(Rauch, UCL, £45 or free pdf)
Click the image to see this book on Amazon (affiliate link)
The ‘Contemporaries’ of the title are individuals who were children or teens during the Hitler years. Rauch assigns them different categories - ‘victims’, ‘perpetrators’, ‘bystanders’ - but it soon becomes clear just how malleable these roles are. With sufficient toleration and tacit approval, bystanders can become accomplices to, or even perpetrators of the Nazi regime’s crimes.
Given how the book grapples with questions of complicity, responsibility and accountability, it could be a useful source of inspiration for discussion topics in history and PSHE lessons. Hearing the views held now and back then from people who lived through the era as children provides an important warning for our times, and gives us an illuminating alternative perspective of the period.
This review was first published in Teach Secondary magazine. To compare the version I submitted with the one actually published, please go here: