The Third Reich of Dreams: The Nightmares of a Nation 1933-1939

This dream author, as we have said, belongs to a generation that is not bound up with the past and the Third Reich through either fear or guilt. Her fear is concerned with the present (this dream occurred only a few hours after she had heard a disquieting political speech), and she considers it morally irresponsible to fail to recognize phenomena in the public sphere that threaten one's freedom as a citizen - to fail to recognize them before, like the little man in black, they loom large. This is the lesson of her fable. This is also the lesson contained in all these fables that were dreamt during the Third Reich. Like all fables, they contain not only a lesson but a warning, the warning that totalitarian tendencies must be recognized before they become overt - before the guise is dropped ... , before people no longer may speak the word "I" and must guard their tongue so that not even they understand what they say, and before we begin to actually live the "Life Without Walls."