 Winning
a scholarship to study at the University of Frankfurt, Walter
Williamson traveled
to Germany in 1938. At first he attended classes, visited relatives
and worked at part-time jobs. Discouraged by the poor quality of
education under the Nazi regime, he abandoned his studies and
traveled throughout
the country sharing the everyday life of the German people, and
feeling the insidious, ever-accelerating slide of an entire society
into fascism. While
most of the account involves people in common situations, the writer
had several close encounters with Nazi power. In one instance, at a
personal appearance by Hitler, Williamson discovered that he had
unknowingly befriended several SS officers. Another time, while
surreptitiously photographing the aftermath of Kristallnacht he
narrowly escaped arrest. On his last night in Germany he received a
beating from Nazi thugs as a result of his youthful patriotism.
This
book with its unique, ground level perspective answers questions and
fills the gaps in larger scale histories. In its pages one can
experience the sickening downward spiral of a culture not so
different from our own into total self-destruction.
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