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Hitler – the compromiser?
Nathan Stoltzfus speaks to Ian Sinclair about his new book in which he traces the complex relationship between Adolf Hitler, the nazi party and German society at large
Block der Frauen – by Ingeborg Hunzinger commemorates the Rosenstrasse Protest [Avi1111 dr. avishai teicher/Creative Commons]

THE popular perception of Adolf Hitler is of an all-powerful leader, the most evil individual in modern history, using extreme barbarity to crush his opponents at home and abroad.

In 2016’s Hitler’s Compromises: Coercion and Consensus in Nazi Germany Nathan Stoltzfus, professor of Holocaust Studies at Florida State University in the US, challenges this simplistic representation, raises important questions about our understanding of the nazis in power, while providing a hopeful analysis about the possibility of non-violent resistance in highly repressive societies.

What is the central thesis of your book?

98 per cent of the German Jews who survived without going into hiding or being sent to the camps, survived because they were married to non-Jews

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