How did the German Republic, one of the most democratic political systems in history, succumb to Hitler and National Socialism? How were decisions made in Nazi Germany, and how did ordinary people respond to these decisions? Did the regime depend more on terror or popular support, and in what balance? What, in other words, was the relationship between Hitler's regime and German society? In the search for answers to these and other questions, this course focuses on the particular impact that Hitler's dictatorship had on the many populations that made up German society—women, adult men, children and adolescents; religious groups, Protestant, Catholic, and non-Christian; socioeconomic groups, such as workers, artisans, businesspeople, civil servants and professionals; “Aryans” and those who were defined as foes of the “racial community”—Jews, Roma, and political opponents of the Nazi regime.

The course is divided into two chronological segments, separated at 1939, the year Germany invaded Poland. The first part begins with an inquiry into collapse of the Republic and the role of violence and propaganda in the Nazi system of domination, and continues with an examination of the promises and demands that Nazism extended to each of several age, class, gender, and racial groups. The second part explores the effect of war and radicalization on social, economic, and political relations among ordinary Germans, as well as their various roles in the process of genocide against the European Jews, whether as bystanders or as active perpetrators.