Paul Roland is the author of more than 40 books. Life Under Nazi Occupation: The Struggle to Survive During World War II was published in 2020. It is the 17th book I completed reading in 2023.

Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! I categorize this book as G.

After the German Army had swept over Europe, what was it like to live under their domination? That is what author Paul Roland tries to answer in this book. He looks at how the people in the occupied countries responded.

Some young women chose to fraternize with their enemies. Young Aryan (or Aryan-looking) women were encouraged to have sex with Germans, to grow the Aryan population. On the other hand, Germans having sex with Jews or undesirables were subject to severe punishment.

Many men and women in the occupied lands took incredible risks seeking to strike back through participation in Resistance groups. The Germans offered the locals inducements to cooperate, to betray their countrymen. Those that failed to toe the Nazi line were subject to intimidation and brutality. The Nazis were especially harsh on the Jews and others they considered undesirable.

I enjoyed the 6.5 hours I spent reading this 261-page WWII-era history. The book was dry but informative. I think that the chosen cover art is both interesting and eye-catching. I give this book a rating of 3.8 (rounded to 4) out of 5.

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

A short overview of each country invaded by the Third Reich and their respective response. Was enlightening as to the resistance efforts and number of deaths caused by random violence rather than just internment.

Thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was very interesting. Learned so much from it. It’s well written. The author put in a lot of work into this book. It was worth it . Fantastic read

This book was okay, in seeing how people lived during the holocaust. It took me a couple of days to get through as I put it down frequently, as it had a slow start.

Then it began to show how not every European country was going along with the nazi regime, even when their own government was soft in dealing with hitler. You see how non-Jewish citizens also suffered at the hands of the regime.

However there were some parts that I did not like

-the way it's implied that had the French or Allies upheld the Treaty of Versailles the hitler would not have advanced

- the ending did not feel like a real conclusion.

Churchill condemned the Nazis strongly early in the war:



'Every week (Hitler's) firing parties are busy in a dozen lands. Mondays he shoots

Dutcchmen, Tuesdays, Norwegians, Wednesdays, French or Belgians stand against

the wall. Thursdays it is the Czechs who must suffer and now there are the Serbs

and the Greeks to fill his repulsive bill of executions. But always, all the days,

there are the Poles'.



Paul Roland studies the effects of the Nazis on every occupied country in this thoroughly researched book, and what a tale of woe it is. They terrorised every occupied country; they were responsible for the Holocaust, and killed and tortured millions of others, as well as plundering and looting most of these countries. It's incredibly harrowing reading and written in a fairly dry way, so it is really mostly useful for students and researchers, however, it is certainly worth reading if you are very interested in the subject.



I found the sections on Poland, the Channel Islands and Greece the most interesting, probably because I have read a lot about France during the war. Roland restores the reputation of the Polish treatment of the Jews to some extent by pointing out that up to 90,000 Poles risked their lives and the lives of their friends and families to give shelter to 28,000 Jews in the months before the Warsaw uprising. The treatment of the Polish by the Nazis was especially horrific because they considered them to be an inferior race, so resistance was incredibly difficult, especially when Poland's leaders, elite, and members of the aristocracy were murdered. The Nazis also made every effort to destroy Polish culture.



If you are interested in The Second World War, this is worth buying.



I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This book does something unusual - it is trying to offer a compact overview of European resistance on only 150 pages. This book offers a good overview of the situation during WW2 Europe and it is really eye-opening even for somebody who grew up in one of the European countries which were occupied and always listened to the ordinary people' stories from their grandparents. It is a welcomed break from all the movies about fighting and specific people and offers a new perspective on the war, which is in a way more relatable, as it talks about the faith of people which could as well be us just 80 years ago.
However, since the beginning, I had mixed feelings about this book as I didn't really know which “box” I should put it in. The beginning was slow and it took just over a chapter to get me really interested in the book, however, the density of information made up for this.
But I have to say I really enjoyed reading these stories and it gently nudged me to look into some people more specifically. It also left a good impression as I already spoke to some of my friends about this.

This book provided a great overview of what life was like in Europe. I appreciated how the author provides a different perspective of Hitlers victims than just the Jews that suffered in concentration camps.

I am giving this book a 3 star for this reason.

1. The beginning of the book was slow, and it took me a while to get into the content.

2. The ending of the book was abrupt and did not flow into the afterword where the aftermath of the war was summarized.

To say I enjoyed this book is maybe not the best word to use, but this is an exceptionally well researched and written condensed history of how it must have been to live under the terror of Nazi rule in France, the Netherlands, Poland, Italy and all the other occupied countries of Europe.

The author has gone to many primary sources and whilst this book is short it is densely packed with facts and illustrations of what transpired.

This is a short read but a fascinating one and did more than enough to signpost me towards more in-depth volumes, and this is an invaluable introduction to the subject.

This book details what it was like to fall under Nazi rule via rape, threats, bribery, and other methods. The author of this book does a brilliant job of highlighting the hopelessness and helplessness that these people felt. In some of the history classes that I have taken, the subject of how people went along with the Nazi occupation. This book answers that question and many more. I found this to be a thought-provoking and informative read.