
- This event has passed.
Book talk: Julia Boyd: A Village in the Third Reich: How Ordinary Lives were Transformed by the Rise of Fascism
October 19, 2022 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Join us at The Wiener Holocaust Library for a book talk and Q&A by author Julia Boyd on her new work.
Hidden deep in the Bavarian mountains lies the picturesque village of Oberstdorf – a place where for hundreds of years people lived ordinary lives while history was made elsewhere. Yet even this remote idyll could not escape the brutal iron grip of the Nazi regime… From the author of the bestselling Travellers in the Third Reich comes A Village in the Third Reich, an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Germany under Hitler which shines a light on the lives of ordinary people.
Drawing on personal archives, letters, interviews and memoirs, it lays bare their brutality and love; courage and weakness; action, apathy and grief; hope, pain, joy and despair. Within its pages we encounter people from all walks of life – foresters, priests, farmers and nuns; innkeepers, Nazi officials, veterans and party members; village councillors, mountaineers, soci
alists, slave labourers, schoolchildren, tourists and aristocrats. We meet the Jews who survived – and those who didn’t; the Nazi mayor who tried to shield those persecuted by the regime; and a blind boy whose life was judged ‘not worth living’.
A Village in the Third Reich tells a tale of conflicting loyalties and desires, of shattered dreams – but one in which, ultimately, human resilience triumphs.
“Utterly absorbing’ The Times
About the speaker: Julia Boyd is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller Travellers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism through the Eyes of Everyday People and A Village in the Third Reich: How Ordinary Lives were Transformed by the Rise of Fascism. Her previous books include A Dance with the Dragon: The Vanished World of Peking’s Foreign Colony, The Excellent Doctor Blackwell: The Life of the First Woman Physician and Hannah Riddell: An Englishwoman in Japan. As the widow of a former diplomat, she lived in Germany from 1977 to 1981. She lives in London.
Event guidelines for those joining online:
1. The Library will send you a Zoom link and joining instructions via email prior to the event. Please check your junk email folders.
2. Please try and join 5 minutes before the event start time and we will let you into the room (do try and bear with us if this takes a few minutes).
3. If you would like to ask a question during the event, please type your question into the chat function, and we will endeavour to answer as many questions as possible during the Q&A. Your webcam will not be seen during this event.
4. The event will be recorded for the Library’s YouTube channel and will be shared at a later date.
Book nowWe need your support more than ever. Help us preserve the truth.
We are an independent charity dependent on your support. We need to raise over a quarter of a million pounds each year for our work to continue and this is only possible with your help.
With your support we can continue to;
- Be a world leading Holocaust archive
- Offer a vital learning resource to oppose anti-Semitism and other forms of prejudice.
- Reach out to our worldwide audience of over two million people
- Preserve our archive for future generations so they can learn the lessons of the past
- Provide a free program of public events and exhibitions