Eve Rosenhaft examines the involvement of Communist Party militants in political violence against Nazis during the years of Hitler's rise to power in Germany (1929-33).
Specifically, she aims to account for their participation in 'street-fighting' or 'gang-fighting' with National Socialist storm-troopers. The origins of this conflict are examined at two levels. First, Rosenhaft analyses the official policy of the Communist Party towards fascism and Nazism, and the special anti-fascist and self-defence organizations which it developed. She then explores the attitudes and experience of the Communist rank and file engaged in the struggle against fascism, concentrating on the city of Berlin, where a fierce contest for control of the streets was waged.
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