There are also the wonderful descriptions of some of the adventures and encounter some of the travellers had, and as Boyd note “There was no question that Berlin offered its visitors – especially the Anglo-Saxons – sexual and intellectual adventures unobtainable in their own countries”. It must also be remembered that Rupert Brooke wrote Grantchester in Berlin at this time.

With an almost novelistic touch, [Boyd] presents a range of stories of human interest … The uncomfortable moral of Travellers in the Third Reich is that people see and hear only what they already want to see and hear." A Village In The Third Reich is a fascinating and often very sad portait of forty years in the life of the Bavarian village Oberstdorf from 1915 to 1955. Nestled in the Alps, Oberstdorf was a burgeoning tourist town, relatively cosmopolitan and affluent enough, and yet like all of German slowly got swamped by the rise of National Socialism. Boyd and Patel have done a very deep dive on what seems to be a hugely comprehensive archive to tell the story of how the village adapted and changed, but also to follow the villagers as they themselves escaped, got sent to camps or went to war. There are a lot of tragic stories here, though there are reconstructions of the willing Nazi's there are also big questions about Good Germans and perhaps the unthinkable, Good Nazis. Today the only visible scars of the war and the Nazi years can be found in the memorial chapel, where the names of the 286 Oberstdorfers killed in the Second World War are carved in stone. Some families never forgave their neighbours for what happened, while others tried to forget. But what cannot be seen is the invisible scars of the Third Reich which will always remain part of the village’s history. With an almost novelistic touch, [Boyd] presents a range of stories of human interest ... The uncomfortable moral of Travellers in the Third Reich is that people see and hear only what they already want to see and hear.' - David Pryce-Jones, Standpoint Many of the children are shown to have been indoctrinated into total belief and a lots of Obersdorf residents are killed during WW2 fighting with the Mountain Division or in the death camps.A compelling historical narrative ... both flatters and challenges our hindsight. [Boyd] lets her voices, skilfully orchestrated, speak for themselves, which they do with great eloquence.' - The Daily Telegraph A revealing and original account. Some of Adolf Hitler's fellow travellers, lulled by self-deception, gulled by propaganda, deluded themselves about Nazi Germany as they deceived others”– Sir John Tusa We all know hindsight is 20/20. It’s always been a mystery post WWII why intelligent people could not grasp the threat that NAZI’s posed to the world. Boyd’s book does not give a definitive answer to the question but lays out massive amounts of first person books, letters, diaries and speeches reported by people, primarily British and American, who traveled in Germany beginning just after WWI through the beginning of WWII. After gaining political power, it didn't take long for him to seize total control and begin to roll out the nationalist policies across the country. The people that were drawn to Germany at this time came from all walks of life and saw the way that it was changing, but there were glimpses of the persecution that was starting to happen across the country as the vision of the Aryan ideal was implemented. The Olympics were the point where the Third Reich could showcase itself on the world stage and athletes and visitors where shown a sanitised country. Those that managed to peer behind the scenes though, were startled and horrified by what they saw.

In the 1930s the most cultured and technologically advanced country in Europe tumbled into the abyss. In this deeply researched book Julia Boyd lets us view Germany's astonishing fall through foreign eyes. Her vivid tapestry of human stories is a delightful, often moving read. It also offers sobering lessons for our own day when strong leaders are again all the rage.' - Professor David Reynolds, author of The Long Shadow: The Great War and the 20th Century Fascinating ... This absorbing and beautifully organised book is full of small encounters that jolt the reader into a historical past that seems still very near”– Lucy Lethbridge, The Tablet Contains many amazing anecdotes ... It warns us that we, with our all-seeing hindsight, might ourselves have been fooled or beguiled or inclined to make excuses, had we been there at the time. I can thoroughly recommend it as a contribution to knowledge and an absorbing and stimulating book in itself”– Peter Hitchens, Mail on Sunday

The Rise of Fascism through the Eyes of Everyday People

This is a fascinating account of visitors to Germany from after WWI all the way through the Second World War. Indeed it is interesting to note that the hospitality industry was trying to entice overseas tourists immediately after the ending of hostilities in 1919. Also, that while British and American visitors were generally welcomed, the French were definitely not. In A Village in the Third Reich Julia Boyd creates a fascinating account of the impact of the Third Reich on Obertsdorf, a small German village in the Bavarian Alps. The book, on which she has collaborated with local historian Angelika Patel, is based on meticulous local archives, diaries, newspaper stories and letters and other contemporary sources. The account it gives is all the more powerful for being told though the voices and experiences of ordinary people.