Full Title:
The Perfect Nazi: Discovering my grandfather’s secret past and how Hitler seduced a generation

Age Group:
Adult

Genre:
Non-Fiction, Biography, History

Breakdown:
Davidson describes the pivotal point in history when Nazism began to emerge as an ideological stance. From there, he follows Nazism’s burgeoning status as full blown political and genocidal movement culminating in WWII. Loosely based on the life of his own Nazi grandfather, Bruno Langbehn, Davidson pieces together the motivations, hopes and dreams held by Nazism’s most impassioned young followers.

My Thoughts:
Although this is intriguing subject matter for a book, The Perfect Nazi was not as engrossing as I had hoped it would be. At times, it feels like Davidson is bogged down with facts. It was less of a biography of his grandfather, than a historical lineage of the rise of Nazism. With few concrete remnants left of his grandfather’s life, Davidson does a lot of assuming and generalizing to fill in the blanks. In the end, I had, at best, only a one-dimensional grasp of Bruno Langbehn. The Perfect Nazi works better as a research resource than as a leisure read.

Want to know more? Borrow The Perfect Nazi from your local VPL library today!

For a fascinating first hand account of the Holocaust, try Clara Kramer’s book Clara’s War: A young girl’s true story of miraculous survival under the Nazis.