Includes bibliographical references and index.

Going home -- Political chaos -- Nazi stirrings -- Elections, elections -- Opening Pandora's box -- Nazi versus Nazi -- The new era -- Young, bold and blond -- God and Hitler -- Towards war -- Blitzkrieg -- Theodor Weissenberger, In memorium -- Barbarossa -- Turning point -- Mount Elbrus -- Total war -- Camps -- To the bitter end -- The Jews -- Collapse -- Surrender -- Aftermath -- The reckoning.

Oberstdorf is a beautiful village high up in the Bavarian Alps, a place where for hundreds of years ordinary people lived simple lives while history was made elsewhere. Yet even here, in the farthest corner of Germany, National Socialism sought to control not only people's lives but also their minds. By putting one village under the microscope, this book evocatively portrays the momentous period of Nazism in Germany. Why did Germans respond to Hitler in the manner that they did? How did their attitudes change as the war progressed? And when all hope was gone and their country lay in ruins, how did they pick themselves up and start again?