Terrific ... Boyd's research is impeccable ... Boyd's prose is clear, confident and measured, connecting national events to Oberstdorf as often as possible, a device that never feels forced — only human. She consistently uses the word 'murder' to describe the actions of the Nazis. They didn't kill, or exterminate — they murdered. The stark word carries a little more power each time she writes it.
A fascinating deep dive into one community as it experiences the rise and fall of Hitler ... Boyd... approaches her subjects with a sometimes uncomfortable degree of empathy. How should history judge the village mayor, for example? According to Boyd he was 'both a committed Nazi and a decent human being', and in her view this should not be seen as a contradiction in terms ... An utterly absorbing insight into the full spectrum of responses from ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.
