Hidden deep in the Bavarian mountains lies the picturesque village of Oberstdorf—a place where for hundreds of years people lived simple lives while history was made elsewhere. Yet even this remote idyll could not escape the brutal iron grip of the Nazi regime. Drawing on personal archives, letters, interviews and memoirs, this book lays bare the brutality and love; courage and weakness; action, apathy and grief; hope, pain, joy, and despair in the lives of ordinary people at the crossroads of history.