I’m going to preface this book review by saying that I do draw some connections here between Nazi Germany and current-day political movements. I am at no point trying to trivialize the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany or compare their magnitude to anything being done today, but it is important to notice that there are similarities in how Nazism took root in Germany and how similar extremist ideologies gain support today. I am attempting to draw lessons from the past here, and I am not trying to equate the atrocities of Nazi Germany with anything being done today. This is a common accusation leveled against articles on this topic, so I thought I should include this explanation; apologies for the length. With that out of the way, onwards with the actual book review.
“Account Rendered” was written by Melita Maschmann, a former Nazi who became one of the rare success stories of denazification; this book is the story of her ideological and personal development, starting from her early childhood and ending in the aftermath of World War 2 as she finally realizes the inhumanity of National Socialism and recants her beliefs. Maschmann gives an incredible analysis of National Socialism and the cultural factors that helped supplant it in the minds of so many of the German people, including herself, while also helping us understand the mechanisms through which complete indoctrination can slowly be fought against.
The most interesting aspect of her story is how ‘normal’ she was; she was born into a slightly conservative middle-class family, and, throughout the book, she demonstrates the capacity for critical judgement of authorities, appreciation for literature, and compassion towards others. None of these would make her mind seem like fertile ground for the seeds of Nazism, and yet she did become infatuated with the racist and antisemitic ideology of Hitler. This book is a fascinating read because it reveals how ordinary, middle-class people can fall prey to political radicalization with devastating consequences.
I don’t want to spoil the entire book, but I will list some of the more interesting factors in her radicalization to give an idea of what the book is about.
The first factor she mentioned was her view of National Socialism as a foil to her parents’ bourgeois values; she cites “a rebelliousness that went beyond the purely personal rebellion of adolescence and was directed against the bourgeois values which my parents represented.” Having grown up under strict parenting, she spent her teenage years looking for ways to rebel and assert her own identity, distinct from that of her parents; National Socialism, which exalted the German peasantry and spoke of a “National Community” of all Germans, seemed the perfect route through which to satiate this teenage thirst to be different from one’s parents.
This idea is interesting for two reasons.
Firstly, the teenage tendency towards rebellion is a universal phenomenon, and I was struck by how Maschmann’s story demonstrates the susceptibility of anyone, regardless of their background or education, to political radicalization. She was driven towards Hitler by factors that could affect anybody, regardless of time or place.
Secondly, this factor is interesting because it reveals the broader theme of how National Socialism gained popularity among many of the more rational Germans by downplaying the antisemitic aspects and emphasizing the desire to rebuild Germany and improve the lives of the poor. This is a constant theme throughout the text; the very name “National Socialism” shows how Nazism succeeded by merging its nationalism and antisemitism with just enough of a socialist veneer to appeal to left-leaning members of the middle class, who would otherwise find Hitler’s fanaticism absurd. Maschmann comments throughout the book on how she found the education on scientific racism comical and poorly thought-out; Nazism gained popularity among putatively more rational parts of the middle class because it hid its ugliest characteristics under the guise of serving the ‘National Community.’
Maschmann herself avoided the most violent and sinister parts of Nazi Germany’s state apparatus, working mainly in the propaganda division and the labor service. Maschmann’s work in the labor service was another factor in her support for Hitler that again ties into this theme of obscuring violent fanaticism beneath a guise of community service and patriotism. She spent a long time in the labor service and reflected throughout the book on how it shaped her opinion of National Socialism. Her work required her to help poor German farmers settle newly annexed Polish land, assisting with agricultural work but also taking care of sick children, helping pregnant women prepare for childbirth, and organizing funerals. Maschmann’s work in the labor service bolstered her belief that National Socialism focused on the benefit of the German poor and that antisemitism and racism were just peripheral components of the ideology.
Despite the labor service showing the community service aspect of National Socialism, she still encountered evidence of Nazism’s inhumanity with increasing frequency – so how did she avoid confronting that evidence and recognizing Nazism for what it was? She constantly emphasizes that the reason her support for Hitler lasted so long was because she trained herself to just not question the most evil things she was witnessing; a big part of the book focuses on how it’s possible for people to so completely shut down some parts of their mind
A person who has never lived under the tutelage of an ‘ideology’ will find it hard to understand how it is possible for such pressing questions not to be asked.
She found a few explanations for her indifference to the atrocities she witnessed and her unquestioning obeisance to National Socialism. She rationalized to herself the cruelty towards the Poles by thinking of the violence unleashed by the Polish partisans and convincing herself that different standards apply during a war.
The war had started. Since I had seen the sufferings of the German community, some of whom had been killed by the Poles, I believed I had learned that one must harden oneself against the sight of human suffering.
After the Kristallnacht, she justified the pogrom by remembering her ideological training that taught her that Jews were the enemies of Germany. This rationalization is interesting because Maschmann herself admitted that the antisemitic and racist components of the ideological training seemed the most ridiculous; she did not see the vilification of Jews as a vital component of National Socialism that she should wholeheartedly support, but rather as a convenient way of avoiding intellectual confrontation with the insane inhumanity staring her in the face. Maschmann’s support of Hitler, throughout the book, has very little to do with the parts of his agenda focusing on the persecution of Jews, homosexuals, or disabled people; she supported Hitler because she believed he was avenging the injustice done to Germany by the Treaty of Versailles, restoring Germany to its ‘rightful place,’ and improving the lot of the poor. She avoided the facts of the regime’s evil through the crude justifications discussed here.
The true horror of this book isn’t that Maschmann was herself cruel or violent, it is that she so completely closed off her mind to confronting the reality around her and found so many ways of rationalizing to herself the cruelty of the Nazis. Even though this wilful ignorance is disturbing to read about, it is important to read this book and see how it came about. Maschmann had Jewish friends even during her early days in the Hitler Youth and saw them as good people; it was Hitler’s dehumanization of Jews in his rhetoric and his framing of them as an evil ‘other,’ separate from the Jews that Maschmann actually saw day-to-day, that allowed Maschmann and countless others to reconcile antisemitism with their own positive relations with Jewish friends and neighbors. She finally cut ties with her Jewish friends not out of hatred for them but rather seeing it as a slightly unfortunate but necessary step to complete her full entry into the sphere of National Socialism.
There was only one thing that made me glad to leave Berlin. In this way I could allow my friendship with you [addressed to one of her Jewish friends] and your family to fade away. I wanted to avoid the open breach, which — after years of evading the conflict — I nevertheless felt to be my duty, because one could only do one of two things: either have Jewish friends or be a National Socialist.
In preaching that all the misery of the nations was due to the Jews or that the Jewish spirit was seditious and Jewish blood was corrupting, I was not compelled to think of you or old Herr Lewy or Rosel Cohn: I thought only of the bogey- man, ‘the Jew’. And when I heard that the Jews were being driven from their professions and homes and imprisoned in ghettos, the points switched automatically in my mind to steer me round the thought that such a fate could also overtake you or old Lewy. It was only the Jew who was being persecuted and ‘made harmless’.
Taken as a whole, Maschmann’s account presents many powerful lessons on how fascist ideologies take root within a population; in her case, it seems to be, among other things, a combination of something new and different appealing to teenage rebelliousness, a veneer of patriotism and community service concealing the violent racism, and rhetoric that treated Jews as a monolithic evil separate from individual people, as well as the idea that the standards of basic humanity change during a war.
This book has special relevance today as the politics of hate again becomes mainstream in many corners of the world. Maschmann’s experience proves that nobody is completely immune to propaganda and radicalization; already, we are seeing rational human beings lend their support to authoritarian regimes with vague promises to “Make America Great Again” or bring “Acche Din” (good days) to India. Maschmann’s book serves as a way of better understanding the current times and also remaining vigilant so that we ourselves do not fall prey to such radicalization, better aware of the mechanisms by which such poisonous ideas enter our minds. It is an essential read for anyone hoping to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and save the 21st century from a resurgence of politics rooted in hate and fear.
That is what I should like to say to every good person. Not with the implication: ‘Your goodness has feet of clay just as much as mine had’, but rather to implore him: ‘Be on your guard.’ Take warning. There is nowhere any good thing — however worthy of respect it may seem — which one may serve with the means of evil (that is of lovelessness).
However, Maschmann does not just end with an ominous warning. She also describes her slow disillusionment and eventual abandonment of National Socialism. Many of the key steps come from the gradual destruction of Germany and the dream she believed she was fighting for: crawling out of a cellar, the only person alive after thirty people including her parents suffocated or burned to death during a bombing raid; hearing the leader of the Hitler Youth confess to having sent children to fight and die in the defense of Berlin; and finally coming to terms with the defeat of Germany in World War 2, the slaughter of six million Jews, and the inhumanity of the regime she had spent years supporting.
The pessimistic interpretation of her story is that the only way to combat political radicalization is waiting for it to run its course and inevitably end in tragedy. However, Maschmann also highlights cases where, even at the peak of Hitler’s power and the persecution of his political opponents, some incredibly brave and clear-eyed individuals tried to convince her that National Socialism was the wrong path for Germany. While she did not heed their warnings at the time, she remembered their words years later and then began to think about the contradictions they had highlighted in the ideology of National Socialism. After the end of World War 2 and Maschmann’s release from an Allied Forces prison, her denazification was accelerated by honest conversations about National Socialism, Christianity, and the last few years of chaos and violence; she repeatedly noted that the people guiding her away from Nazism had greater integrity and decency than the leaders she had dealt with in the Nazi Party. Maschmann’s story teaches us that open debate and challenging dogmatic thinking can play a crucial role in combating political radicalization and blind faith in extremist ideologies.
Maschmann also became more disillusioned with Nazism as she began to read about the Holocaust, finally being forced to confront the evil of the regime she had supported, and also as she thought critically about how the works of classical German poets such as Hölderlin had been crudely reinterpreted as support for Nazism. The final pages of Maschmann’s book demonstrate the cruciality, even today, of encouraging people to think carefully about everything they read or see and to be aware of everything that goes on in the world, being aware of the atrocities committed in the name of one’s preferred ideology. As we again encounter the issue of political radicalization in the 21st century, many valuable lessons can be drawn from “Account Rendered.”
Maschmann’s book offers a window into an important period of history with many lessons to help us make a better world today; her clear prose and remarkable capacity for self-reflection make this one of the most important books for anyone looking to better understand the rise of Hitler, the process of denazification, and the mechanisms by which political radicalization takes place and can also be combated.