Travelers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism: 1919-1945
By: Julia Boyd / Narrated By: Christa Lewis
Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
Three words? Stunning. Terrifying. Timely…
One of the bad things about being a Military History buff is that History audiobooks can be long (One HOPES!!!), can be desperately pricey. One of the cool things about having accounts with so many providers of audiobooks is the SALES option. Imagine my delight to be scrolling through Chirpbooks Limited Time Deals and finding Travelers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd. One o’ my favorite eras? A treatise on how the Unthinkable was Oh So Very Possible? All for a pittance of a price?
I was THERE!
But lemme lead off with a bit of a disclosure here: It took me threeee days to start, listen, finish this. Dunno why, because boy! was it fascinating and engaging.
Told in snippets which peeved-off many another reviewer, I found it all fascinating. Boyd gathered a simply stunning variety of Voices and didn’t dither about the duration of time this would cover. Starting with the earliest atrocities overlooked, she then goes through various well-known horrific events (Kristallnacht, the 1936 Olympics, the opening of Dachau… uhm, not necessarily in that order…), and ends with a sobering note after all was said, done, and buried beneath rubble-strewn streets.
She is no apologist, fearing not to add commentary about individuals supporting the Reich long after it was decent, and her closing remarks are somber indeed. Actually, by the closing lines, I had the sinking feeling that this treatise was a foretelling of our own doom as a nation with its 74 million angry voters who feel themselves victims for being part of the dominant culture. Indeed, most of the people quoted here supported not only the Reich’s ideologies, but also its laws, all with their own bigotry to be noted. Anti-semitism? Well, if the anger of the Jews who just had their homes and Synagogues destroyed was anything to go by, they’re an angry lot and deserve to have laws created casting them from society. It’s almost unbearable.
Some felt Germany was far too civilized, had contributed far too much as a culture and a citizenry, some thought the Nazis would settle down after they were in power for a bit, others felt shame at the way Germany was treated after WWI. Others felt the media was biased, or making things up (And in one scene of note, visitors to Dachau see, not the inmates of the Camp, but the brutish guards disguised in prison garb; surely these vile creatures are deserving of their hard labor sentences…?).
And others? Well, it didn’t affect them personally, and danged if Germany wasn’t so beautiful that, well, what skin off their noses could it all possibly be?
Christa Lewis narrates this most admirably, whether she’s performing the voice of a schoolgirl having the time of her life, or she’s the confused diplomat who’s dealing with numerous outlandish laws created each and every day, or she’s the smug businessman who thinks Jews need their comeuppance and all is well. Lewis can manage the seasoned reporter, the Chinese exchange student, the housewife visiting friends. She does no vocal juggling, but all quotes are plainly discernible. My only ding? The occasional mispronunciation, especially of famous names… shoulda checked on those before recording, or those should’ve been edited out in a punch and roll. That aside, she made this an engaging Listen start to finish.
Nope, dunno why it took me so long to finish as the writing flows smoothly despite the plethora of individuals quoted, and the narration was jolly decent.
I’m going to blame getting up in years…
-OR-
That this was such a timely treatise on just how good men turn blind eyes and Stand By/Do Nothing, that I do believe my heart fell from Hour-1, and stayed there. It’s hard to listen when your heart is breaking…
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