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. It's a pretty dense, academic read but it's worth it. It was fairly controversial when first released 15-20 years ago -- especially in Germany -- because it attacks the post-war revisionism that transferred blame from Germany/Germans as a whole to Hitler/Nazis specifically (you know, the whole "oh we were regular army, not SS." "Don't blame us for our participation in a culture of militarization, obviously violent nationalistic ideology, and a war of aggression all against civilization" arguments). It's pretty widely accepted as an important work now, though.

Hi
I read this book years ago. This is one of the 4 books I've truly hated in my life. I dumped the book at my hometown library because the locals wanted a death camp in their home town "so the local boys would have jobs." I THINK it was this book.
Later

 

[Turnip]

„Ordinary Men“ by Christopher Browning is a Standard book about the beginning mass murder in Poland.

In case you might be interested in the roots of German industrialized extinction program, T4-Program and Euthanasia of Disabled are the key words to browse for. You will see a widespread continuity of personnel/staff who transformed the experiences gained during the T4 program directly into single purpose extinction camps first, later followed up by the „extinction by labor“ camps commonly known.

 

[Old Mariner]

I want to recommend this one. I rented it some years ago via interlibrary loan -

German Advertising 1933-1945

One thing I immediately noticed were advertisements for firearms. I have often heard of Hitler banning guns, and thought, when I saw these ads..."Wait a minute." I brought it up to my friend with whom I attended WWII events with (we both portrayed the German side). She mentioned that Goering was the forestry minister (if I recall the title right). I also did a "Google search" with something like "did Hitler ban guns?" and came across Straight Dope which did research into this: https://www.straightdope.com/21342932/did-hitler-ban-gun-ownership

All in all it is a very interesting look into the "everyday life" perspective. I did not expect to learn a little something in the process.

 

[MikeKardec]

When I worked for Bantam Books in the 1980s we published or had recently published a whole line (over 50) of WWII memoirs under a "Bantam War Book" designation. They were paperback reprints of just about every significant book written by a vet. Many had a lot of info on life in Germany as well as other places. Scour ebay and used book stores there's a lot of them out there!