Conversations with Third Reich Contemporaries
From Luke Holland’s Final Account
9781800088641
9781800088634
Distributed for UCL Press
Conversations with Third Reich Contemporaries
From Luke Holland’s Final Account
A collection of filmmaker Luke Holland’s interviews with elderly Germans who witnessed—or participated in—the atrocities of the Holocaust.
Conversations with Third Reich Contemporaries presents excerpts from filmed interviews conducted by British documentary filmmaker Luke Holland across a span of over a decade. These interviews were compiled into the German-language documentary film Final Account (2020), completed shortly before Holland’s death. Most interviewees were young adults when the war ended; some had benefited from Nazism, and others had directly enacted persecution or state violence. In addition to making this vital interview collection more widely accessible, the sourcebook raises critical awareness of issues around representation, authenticity, memory, and the co-production of narratives, reshaping discussions around the role of “ordinary” citizens under the Third Reich. It is the first sourcebook to engage directly with issues of representation and identity after 1945.
Conversations with Third Reich Contemporaries presents excerpts from filmed interviews conducted by British documentary filmmaker Luke Holland across a span of over a decade. These interviews were compiled into the German-language documentary film Final Account (2020), completed shortly before Holland’s death. Most interviewees were young adults when the war ended; some had benefited from Nazism, and others had directly enacted persecution or state violence. In addition to making this vital interview collection more widely accessible, the sourcebook raises critical awareness of issues around representation, authenticity, memory, and the co-production of narratives, reshaping discussions around the role of “ordinary” citizens under the Third Reich. It is the first sourcebook to engage directly with issues of representation and identity after 1945.

Reviews
Table of Contents
List of figures
List of excerpts
Glossary
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I: Belonging: community as opportunity
Youth and education
Careers and complicity
Social and economic exclusion
‘Kristallnacht’
Facets of ‘Aryanisation’
Antisemitism(s)
Experiences of persecution
Part II: Territorial expansion, war and genocide
War and empire building
Waffen-SS and SS
European perspectives
Women in Nazi organisations, German society, and war and occupation
Concentration camps and forced and slave labour
Persecution and murder of Jews
Killing of partisans, POWs, and civilians
Part III: Aftermath
The immediate post-war period
Interpreting the past
Confrontations
Appendix: sources
Bibliography
Index
List of excerpts
Glossary
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I: Belonging: community as opportunity
Youth and education
Careers and complicity
Social and economic exclusion
‘Kristallnacht’
Facets of ‘Aryanisation’
Antisemitism(s)
Experiences of persecution
Part II: Territorial expansion, war and genocide
War and empire building
Waffen-SS and SS
European perspectives
Women in Nazi organisations, German society, and war and occupation
Concentration camps and forced and slave labour
Persecution and murder of Jews
Killing of partisans, POWs, and civilians
Part III: Aftermath
The immediate post-war period
Interpreting the past
Confrontations
Appendix: sources
Bibliography
Index
Be the first to know
Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!