Maybe Oberstdorf was just like countless other German villages where self-interest and disinterest simply manifested itself in a willful moral blindness. Nestled in the Alps, Oberstdorf was a burgeoning tourist town, relatively cosmopolitan and affluent enough, and yet like all of German slowly got swamped by the rise of National Socialism. Still, for such a rural community the inhabitants were outward-looking and knew that their prosperity depended upon strangers.

And, coming from a country where the war always seems to have been won by English speaking people, it was refreshing to see how the French (aided by the Moroccans) liberated the village. One cannot be uninterested in the phenomenon of a megalomaniacal antisemitic thug dominating and mesmerizing a nation as culturally rich as Germany into barbarism and totalitarianism. This was a largely Catholic village at the time, the most southern village in Germany, a farming community which became a tourist destination thanks to the mountains and with the first concentration camp of Dachau close by.This is a book full of interesting insights, but it is not a book which sets out to reinforce the received “wisdom” about the NAZIs or anything else and it may well prove controversial because of this. Assisted by Oberstdorf resident Angelika Patel, she gives us the finest of fine detail to demonstrate how village residents defied the regime when and where they could.

Only the highest of praise goes out to the authors and publishing team for bringing us this amazing book that really brought out my emotions. The amount of dead and wounded men hailing from Oberstdorf increased rapidly, with enthusiasm for Hitler slowly decreasing as a result. And so the community of Oberstdorf, whose citizens knew an awful lot about cattle-farming in an alpine environment, found policies being dumped on it from above by people, most of whom knew nothing about farming. The prize is awarded alternately to a Dutch and a Flemish author), to mandatory membership of the Hitlerjugend and the BDM (Bund Deutscher Mädel - that would give its members free cinema tickets, outdoor sports, horseback riding and mountaineering ! In the beginning, the author takes us through the immediate chaos that followed after the war, especially due to the defeat and later, the Treaty of Versailles.Hitler had stated, in a speech, that it would benefit the German people if something like eighty thousand of the million or so babies which were born in the Reich each year were to die.

I think it’s even better than its predecessor, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this one also wins prizes. 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'. For example, it was not until the 1970s that Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, leader of the July 20th assassination plot against Hitler, was seen as a hero not a traitor. It certainly has a cast of villagers who could populate a great story: a Dutch aristocrat who smuggles Jewish children out of Germany; the daughter of one of the conspirators who plotted to assassinate Hitler; ‘good’ Nazis; members of the German resistance, to name but a few and, oh, not forgetting the man who made the largest shoe in the world!Although Oberstdorf escaped the physical destruction caused by the war, its residents suffered significantly. 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). There were also people critical of the regime who continued to be so during the whole period, though generally they needed to ‘keep their heads down’. Resistance to Zettler came from an unexpected quarter: Oberstdorf’s long-standing Nazi Party members resented Zettler’s ascendance because he was newly arrived in the village and a recent convert to fascism.