VILLAGE IN THE THIRD REICH

Oberstdorf in Bavaria near the border with Austria was an attractive mountain village which increased its population after World War I. At the same time, anti-semitism was building in Germany, initially with the circulation of pamphlets containing abuse and misinformation. In 1930 Ludwig Münchmeyer came to speak in the village, a Lutheran pastor who was a fanatical Nazi, guilty of sexual misconduct and extortion. Thirty SS men stood by to protect him. Herman Hoyer, one of Hitler's favourite artists, was prepared to say he had known some very decent Jews, while older Nazis such as the postman Weinlein took a line of hard antisemitic hatred. When war came, the village was far from the centres of power and although it had its share of active Nazis, others showed some human sympathy to fellow-citizens who were Jews. Although 300,000 Jews escaped Germany in the thirties, when war broke out they were trapped. The 19-year old Theodor Weissenberger, a talented musician, was murdered in 1940 because he was blind. The head of a home for sick children, Hetty Laman Trip-de Beaufort smuggled Jewish children over the Swiss border. Mayor Ludwig Fink was apparently a devoted Nazi but nevertheless protected Jews and helped the local nuns to survive. Ernst Settler, Oberstdorf's first Nazi mayor from 1933, committed suicide in 1945 after shooting his family. Half-Jewish Fritz Schnell survived a labour camp and settled back in the village, but his Jewish father, who was initially protected by Mayor Fink, committed suicide on receiving a letter sending him to Theresienstadt. Eva Noack-Mosse, a Jew married to a protestant, also went to Theresienstadt but survived. After the war Heinz Schubert, who had massacred 700 people, escaped the death sentence at Nuremberg and retired to Oberstdorf. A powerful read. 459pp, gazetteer, black and white photos.