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It is often assumed that the first memoirs to be written by survivors of Nazi persecution were only published after the war, but this is not the case. Reading Hitler’s Victims is the first study to explore the personal memoirs that were published for British readers by refugees from Nazi persecution, both before and during the war. By asking whose memoirs were published, and why and how they were shaped by translators and editors, this study reveals the changing victim tropes that took centre stage in the British imagination of Nazism between 1933 and 1945. Jewish victims were rarely represented, and instead, German and Austrian Christians came to represent ‘what Britain was fighting for’. This publishing history reveals how unofficial censorship practices shaped British public discourse about Nazism’s victims, and argues that a focus on victim narratives makes such censorship inevitable.
“This is an incredibly well researched and written book that offers valuable insights into both what information the British had access to in terms of Nazi persecution before and during World War II, but also how this information was presented in order to gain popular readership. This information is not only valuable from a historical perspective, but also in terms of learning about the dangers of selective empathy and how this creates the potential for ‘moral blind spots’ – a concern as valid today as it ever was.” • Rachel Pistol, University of Southampton
Ellen Pilsworth is Associate Professor in German and Translation Studies at the University of Reading. In 2024-25, she was Alfred Landecker Member in the School of Historical Studies at the School of Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Her previous scholarly work has explored German literary culture from the eighteenth century to the present. She was awarded a UKRI Future Leader's Fellowship in 2025 to lead the project 'Nation of Refuge' which aims to stimulate a more informed public conversation on the history of Britain offering refuge and asylum to people fleeing persecution overseas. She is an associate fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
Part I: Appeasement
Chapter 1. Communist Victims and the Rise of Popular Antifascism in Britain, 1933-39
Chapter 2. Highlighting Jewish Victimhood in the Context of Appeasement: The Yellow Spot, 1936
Chapter 3. Stefan Lorant’s bestseller, I was Hitler’s Prisoner, and the Making of Winston Churchill
Part II: Wartime
Chapter 4. ‘What Britain Stands For’: British Wartime Discourses and Reading Habits
Chapter 5. Christian Victim Memoirs: Refugees Defending Christianity and Family Values
Chapter 6. Jewish Victim Memoirs in Wartime Britain: Between the Specific and the Universal
Conclusion: Beyond Victim Narratives
Appendix: Bibliography of English-language Memoirs and ‘Explainers’ on Germany and Austria
Bibliography
Index