A Mind in Prison: The Memoir of a Son and Soldier of the 3rd Reich

Rating:
Summary: A glimpse into the Third Reich
Review: Dr. Bruno Manz has written an honest, searing story of his experiences growing up in the Third Reich with a father who he loved but who was an enthusiastic Nazi. First person accounts of this quality are rare and valuable, giving those of us who are curious as to how a civilized nation like Germany could turn itself into the soulless, mechanistic killing machine it became under Hitler a look at how ordinary people contributed, by omission or commission, to the coming horror. Dr. Manz has more than atoned for his own omissions by writing this excellent, gripping book, which I recommend to anyone interested in this perplexing episode of history.

Rating:
Summary: A glimpse into the Third Reich
Review: Dr. Bruno Manz has written an honest, searing story of his experiences growing up in the Third Reich with a father who he loved but who was an enthusiastic Nazi. First person accounts of this quality are rare and valuable, giving those of us who are curious as to how a civilized nation like Germany could turn itself into the soulless, mechanistic killing machine it became under Hitler a look at how ordinary people contributed, by omission or commission, to the coming horror. Dr. Manz has more than atoned for his own omissions by writing this excellent, gripping book, which I recommend to anyone interested in this perplexing episode of history.

Rating:
Summary: A New Perspective on Hitler's Germany
Review: Dr. Manz writes a brutally honest account of his participation in the rise of Nazism, the vicious ignorance of some Party and Wehrmacht leaders, his service in Finland and retreat across the arctic Finnmark. In post-war disillusionment with what he had been programmed to believe, Manz began a self-examination that culminated in this book, a must-read for anyone who lived through, or seeks to understand, the horrors of 1933-45. Born in 1921, Manz experienced the mostly passive anti-Semitism of his father, Nazi indoctrination by Hitler Youth leaders in dreary "Home Evenings," and the incessant propaganda of the Goebbels machine. In 1940 he and his high school class enlisted in the Luftwaffe; Manz was assigned to the air force's ground troops. He relates what he calls "a gradual series of warning signs" that the Nazi regime was less than it appeared, yet persisted in his support through service in Finland and the German retreat back into Norway. After the war he attended a university the French set up in Mainz; here he set out to learn all he could about the Holocaust, and discovered the American concept of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness being the goal of humankind - not blind service to an authoritarian state. In 1957, as a physicist, Manz was recruited to work with Wernher von Braun in Huntsville, AL, then transferred to White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The thrust of Manz's book is one of understanding, redemption and apology, inasfar as his unvarnished telling of "the truth, the sacred truth," might make such things possible.

Rating:
Summary: A New Perspective on Hitler's Germany
Review: Over the years I have read several books on Hitler's rise to power and the effects his rule had on the German people and the Jews of Europe. Many, like William Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" approached the subject from a historical point of view while "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "The Hiding Place" dealt with the personal stories of Hitler's victims. In his book "A Mind in Prison", Bruno Manz shows us a new perspective: what it was like for a young boy to grow up in Germany during the Hitler years. In this very personal autobiography, Dr. Manz describes the dominating influence of not only the social order imposed by Hitler but the anti-Jewish prejudice of a father he loved and respected. From his early years at the dawn of the Hitler era, through his time with the Hitler Youth and the German Army, to his disillusionment and subsequent redemption, Dr. Manz recounts his journey with depressing, humorous, and poignant stories. I highly recommend this book not only for those still seeking an understanding of how Hitler could have captured the minds of an entire nation, but also for those who love a well-written, personal story told with passion and compassion.

Rating:
Summary: Important insight into the mind of a German betrayed
Review: This book is basically the author's way of exorcising his personal demons. Manz grew up idolizing a man named Adolf Hitler, whom most Germans believed to be a sort of messiah sent to save them from the devastating poverty and national humiliation following the Treaty of Versailles. The book chronicles how Manz (and many other pro-Nazi Germans then) got to believe in the things he did, and his eventual disillusionment with the Third Reich.

Did the German civilians know about the atrocities of the concentration and extermination camps? Over the recent years, this question has loomed large in works concerning WWII in the European theater. Manz can't answer for every German during that period, but he gives us HIS story as an offering to further understanding in this matter.

This book struck a very personal chord with me. Although I was born decades after WWII, I grew up in a country where the press (in fact, every type of media - books, TV, movies, etc.) was heavily censored by the national government. The government told people what to think, what to say, when to assemble, and throws those who defy their orders in jail under the holy name of "national security". As a result, I totally understand how mind-numbing propoganda can be. A population, after all, is merely a collection of individuals living in a state. An individual's morals and personal biases are largely dependent on what information they have available to them. Hitler understood this very well, and with the help of his propoganda minister, Goebbels, managed to shape the thinking of an amazingly large portion of the German population, including the author's.

Manz is all the more convincing because he doesn't get overly apologetic, but does admit that he's not in any way proud of all that he has done (he was a Hitler Youth, and later a soldier in the German army). He feels very strongly for the victims of the Third Reich (the book is dedicated to them), and although he was never in direct contact with any official programs dealing with the "Jewish problem", regrets that he couldn't have done more.

It is very touching to read books by those who were on the "wrong" side of the war, especially those with a sense of morality (however late it surfaced) like Manz. This book is an important reminder to us of how dangerous bigotry can be, especially when it is led by an eloquent and convincing tyrant.