Tatjana Tönsmeyer. Unter Deutsche Besatzung: Europa 1939-1945. Munich, Germany: Verlag C.H. Beck, 2024, 665 pages

Abstract

Numerous books have been published about the German occupation of Europe during WWII. So what makes Tönsmeyer’s book Unter Deutscher Besatzung: Europa 1939-1945 stand out? It explores how the German military occupation in Europe during 1939 to 1945 affected occupied people. Tönsmeyer divides the book into eleven chapters to address life thematically from the period of invasion to the new social order under occupation, which enables the reader to explore how life, on a human level, was for occupied peoples under German occupation. But beyond history, why should we care? Why is this book important for today? A lesson to be learned for today from Tönsmeyer’s book is that the occupation could not have ruled without the indigenous people acting as employees and extensions of the occupiers.