What was the life like of an average citizen under Hitlers rule?
My former mother-in-law was brought up in Germany in the 1930’s. Although she was just a small child at the time, she knew no different. Like all non-persecuted children, she was in the Hitler Youth, and she likens it now to not being much dis-similar from being in the modern day Scouts. It was only after she left Germany to come to Britain after the Russian invasion that she had any idea of the monstrocities that were going on in parts of the country while she was still there. So in answer to your question, life in the inside of Germany was probably quite normal. People living inside a regime are much less aware than people on the outside.
I’ve just finished reading a wonderful book – ‘The Book Thief’ by Markus Zusak. It’s set in 1939 and into the war years and gives an accurate and harrowing account of life for ordinary people under nazi rule. Of course it’s a novel but it deals with how people lived their lives on a day-to-day basis. It also has Death as a lead character so it’s a little out of the ordinary. But I’d urge you to give it a read, partly because it’s a wonderful story, but also it gives an idea of how people coped with nazi ideas being foisted on them, and the depravations people suffered under the regime.
