Totalitarianism from Below: Spies' Court Trials in Nazi-Occupied Europe

Sunday, January 5, 2020: 3:50 PM
Gramercy East (New York Hilton)
Benedetta Luciana Sara Carnaghi, Cornell University
The Nazi ‘total state’ is perfectly embodied by the mighty dictator: skillfully portrayed in Leni Riefenstahl’s 1935 propaganda film Triumph of the Will, Hitler appears as the leader who will restore the nation to glory, prosperity, and security, while carefully masking the Nazi Party purge of the so-called ‘Night of the Long Knives’ and the ensuing universe of terror in the making.

What if we shift the focus from the great architects of terror—namely, the dictator himself or the police chiefs—to the obscure individuals at their service? This paper aims to analyze totalitarianism from the bottom up, showing how terror was an everyday experience through cases of Nazi police spies in German-occupied Europe. By looking at spies as both targets and actors of the repression, the paper seeks to undo the traditional dichotomy between popular dictatorship and repressive totalitarianism, proving that these two aspects actually come together in an ambiguous way in the spies’ lives. These individuals were sometimes victims of the Nazi terror but joined the perpetrators’ side when they agreed to work for the regime.

Some of them were identified, tried, and condemned after the Second World War. Historians can now read the documents issued from their court trials—mostly declassified—in a broad range of archival collections, from those of the Cour de Justice du Départment de la Seine in France to the Volksgerichte or people’s courts that were set up in post-war Austria to punish Nazi crimes. What picture of totalitarianism emerges from these trials? How are the spies depicted? Is it possible to understand their true motives and ultimate allegiance? The paper will explore some of the challenges that historians face when studying these non-objective accounts and how such documents exemplify larger issues with post-war justice and retribution.