The rise and fall of the Third Reich has re-shaped the entire word and has dramatically affected the life of every European country. German ambitions and arrogance brought a lot of suffering on many smaller nations. Literature works of the authors that belong to such smaller nations reflect various attitudes and descriptions of the common enemy.
Countries like Denmark and Norway did not possess the military power necessary to repel German invasion. The people of these countries in a very short period of time found themselves stripped of all their normal rights. Hatred to the invaders on one hand and the lack of strength enough to drive them out created a mixture of feelings toward the enemy. Some of the citizens of the conquered nations showed respect and even admiration to the Germans. Others openly despised them and regarded them as lower class human beings.
Danish writer Karen Blixen travelled to Germany and lived there while her country was occupied. She wrote about German people in a mixture of surprise and muted admiration. She compared Germans to early Muslims and admired their energy and determination. “It is impossible not to be impressed by the will and the immeasurable capacity of the nation” (Blixen, 1948, p. 223). The general impression of Blixen’s article “Half Moon and Swastika” is that of submission and acceptance of German superiority.
Another Dane, Kim Malthe-Bruun provided an entirely different attitude towards the enemy. It is hardly a surprise, since he was a member of the Danish resistance group and was captured and executed by Gestapo. In his letters that were smuggled from prison he describes his captors and simple-minded villains that are mentally and emotionally inferior to the members of the resistance group. Malthe-Bruun even noticed fear in the eyes of his interrogators from Gestapo. The only difference is that they are the masters over you physically. “ they are the same low breed of life they were before your arrest” (Malthe-Bruun, 1955, p. 166). Malthe-Bruun does not have any admiration towards Germans. He feels that they are a bunch of thugs that temporarily got an upper hand.
A novel “The Moon is Down” by John Steinbeck pictures yet another side of the invaders. The scene of the book is set, presumably, in a small town in Norway. The town is occupied by the Nazis with very little resistance. German occupants feel very sure of themselves and superior to the local population at the beginning of the events, described in the novel. They expected full cooperation from the locals. Instead, they got resistance and one German officer got killed by a local miner. The attitude of the occupants gradually change. “The men of the battalion came to detest the place they had conqueredand gradually a little fear began to grow in the conquerors, a fear that it would never be over” (Steinbeck, 1942, p. 65-66). This aspect shows that Germans were ordinary human beings indoctrinated by the Nazi propaganda. Their conviction in the submission of the other nations started to crumble in the face of the unexpected resistance from the civilian population.
Three sources provide three different views on the enemy. They are coherent with the social position of the writers and the circumstances they were put in by the events of the World War Two.
References.
Blixen, Karen. (1948) The Half Moon and Swastika. Letters from a Land at War.
Malthe-Bruun, Vibeke (1955). Heroic heart : The diary and letters of Kim Malthe-Bruun 1941-1945.
Steinbeck, John (1942) The Moon is Down.
