White Flags of Surrender

by Lili Hahn, Sibyl Milton (Translator)

English, German (translation)

354 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The diary of a half-Jewish, half-German young woman in Frankfurt, Germany, covering the entire period of the Third Reich. Lili Hahn wanted to be a journalist and she records the events around her in a journalistic fashion. I'm not sure how much this diary was reconstructed or edited after the fact. An awful lot of conversations are reproduced verbatim, which is unusual for a diary.

You might be able to compare this with Victor Klemperer's two diaries from the same period: I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941 and I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1942-1945. (He was Jewish, but married to an Aryan.) Certainly Lili and her family went through some trials -- she and both her parents were imprisoned at one time or another, her father had to give up his medical practice, and Lili had to submit to sexual exploitation by a Gestapo officer so he would not deport her Jewish mother. But, assuming the diary was not edited/rewritten with benefit of hindsight, Lili and her friends were very intelligent, astute individuals and sustained by the firm belief that Germany would lose the war and the Reich would collapse.

I'm surprised this diary isn't better known. It's an excellent representation of ordinary life in that time and place.

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

White Flags of Surrender is a journal kept by a young woman in Germany during the Nazi period, and it records the chilling and sometimes inexplicable changes in behavior of individuals over that 12 year period. It documented the demise of civil rights and legal structures into chaos and opportunism, and provides excellent information on when the average German knew about the genocide and hateful policies of their leaders. This book has been out of print for too long, and needs to be re-issued.

[Valerie]

This book is about the experiences of ordinary Germans under Nazi rule. The people involved are neither heroes nor villains: they're just trying to survive in very unpromising circumstances. This was what many people's experience was like: focusing on those who were effective for good or ill is natural, perhaps: but it doesn't reflect most people's situation.