Was Hildegaard Beetz a lovestruck secretary or international woman of mystery spying for the Nazis? How did the Gestapo police women for political offences? In a grab bag episode, Jim Retallack tells us how his new book about political culture in the Kaiserreich suggests 1933 as a vanishing point and we conclude our discussion with Katrin Pahler about intelligence in the Third Reich.

H-net News: Janosch Steuwer reviews Andre Postert’s Hitlerjunge Schall

https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/rezbuecher-26789

Call for papers on industrial vigilantism, strikebreaking, and patterns of anti-labour violence 1890s-1930s in comparative and transnational perspective

https://www.hsozkult.de/event/id/termine-37331

How do historians write history? How do they approach sources and tease out insights lurking between the lines? How do they deal with biases when writing about ideologies like Nazism? Most importantly, what undiscovered gems are hidden in the archives? Katrin Paehler joins Chris and Ryan to chat about her new book and the fine art of source critique.

http://newbooksnetwork.com/katrin-paehler-the-third-reichs-intelligence-service-the-career-of-walter-shellenberg-cambridge-university-press-2017/

How do historians write history? How do they approach sources and tease out insights lurking between the lines? How do they deal with biases when writing about ideologies like Nazism? Most importantly, what undiscovered gems are hidden in the archives? Katrin Paehler joins Chris and Ryan to chat about her new book and the fine art of source critique.

http://newbooksnetwork.com/katrin-paehler-the-third-reichs-intelligence-service-the-career-of-walter-shellenberg-cambridge-university-press-2017/

What would you do if a cherished family member had been a Nazi? How would you make sense of the silences that had held an uncomfortable reality at bay? Roger Frie joins us to discuss the process of forgetting, remembering, and his intensely personal confrontation with the Nazi past chronicled in his award winning new book NOT IN MY FAMILY.

How did Nazi Jewish policy escalate into the Holocaust? What role did security policy in occupied territories and the SS Einsatzgruppen play? What was the Final Solution decided at the Wannsee Conference? Was the man who oversaw it all a careerist or a true believer? This week, Chris and Ryan trace the career of Reinhard Heydrich from the invasion of the USSR to his assassination in Prague. Join us for part two of a two-part discussion about the head of the Reich Security Main Office and architect of genocide, SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich.

The Reich Security Main Office orchestrated the worst crimes of Nazi Germany. The RSHA was in charge of the Gestapo, the concentration camp system, security in occupied Europe, the murderous Einsatzgruppen, and the Holocaust. But who was in charge of the RSHA? Who was Reinhard Heydrich? How did he come to power? What did the man who oversaw the Holocaust believe? This week Chris and Ryan present the first installment of a new series of political biographies about leading Nazis. Join us for episode one in two-part discussion about the life and crimes of the Chief of the Security Police and Security Service, Leader of the RSHA, Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, and architect of the Final Solution, SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich.

Why did Hitler back down in some situations and not others? Why did some protests work and others fail? What do popular reactions to evacuations, euthanasia, and Jewish policy reveal about the nature of popular opposition? Nathan Stoltzfus joins us for another fascinating discussion about his work on the Rosenstrasse Protest and compromise in Nazi Germany.

H-Net News: Matthias Schneider's review of Herr Hitler, ihre Zeit ist Um! Widerstand an der Saar, 1935-1945

https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/rezbuecher-26632

How did Hitler and Stalin rule? Does the theory of totalitarianism clarify or confuse? Working Toward the Führer opened a broader discussion about the nature of dictatorships. Tune in for the full conversation.

H-net News: Conference report by Katrin Auer and Martin Hagmayr on Forced Labour in Europe under National Socialist Rule

How was power exercised in the Third Reich? How do dictators use competing power centers to administer the state? How do they set policy while remaining aloof to preserve their popularity? Find out as Chris and Ryan discuss Ian Kershaw’s theory of working toward the Führer.

News: Amerigo Caruso and Claire Morelon’s conference report on “The Dark Side of Belle Époque Europe. Political Violence and Armed Association in Europe before the First World War”

The final months of the Nazi regime are usually described in terms of apocalyptic chaos. A society in catastrophe. A spiral of violence. A state of confusion tinged with security paranoia that allowed individual actors to wield unchecked power over life and death. In this episode, Gerhard Paul’s chapter on executions in the Endphase outlines explanations for the escalation of violence and provides a great jumping off point for discussion. Chris and Ryan make the case that, rather than being swept away by crisis, the state’s use of violence shows a deliberate and structured response intended to master the situation.

H-net News: A review of James W. Whitman, Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law