Event details
Oct
29
Staying Alive in Hitler’s Berlin
Hitler never trusted Berliners, and many Berliners never trusted him. Berlin was the cosmopolitan metropolis which the Nazis liked to hate. Too many free spirits, too many sexual deviants, and too many Jews. When the Third Reich was finally defeated in May 1945, the city was in ruins.
Bleiben Sie übrig, ‘stay alive’, is how Berliners said goodbye to each once British and American bombers attacked the city day and night. By that stage, in 1943, most Jews of Berlin had already been deported to the death camps.
If my book about daily life in Hitler’s capital during the war has a running theme, it is a question that sadly is still with us: how to remain decent in an indecent society. In Nazi Germany common decency came with an increasingly high price.
Bleiben Sie übrig, ‘stay alive’, is how Berliners said goodbye to each once British and American bombers attacked the city day and night. By that stage, in 1943, most Jews of Berlin had already been deported to the death camps.
If my book about daily life in Hitler’s capital during the war has a running theme, it is a question that sadly is still with us: how to remain decent in an indecent society. In Nazi Germany common decency came with an increasingly high price.
Speakers
Ian Buruma
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Date
October 29, 2026Time
4:30 p.m.Location
Louis A. Simpson International Building, A71Audience
University Sponsors
Organized by the Program in Contemporary European Politics and Society