The prequel to the Bernard Samson Books.

Winter by Len Deighton (1987 620 pages)
This book covers the time period from 1900 to 1945. It is set in Germany and traces the rise of Nazism and its antisemitism by following the lives of three generations of an extended family and shows how their lives were affected by both world wars and the political backdrop to these conflicts.

The story is told beautifully and Deighton did a great job of presenting the socio-economic background in Germany that led to the struggles between the political militias within the country, and the eventual rise of the Nazi Party, and how the party took political control of Germany’s government, police forces, and ultimately, army. It showed how the party wooed the vulnerable and promised all things to the dispossessed, and built up national fervour with its slogan, “Make Germany Great Again”.

In this story we see the effect of social stratification, with the aristocratic elite believing themselves to be the decent and reasonable people, even though they were totally ignorant of how the “lower classes” lived. Honour and discipline were seen at the true values, and that when the Nazi government started doing things that the military thought were not right, that the military commanders still felt themselves obligated to stand by and let them happen as they were duty bound to serve the Government. This allowed the introduction of laws and procedures that enabled the Nazis to take anyone into custody, and facilitated the introduction of the concentration camps and death camps.

This book is a good warning of what can happen as it describes what did happen. Unfortunately, it does not necessarily prevent those same horrors from happening again.

This book was a great read, but there is so much in it that is echoed by events around The World today it was frightening at times. ( )

Back-story to the Bernard Samson spy novels introducing his father, Brian. A series of episodes following the lives of the Winter family through the First World War, the rise of the Nazis and to the end of WW2. Well constructed. ( )

Just too long and not gripping enough although well written. ( )

Like a number of English speakers with German names, I'm a bit obsessed with the Hitler years, and I find this book an intelligent treatment of how the ghastly catastrophe started and took hold of a civilized state. I'm obviously not a believer in the "Germans are just like that"" school, and firmly believe in the "It could happen here !"school. But the book is good quality Deighton and pretty fair-minded. ( )