If you think a book that doesn't take place during WWII actually lines up with what I'm asking for, feel free to recommend that too. But I'm looking for books that follow ordinary (German) citizens during the events of WWII. Not secret heroes, or people trying to silently resist. (Not supporters either.) But the regular people who didn't fight, weren't Nazis, and were just trying to keep themselves together. Usually, in WWII fiction, the protagonists are either
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Nazis, and the book is a cautionary exploration into their issues and cruelty
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Wehrmacht, and the book takes a more neutral soldier slice-of-life approach
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The resistance, or other armies that were opposing Germany
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Citizens who were resisting against or oppressed by Nazi Germany
But that's not what I'm looking for in this case. I'm looking for German bystanders, basically. Average people who didn't resist and just sort of followed the rules. Who saw the bad things happening, but couldn't bring themselves to do anything personally about it. I'm interested in this PoV because I think it's a fairly common one throughout history, and that makes it significant to me. The little people who don't get a footnote.
by freshbreadlington