THE HIDDEN DAMAGE

by James Stern ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 5, 1947

Margaret Bourke-White in ""Dear Fatherland"" gave us something of this sense of the people of conquered Germany; Allen Dulles in Germany's Underground and Ruth Andreas- Friedrich in Berlin Underground (see PP. 146 and 185) gave background and humanity to the now-it-can-be-told story of those anti-Hitler forces that waged unseen war. But this book shows us occupied Germany in human terms of the people who survive, unconfessed Nazis, opponents of the Nazis who survived, and those victims of fear and coercion in whom ""the hidden damage"" poisons today and tomorrow. James Stern went to Europe in 1945 on a war department interviewing assignment. He knew France, he knew Germany- before the war. He shares moments of nostalgic recall, of contacts with people and memories reinvestigated; he reports a wide range of interviews that help paint a picture of the war and its aftermath, the poverty of outlook, the bitterness of defeat, the arrogance and resentment and determination to come back, the innate hostility cloaked in servility, the seeds of a future insurgence implicit in an unregenerate present, the rare traces of courage and fineness and vision. Plenty of drama here for hundreds of stories. Glimpses of what life is like in the American occupied zone, of what the G.I. contributes -- but chiefly it is the German people, the shells of the German cities, the destruction, outside and in. A grim book, with little relief, but there is something about it that keeps one reading.

Pub Date: June 5, 1947

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt, Brace

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1947

Categories: NONFICTION