The History Book Club discussion

This thread is not to glorify the Nazis or Hitler. Despicable things were done which can never be forgotten and shouldn't be.

This thread is to post books regarding this collective group as it relates to World War II. Also urls and other research information can also be posted. There is no self promotion here and no glorifying the Nazis or Hitler. Those posts will be deleted,

Another recommendation by the Imperial War Museum:



HUNTING EICHMANN

Part history, part detective story, part international thriller, Hunting Eichmann brings the story of the 15-year search for Eichmann more thrillingly, more completely to life than ever before.

Archival research on three continents and interviews both with survivors of the Mossad operation and with those who knew Eichmann in Argentina, have enabled the author not only to reveal details of the abduction that have never before been published, but also to uncover new information on how Eichmann was able to remain free for so long.

Neal Bascomb

Another recommendation from the Imperial War Museum:



THE ORIGINS OF THE FINAL SOLUTION
This book is the most detailed, careful, and comprehensive analysis to date of the descent of the Nazi persecution of the Jews into mass murder. Arguing that genocide was not a preconceived plan but rather a discovered possibility, Christopher Browning explains how the decision to murder the Jews en masse emerged in stages and by a process of elimination that gradually foreclosed plans for their expulsion from Europe.

by Christopher R. Browning (no photo available)

On the Guardian's list:

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

by William L. Shirer

Anthony Read wrote:

For me, this is the grandaddy of them all, the standard work by which all others on the subject are still measured. A brilliant and respected journalist, Shirer was actually there for much of the time and it shows. Erudite, comprehensive and detailed, always lively and readable, it is the model of what a popular narrative history should be. My own copy has been read and referred to so often it is falling apart.

Review:

Before the Nazies could destroy the files, famed foreign correspondent and historian William L. Shirer sifted through the massive self-documentation of the Third Reich, to create a monumental study that has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of one of the most frightening chapters in the history of mankind--now in a special 30th anniversary edition.

"One of the most important works of history of our time."
THE NEW YORK TIMES

Goodreads Synopsis:

With a new afterword by the author, this unabridged edition tells the complete story of Hitler's empire. Famed foreign correspondent and historian Shirer spent five and a half years sifting through the vast paperwork behind Hitler's drive to conquer the world to bring this definitive record of one of the most frightening chapters in the history of mankind. "One of the most important works of history of our time".--The New York Times. (War History)

On the Guardian's List:

The German Dictatorship

by Karl Dietrich Bracher

Anthony Read wrote:

On its first publication in 1969, Bracher's book was described as 'the first, correct, full and comprehensive account of the origins, the structure and the machinery of the Nazi dictatorship'. Since then, it has been often emulated but never bettered. For anyone seeking to understand the roots and causes of the Nazi phenomenon, it is essential, and sobering, reading.

Goodreads Synopsis:

There have been many studies of National Socialism published since the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. None, however, has satisfactorily explained why the Weimar Republic failed, how Hitler succeeded in taking power, and whether National Socialism has been truly defeated or survives in Germany today. In his search for the answers to these questions, Karl Dietrich Bracher has written what has already been acclaimed as a masterpiece of historical and political analysis, the most comprehensive and illuminating study of National Socialism to appear to date.

The German Dictatorship opens with an examination of the two dominant schools of thought on National Socialism: the one, that it is a modern European phenomenon, one of a number of totalitarian mass movements whose roots lie in the French Revolution; the other, that it is a specifically German phenomenon, the peculiar product of German history and the defects of the German character. There is truth in both these contentions, according to Bracher, and hence any examination of the Ger¬man dictatorship must be approached from both vantage points. But, even more important, the background, development, and structure of National Socialism itself must be subjected to probing, unbiased examination if we are to understand the motive forces at work.

It is this scrupulous concern for the truth, and for the multicausal nature of historical and political processes, that characterizes Bracher's approach to his subject. Thus he first identifies and distinguishes and then weaves together the various strands that went into the making and unmaking of the Nazi dictatorship: the Austrian background; the German state tradition; the rise of the NSDAP; the personality of Hitler; the weaknesses of the Weimar Republic; the "legal revolution" of 1933; the roles of the bureaucracy, the Army, business, and the Church; the organization of the totalitarian state; the murder of Jews; appeasement by the West; the war; domestic opposition and resistance; the collapse; and the heritage of National Socialism in the two postwar Germanys.

Yet The German Dictatorship is more than a superb analysis of the National Socialist regime; for, as Leonard Schapiro wrote of the original German edition in The New York Review of Books, "there is more illumination of the totalitarian polity in the pages of this book than in a whole library of more abstract and generalized analyses of 'fascism.'" Bracher's subject is Nazi Germany, but few readers will find his conclusions limited to that time or place.

KARL DIETRICH BRACHER, Professor of Political Science and Contemporary History at the University of Bonn, is the author of a number of works on Germany. The German Dictatorship is the first of his books to be published in English.

Translated from the German
by JEAN STEINBERG

Introduction
by PETER GAY

Reviews:

"Written with tension and power. I can't urge you strongly enough to read it."
-- Walter Clemons, in The New York Times

"Karl Dietrich Bracher's The German Dictatorship, the first serious comprehensive history of the Nazi phenomenon, is a gift to both the old and the young. Is it too much to hope that it may even come to serve as a bridge —slender but sturdy— between them? Not surprisingly, in their effort to grasp the Nazi experience, those over forty have easily been victimized by simplifying Myths. They have adopted the hostile myth of the 'bad German,' which holds that Nazism is a pure and typically German phenomenon, or the apologetic myth of 'mass politics,' which holds that Nazism is a twentieth-century disease quite uncharacteristic of the nation of poets and thinkers and in fact smuggled into Germany through the twin evils of modern technology and mass democracy. Karl Dietrich Bracher has no truck with these, or other, myths; he rejects the easy comfort of simplistic explanations. . . . With its obvious, authoritative control over a vast array of material, the book debunks myths with its very sobriety.

"This is the service the book can perform for those for whom Nazism remains a living, hideous reality. And for the young? Here, too, its tone is bound to make its point: It will gain a hearing with its unwillingness to shout amidst the clamor. Perhaps the most sensational aspect of The German Dictatorship is its refusal to be sensational. This, I think, is the best way, perhaps the only way, of serving the young: to relieve their ignorance by offering them not panaceas, not quick generalizations, but the truth."

from the Introduction by PETER GAY

Berlin Diary

by William L. Shirer

By the acclaimed journalist and bestselling author of "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, " this day-by-day, eyewitness account of the momentous events leading up to World War II in Europe is now available in a new paperback edition.

CBS radio broadcaster William L. Shirer was virtually unknown in 1940 when he decided there might be a book in the diary he had kept in Europe during the 1930s--specifically those sections dealing with the collapse of the European democracies and the rise of Nazi Germany.

"Berlin Diary" first appeared in 1941, and the timing was perfect. The energy, the passion, the electricity in it were palpable. The book was an instant success, and it became the frame of reference against which thoughtful Americans judged the rush of events in Europe. It exactly matched journalist to event: the right reporter at the right place at the right time. It stood, and still stands, as so few books have ever done--a pure act of journalistic witness.



by William L. Shirer

The Devil's Disciples

by Anthony Read



This 900+ page book delves into the machinations of the Third Reich's most dangerous men, the four acolytes of Hitler and their mad grasp for power. It is not so much a history of the war but more an insight into what the usual history books don't tell us regarding the in-fighting and paranoia of Himmler, Goring, Goebbles, and Ribbentrop. Based on letters, meeting minutes and the testimony of Goring at the Nuremburg Trials, it is a magnificent telling of how these men rose to power and fought to keep it.
The author gives more attention to Goring.........this may be because he is the only one (besides Ribbentrop, who was negligible at the trials) who made it to Nuremburg. His testimony, however horrific, held the court in thrall and the author utilizes it to advantage. (Of course, Goring cheated the hangman by his own hand.)He is presented a little more sympathetically than the remaining three and in fact, may have been much more intelligent than the image he presented to the world.. This is not to say that he wasn't evil....he was... but Goebbles was an insecure madman, Himmler was a psychotic with no scruples, and Ribbentrop was shallow,vain, and stupid. This inner circle shaped the "Thousand Year Reich" for 12 years and left their county in ruin and desperation. This book is a must read for all who are interested in an inside look at what made these men initiate and carry out unbelievable crimes against humanity.

Jill wrote: "The Devil's Disciples

I started this book but had to return it to the library. However, I want to finish it; it is great.

Anthony Read

It is very well done, Bryan. It takes a while to read it but I was enthralled from beginning to end and would highly recommend it for an inside look at some very disturbing individuals.

Thank you Jill and Bryan for your adds and Jill for your fine additions to the thread.

Here is another one:

Goering



Synopsis:

In Goering, Roger Manvell and Heinrich Fraenkel use first-hand testimonies anda variety of historical documents to tell the story of a monster lurking in Hitler'sshadows.

After rising through the ranks of the German army, Hermann Goering became Hitler's right hand man and was hand-picked to head the Luftwaffe, one of history's most feared fighting forces.

As he rose in power, though, Goering became disillusioned and was eventually shunned from Hitler's inner circle.Alone at the end, he faced justice at the Nuremberg trials and was convicted ofwar crimes and crime against humanity.

He committed suicide in prison beforehe could be hanged. Within these pages, Manvell and Fraenkel bring to life oneof history's most complicated and hated characters.

by Roger Manvell (no photo)

Review:

“Manvell and Fraenkel have produced...biographies of Goebbels, Goering, Himmler, and the men who tried to kill Hitler in 1944....To the best of my knowledge there are no better biographies in existence.” (The New York Review of Books )

Reinhard Heydrich




An appallingly evil man, Heydrich was one of the most feared men of the Nazi era. He was Chief of the Nazi Criminal Police, the SS Security Service and the Gestapo, ruthless overlord of Nazi-occupied Bohemia and Moravia, and leading planner of the "Final Solution". He shouldered a major share of responsibility for some the the worst Nazi atrocities and, up to his assassination in Prague in 1942, he was widely seen as one of the most dangerous men in Nazi Germany. Strangely, he has received remarkably modest attention in the extensive literature of the Third Reich.

by Robert Gerwarth

They all look quite hard and cold.

It makes you wonder the big "what if" question.....would the war have been avoided if France and England would have called Hitler's bluff at the time of the Sudentenland annexation? Or would Hitler have sat back for a while, consolidating his power base, his military might, and wooing additional allies to the Nazi party.......then striking a true "lightning war" with better planning? I opt for the second scenario but alternative history isn't very meaningful when millions died.

by Ernst Hanfstaengl (translated by John Willard Toland)

The name of "Putzi" Hanfstaengl almost always shows up in Nazi history but only as a footnote which he probably was in the overall scheme of things. So this book gives us a little more insight into perhaps the only literate member of Hitler's inner circle in the 1930s. He was a Harvard educated German-American publisher who came back to a broken Germany in 1921 where he witnessed the phenomenal speaking power of young Adolf Hitler in a Munich beer hall. Hanfstaengl tells how he introduced Hitler to members of higher society and helped him advance the party. Yet as Hitler's fanatical ideas hardened and he surrounded himself with extremists, Hanfstaengl was increasingly estranged and had to flee for his life. Was he important in the development of Nazi Germany?....probably not much but it is a fascinating story. And since Toland translated it, that historian thought it was a story worth telling.

Bentley wrote: "Here is another one:

Goering

Synopsis:

In Goering, Roger Manvell and Heinrich Fraenkel use first-hand testimonies anda variety of historical documents to tell the story of a monster lurking in H..."

Just finished reading this one Bentley and it was a great read.

Thank you Michael for letting everybody know. But also make sure to recite. Did you listen to this as an audio or did you read the text. If an audio, who was the narrator?

by Roger Manvell (no photo)

Sorry I have read by Roger Manvell also I have read his book on by Heinrich Fraenkel

It is important to note that both of theses books were co-written by Heinrich Fraenkel&Roger Manvell but there this is not reflected by any editions showing on Goodreads. These books are a bit dated now but still an excellent read.

I also have two other books of theirs on the bookshelf waiting to read.

by
Heinrich Fraenkel
byHeinrich Fraenkel

In my opinion you can not go past by William L. Shirer as the best book written on the Nazis.

byLaurence Rees is also an excellent book on the subject.

As for the leader of the Nazi party I believe by Ian Kershaw is the best biography available.

I read both volumes of Kershaw's biography

& by Ian Kershaw

Excellent books - highly recommended.

Also, more recently,
by Erik Larson

is a good insight regarding William Dodd, the US ambassador to Germany during the early years. A bit too much on Martha, imo, but the rest is well done. Larson used sources very well and very responsibly in a book which "reads like a novel."

I discovered these books

by Guido Knopp

did someone read them - are they really so good as are they prized?

Morgiana, I have not read those books but maybe somebody in the group has.

Thank you Michael and Becky for your adds and your brief reviews helping members know what to expect.

Bentley wrote:...
Thank you Michael and Becky for your adds and your brief reviews helping members know what to expect."

I could have said a bit more about the Kershaw volumes. He's a truly amazing author. Many biographers (in general) tend to "fall in love with" their subjects and end up presenting that point of view, buying into it to a great degree.

Kershaw avoids that pit-fall. There's never any sentimentality toward or excuses given for Hitler's behavior. Rather Kershaw explores the question of responsibility - was Hitler a madman who took control of the German people? Or was Hitler a puppet of the Germans and the blame lies there? He says essentially that without Hitler there would never have been a Holocaust but otoh, too many powerful Germans were "working toward the Fuhrer;" they were carrying out what they thought Hitler wanted.

& by Ian Kershaw

I'm very interested in reading Kershaw's new book -
by Ian Kershaw

Martin Bormann



The most enigmatic of the Nazi inner circle, his fate has fascinated historians since the fall of the Third Reich. The following information gives an overview of the search for Bormann.

The hunt for Bormann lasted 26 years without success. International investigators and journalists searched for Bormann from Paraguay to Moscow and from Norway to Egypt. Digs for his body in Paraguay in March 1964 and Berlin in July 1964 were unsuccessful. The German government offered a 100,000-Mark reward in November 1964, but no one claimed it. The final straw came in July 1965, when the search of Albert Krumnow’s Berlin location turned up nothing. The German government determined that Berlin was simply "too full of cemeteries and mass graves dating from the last days of the war."

On the political end, the hunt for Bormann became a recurring memory of the Nazi regime and also an embarrassment that would not go away. On 13 December 1971, the West German government officially called an end to the search for Bormann. This pronouncement was met with protest from Jewish human rights groups and Nazi-hunters like Simon Wiesenthal who insisted the search must continue until Bormann was found, alive or dead.

Almost a year later, on 7 December 1972, Axmann and Krumnow's accounts were bolstered when construction workers uncovered human remains near the Lehrter Bahnhof in West Berlin just 12 m (39 ft) from the spot where Krumnow claimed he had buried them. Dental records — reconstructed from memory in 1945 by Dr. Hugo Blaschke — identified the skeleton as Bormann's, and damage to the collarbone was consistent with injuries Bormann's sons reported he had sustained in a riding accident in 1939. The second skeleton was deemed to be Stumpfegger‘s, since it was of similar height to his last known proportions. Fragments of glass in the jawbones of both skeletons suggested that Bormann and Stumpfegger committed suicide by biting cyanide capsules to avoid capture. Soon after, in a press conference held by the West German government, Bormann was declared dead, a statement condemned by Britain's Daily Express as a whitewash perpetrated by the Brandt government. West German diplomatic officials were given official instruction that "if anyone is arrested on suspicion that he is Bormann we will be dealing with an innocent man".

The remains were conclusively identified as Bormann's in 1998 when German authorities ordered a genetic test on the skull. The test identified the skull as that of Bormann, using DNA from one of his relatives. Bormann's remains were cremated and the ashes scattered in the Baltic Sea by Bormann's son Martin Adolf Bormann, a Roman Catholic and retired priest.

Despite these DNA tests, there had and continues to be controversy regarding the authenticity of the remains. For example, Hugh Thomas' 1995 book Doppelgängers claimed there were forensic inconsistencies suggesting Bormann died later than 1945. When exhumed, Bormann’s skeleton was covered in flecks of red clay, whereas Berlin is a city based on yellow sand. This indicated to some that the body had been re-interred from somewhere with a clay-based soil, such as Paraguay, the Andes Mountains or even Russia (as the Gehlen theory surmised).

Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal refused to accept the government’s declaration of Bormann‘s death, persisting in the belief that Bormann escaped Berlin with Axmann and headed south to the safety of the Alps. There he was rumoured to have been seen in both Bavaria and Austria. Bormann’s aide Wilhelm Zander was captured in Passau, along the Austrian frontier, in December 1945. From the Alps, Wiesenthal believed, Bormann and others escaped to South America.

Others, like English scholar and intelligence officer Hugh Trevor-Roper, decried the evidence upon which the German government based its searches for Bormann: the testimony of one man. He and others argued that the testimony of Artur Axmann, the only man who said he saw Bormann dead was falsified to protect Bormann who was then on the run. Both men were unrepentant Nazis and shared the motivation to keep their cause alive. Axmann, they argued, probably escaped Berlin with Bormann. Russian author Lev Bezymenski wrote that Axmann’s statements had, "the apparent aim of convincing the world that the Reichsleiter had been killed." Bezymenski also wrote that Axmann’s statements, "give rise to a lot of doubt, especially when one considers that he changed his explanations at least three times in the postwar years."[22] Some also believed it implausible that the Soviets would identify the body of Stumpfegger and ignore Bormann’s body, supposedly at Stumpfegger’s side. Further, it was said that Bormann was reinterred only to later be "discovered" by the German government.
Source: Wikipedia


Hugh Thomas
Hugh Trevor-Roper

Hitler's Ambivalent Attache

by Alfred M. Beck

Synopsis

Friedrich von Boetticher was Germany's only military attache accredited to the United States between the world wars. As such, he was Germany's observer in the nation whose military potential might have given Hitler pause in any predatory plans he harbored against his neighbors. He has been accused of giving Berlin an overly optimistic impression of America's capacity to fight. Alfred Beck's portrait fo von Boetticher reveals how his strong attachments to America and U.S. military men vied with his loyalty to Germany and points out that what von Boetticher actually told Berlin is strikingly different from what his detractors later claimed.

My Father's Country

by Wibke Bruhns

Synopsis

When she was six years old, the author's father was executed for his part in the plot against Hitler. Here, she examines how her patriotic family could have succumbed to Nazi sympathies and what made her father finally renounce Hitler.

Johannes "Hans" Georg Klamroth (12 October 1898, Halberstadt – 26 August 1944) was, by his knowledge of the plans through distant relatives and his son-in-law Lieutenant-Colonel Bernhard Klamroth, involved in the July 20 Plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

After the bombing at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia on 20 July 1944 failed to kill Hitler, Klamroth was arrested and, after a show trial at the Volksgerichtshof on 15 August, sentenced to death for keeping his knowledge of the plot to himself. He was hanged at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin on 26 August.

The Halberstadt-born businessman was originally a follower of National Socialism and an NSDAP and SS member; he also served as a major in the reserve as an intelligence officer in the Wehrmacht.
Source: Wikipedia

Klamroth on trial:

A fascinating look at the war crime trials at Nuremberg.

The Nuremberg Trials

by Ann Tusa

Synopsis
A gripping account of the major postwar trial of the Nazi hierarchy in WWII, dramatically re-creating the trial proceedings and offering a reasoned, profound examination of the processes that founded modern international law. From the whimpering of Kaltenbrunner and Ribbentrop on the stand to the icy coolness of Goering, each participant is vividly drawn. The book included photographs of the key players as well as extensive references, sources, biographies, and an index.

We are all familiar with some of the propaganda films made by the Nazis but this film Titanic flew under my radar. I was fascinated by how the tragedy of the doomed ship was turned into propaganda.
Made in 1943 when the tide of war was turning against the Nazis, it was commissioned by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. It enjoyed a brief theatrical run in German occupied Europe starting in November 1943--but not in Germany proper by order of Goebbels himself who feared that it would weaken the German citizenry's morale instead of raising it. Goebbels later banned the playing of the film, and it did not have a second run. The film used the sinking of the RMS Titanic as a setting for an attempt to discredit British and American capitalist dealings and glorify the bravery and selflessness of German men.
The premiere was supposed to occur in early 1943, but the theater was bombed by Royal Air Force planes the night before the big event. The film went on to have a respectable premiere in Paris in November 1943 "where it was surprisingly well-received by its audience" and also played well in some other capital cities of Nazi occupied Europe such as Prague. But Goebbels banned its playing in Germany altogether, stating that the German people--who were by that point going through almost nightly Allied bombing raids--were less than enthusiastic about seeing a film that portrayed mass death and panic.

Titanic was re-discovered in 1949, but was quickly banned in most western countries. After the fifties, the film went back into obscurity, sometimes showing on German television. But in 1992, a censored, low quality VHS copy, was released in Germany. This version deleted the strongest propaganda scenes, which immensely watered down its controversial content. Finally, in 2005, Titanic was completely restored and, for the first time, the uncensored version was released in a special edition DVD by Kino Video. I will be buying this film!

Don't forget the author's link, Ronel....i.e.; John Toland

I have also read that biography and thought it was quite good. Hope you enjoyed it as well.

I just finished this book and was not quite as taken with it as I thought I would but it is still a good read. I was particularly interested in the chapter on Martin Bormann since not much has been written about him and his fate is still being discussed sixty-seven years after he walked out of the Fuehrerbunkr and disappeared.


The Face of the Third Reich

by Joachim Fest

Synopsis

In these searing profiles the author dissects the lives of fifteen infamous Nazis—including Hermann Göring, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, Martin Bormann, Ernst Röhm, Hans Frank, Rudolph Höss, Albert Speer, and Hitler himself. He also analyzes the archetypal roles of the officer corps, intellectuals, and women. This work provides fresh perspectives into how dysfunctional psyches, personal ambitions, and ruthless rivalries impacted the creation and evolution of Hitler's Third Reich.

A compelling reassessment of the groundbreaking trial of SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann and its lasting legacy. A National Jewish Book Award finalist for 2012.


The Eichmann Trial

by Deborah E. Lipstadt

Synopsis

The capture of SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann by Israeli agents in Argentina in May of 1960 and his subsequent trial in Jerusalem by an Israeli court electrified the world. The public debate it sparked on where, how, and by whom Nazi war criminals should be brought to justice, and the international media coverage of the trial itself, was a watershed moment in how the civilized world in general and Holocaust survivors in particular found the means to deal with the legacy of genocide on a scale that had never been seen before.

Award-winning historian Deborah E. Lipstadt gives us an overview of the trial and analyzes the dramatic effect that the survivors’ courtroom testimony—which was itself not without controversy—had on a world that had until then regularly commemorated the Holocaust but never fully understood what the millions who died and the hundreds of thousands who managed to survive had actually experienced.

Lipstadt infuses a gripping narrative with historical perspective and contemporary urgency.

The man in the glass box.....Adolf Eichmann on trial in Israel.

Just published:

Army of Evil: A History of the SS

Adrian Weale

Synopsis

It began as a small squad of political thugs. Yet by the end of 1935, the SS had taken control of all police and internal security duties in Germany—ranging from local village “gendarmes” all they way up to the secret political police and the Gestapo. And by 1944 the militarized Waffen SS had more than eight hundred thousand men serving in the field, even rivaling Germany’s regular armed forces, the Wehrmacht.

In Army of Evil: A History of the SS, author Adrian Weale delves into materials not previously available, including recently released intelligence files, the most up-to-date research and rare and never-before-published photographs.

Going beyond the myths and characterizations, this comprehensive account reveals the reality of the SS as a cadre of unwavering political fanatics and power-seeking opportunists who slavishly followed an ideology that disdained traditional morality, and were prepared to implement it to the utmost, murderous extreme that ultimately resulted in the Holocaust.

This is a definitive historical narrative of the birth, legacy, and ultimate demise of one of the most feared political and military organizations ever known, and those twisted, cruel men who were responsible for one of the most appalling crimes against humanity in all history.

Looks like another one for my TBR stack, Bryan.

I agree, Jill, it looks good.

Heinrich Himmler: A Life

Peter Longerich

Synopsis

Heinrich Himmler, an unremarkable looking man, was Hitler's top enforcer, in charge of the Gestapo, the SS, and the so-called Final Solution. We can only wonder, as biographer Peter Longerich asks, how could such a banal personality attain such an historically unique position of power? How could the son of a prosperous Bavarian Catholic public servant become the organizer of a system of mass murder spanning the whole of Europe?

In the first comprehensive biography of this murderous enigma, Longerich answers those questions with a superb account of Himmler's inner self and outward acts. Masterfully interweaving the story of Himmler's personal life and political career with the wider history of the Nazi dictatorship, Longerich shows how skillfully he exploited and manipulated his disparate roles in the pursuit of his far-reaching and grandiose objectives. Himmler's actual strength, he writes, consisted in redrawing every two or three years the master plans for his sphere of power. Himmler expanded that sphere with ruthless efficiency. In 1929, he took the SS--a small bodyguard unit--and swelled it into a paramilitary organization with elite pretensions. By the end of 1934 he had become Reich Chief of the Political Police, and began to consolidate all police power in his own hands. As Germany grabbed neighboring territory, he expanded the Waffen SS and organized the "Germanization" of conquered lands, which culminated in systematic mass murder. When the regime went on the defensive in 1942, Himmler changed his emphasis again, repressing any opposition or unrest. The author emphasizes the centrality of Himmler's personality to the Nazi murder machine--his surveillance of the private lives of his men, his deep resentments, his fierce prejudices--showing that man and position were inseparable.

Carefully researched and lucidly written, Heinrich Himmler is the essential account of the man who embodied Hitler's apparatus of evil.

I saw that book at the library, Bryan.....it is huge!!! I will save it for a winter time read when I enjoy reading those big tomes.

Looks good. I hear you about the big ones.

The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation

Ian Kershaw

Synopsis

This widely-used text on the Nazi regime explores the complex issues historians face when they interpret the Third Reich. Kershaw expertly synthesizes data and evaluates complex historiography looking at the major themes and debates among scholars about Nazism. Drawing on the findings of a wide range of research, particularly the work of German scholars which has not been widely available in English editions, he uncovers interpretational problems, outlines the approaches taken by various historians, and provides clear evaluations of their positions.

This edition reflects current concerns and fresh research and contains substantial revisions to the chapter on "Hitler and the Jews" and an updated survey of recent historical work including Goldhagen's controversial book, Hitler's Willing Executioners.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

William L. Shirer

Synopsis

Since its publication five decades ago, William L. Shirer’s monumental study of Hitler’s empire has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of the twentieth century’s blackest hours. A worldwide bestseller with millions of copies in print, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers an unparalleled and thrillingly told examination of how Adolf Hitler nearly succeeded in conquering the world.

Here, in a thoughtful new introduction for the fiftieth anniversary of its National Book Award win, Ron Rosenbaum, author of the much-admired Explaining Hitler, takes a fresh and penetrating look at this vital and enduring classic and the role it continues to play in today’s discussions of the history of Nazi Germany.

Alternatives to Hitler

Hans Mommsen

Synopsis

German resistance to Hitler is a central element of the history of Nazism. In this text, contemporary historian Hans Mommsen reveals the diversity of the political aims held by these "other Germans". He analyses the ideologies of the assassination plot of 20th July 1944, as well as those of the Kreisau Circle and the conservative, socialist, church and military oppositions. These resistance groups all endeavoured to find a viable alternative to Hitler and to achieve a moral renewal of politics and society - although many of them rejected democracy and had a sometimes ambivalent attitude towards the persecution of the Jews.

Valkyrie: The Story of the Plot to Kill Hitler, by Its Last Member

Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager

Synopsis

When the Second World War broke out, Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager, age twenty-five, fought for his country enthusiastically as a cavalry officer. His rearing on the family estate in the Rhineland had instilled in him a strong Catholic faith, a reverence for the fatherland, and a love of horsemanship and the hunt. And so, like his brother Georg, he accepted a commission when the call came to restore the pride Germany had lost in the humiliating peace of Versailles.

Soon, however, beyond the regimented and honor-bound world of the cavalry, von Boeselager would discover what shocking brutality the SS was perpetrating at the behest of the Third Reich’s highest authorities. When, in the summer of 1942, he heard that five Roma had been killed in cold blood, von Boeselager’s patriotism quickly turned to disgust. Under his commanding officer, Field Marshal von Kluge, Philipp and his brother joined a group of conspirators in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler.

It was planned that Philipp would shoot both the Führer and Himmler in the officers’ casino during a camp inspection visit, but when that attempt had to be aborted at the last moment, the plotters resolved to use a bomb to assassinate Hitler alone. Once von Boeselager had delivered the explosives to Claus von Stauffenberg, a leader of the plot, he and Georg led an unauthorized retreat of cavalry units from the eastern front, a surreal night maneuver indelibly described here. The mission: to take control of Berlin and effect the coup d’etat.

When the bomb failed to kill Hitler, the SS launched a terrifying purge of senior army officers. The von Boeselager brothers barely managed to return with their units to the eastern front in time to escape detection. One by one their fellow plotters were found out, tortured, and executed, but steadfast in their cause, they never gave up the von Boeselagers’ names. Georg would eventually fall in battle on the Russian front, but Philipp survived the war.

In this elegant but unflinching testimony, Philipp von Boeselager, until his death in 2008 the last surviving member of the plot code-named Valkyrie, gives voice to the spirit of the small but determined band of men whose sense of justice and honor could not be dissolved by the diabolical glamour of the Third Reich. Here is an invaluable new perspective on one of the most fascinating near misses of twentieth-century history.

The Long Night: William L. Shirer and the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

Steve Wick

Synopsis

Published to widespread media attention, The Long Night follows the tremendous journey of legendary American journalist William L. Shirer. During the 1930s, Shirer brought the events in Europe to the English speaking world through his broadcasts on Edward R. Murrow's CBS. Despite the Nazis best attempts to control the airwaves, he broadcast live reports of the Germans annexation of Austria and the occupation of Paris. Unlike other foreign correspondents, Shirer never believed the Nazis and was the first to warn the world of the danger that lay ahead. After the war, Shirer penned the classic The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, published in 1960. Although he left behind diaries of his war years, this is the first biography of the maverick reporter who continues to inspire fleets of journalists and historians.

The Night Of The Long Knives: June 29-30, 1934

Max Gallo

Synopsis

By the summer of 1934 Adolf Hitler, appointed chancellor by the moribund President von Hindenburg, had amassed considerable political power, but hardline elements in his own Party that were instrumental to his rise now accused him of betraying the National Socialist agenda. A zealous Nazi and notorious homosexual, Ernst Roehm was the leader of the Party's paramilitary force, the Sturmabteilung (SA) or "Brown Shirts," which at its peak was over four million strong. He had once been Hitler's close friend but had become his most vehement critic. Hitler's response was the “Night of Long Knives,” the term coined by him to describe the well-planned orgy of arrest, assassination, and execution that he personally led against his former comrades during the weekend of June 29, 1934. Step by step, our by hour, Max Gallo reconstructs the events that caused Himmler, Heydrich, Göring, and the Germany Army itself to convince Hitler to eliminate their rivals. Here in vivid detail is the epic clash between the brutal fanaticism of Roehm's SA and the cold-blooded cynicism of the SS, and how Hitler used it to augment his power and cement his position.

It is on my list, Bryan!!!

To the Bitter End

Hans Gisevius

Synopsis

When on July 20, 1944, a bomb—boldly placed inside the Wolf's Lair (Hitler's headquarters in East Prussia) by the German Anti-Nazi Resistance—exploded without killing the Führer, the subsequent coup d'état against the Third Reich collapsed. Most of the conspirators were summarily shot or condemned in show trials and sadistically hanged. The conspiracy involved a wide circle of former politicians, diplomats, and government officials as well as senior military men. The Resistance had started as early as 1933 and involved several planned putsches and assassination attempts. Hans B. Gisevius knew or met the major figures—including Beck, Canaris, Oster, Goerdeler, and von Stauffenberg—and barely escaped after the coup's failure. One of the few survivors of the German Anti-Nazi Resistance, Gisevius traces its history, from the 1933 Reichstag fire to Germany's defeat in 1945, in a book as riveting as it is exceptional.

Operation Valkyrie: The German Generals' Plot Against Hitler

Pierre Galante

Synopsis

The bomb that exploded in the "Wolf's Lair"—Hitler's command headquarters—on July 20th, 1944 was the closest any assassination attempt ever came to ridding the world of the Nazis' Führer. Pierre Galante's account of the years that led up to the attempt, and its grim aftermath, offers an illuminating look at how dissent among the German officer corps grew until something had to be done. Conspirator General Adolf Heusinger, who met with Hitler on hundreds of occasions, provides his personal accounts of the disintegrating obedience of the German commanders as the war turned against them. Their plan to kill Hitler, establish a provisional government, and negotiate with the Allies for peace—known as Operation Valkyrie—is described here in depth.

Jill wrote: "It is on my list, Bryan!!!"

It is a good book, Jill. I recommend it.

Max Gallo

Time has just about run out in the hunt for escaped Nazi war criminals and we may never know what happened to some of them. This book holds some of the clues and is complete in its history of the hunters and the hunted.


Hunting Evil: The Nazi War Criminals Who Escaped and the Quest to Bring Them to Justice

by Guy Walters

Synopsis
At the end of the Second World War, an estimated 30,000 Nazi war criminals fled from justice, including some of the highest ranking members of the Nazi Party. Many of them have names that resonate deeply in twentieth-century history -- Eichmann, Mengele, Martin Bormann, and Klaus Barbie -- not just for the monstrosity of their crimes, but also because of the shadowy nature of their post-war existence, holed up in the depths of Latin America, always one step ahead of their pursuers. Aided and abetted by prominent people throughout Europe, they hid in foreboding castles high in the Austrian alps, and were taken in by shady Argentine secret agents. The attempts to bring them to justice are no less dramatic, featuring vengeful Holocaust survivors, inept politicians, and daring plots to kidnap or assassinate the fugitives.

In this exhaustively researched and compellingly written work of World War II history and investigative reporting, journalist and novelist Guy Walters gives a comprehensive account of one of the most shocking and important aspects of the war: how the most notorious Nazi war criminals escaped justice, how they were pursued, captured or able to remain free until their natural deaths and how the Nazis were assisted while they were on the run by "helpers" ranging from a Vatican bishop to a British camel doctor, and even members of Western intelligence services. Based on all new interviews with Nazi hunters and former Nazis and intelligence agents, travels along the actual escape routes, and archival research in Germany, Britain, the United States, Austria, and Italy, Hunting Evil authoritatively debunks much of what has previously been understood about Nazis and Nazi hunters in the post war era, including myths about the alleged “Spider” and “Odessa” escape networks and the surprising truth about the world's most legendary Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal.

From its haunting chronicle of the monstrous mass murders the Nazis perpetrated and the murky details of their postwar existence to the challenges of hunting them down, Hunting Evil is a monumental work of nonfiction written with the pacing and intrigue of a thriller.

Another interesting and insightful book I read on those Nazis was
by Norbert Lebert.
It's a short book of some 250 pages. It's much more on the children of infamous Nazis and how they coped (or didn't).

Synopsis:

My Father's Keeper is a uniquely illuminating addition to the dark literature of the Nazi era. In 1959 the German journalist Norbert Lebert conducted extensive interviews with the young sons and daughters of prominent Nazis: Rudolf Hess, Martin Bormann, Hermann Goring, Heinrich Himmler, et al. Forty years later, Lebert's son Stephan tracked down these same men and women to find out how they had lived their lives in the shadow of a horrifying heritage. Drawing on both sets of firsthand interviews, this revelatory work of history offers a fascinating, surprising, often disturbing view of modern Germany and Nazism's legacy.

I saw that book somewhere and probably should have purchased it. It will go on my TBR list......thanks, Mikey B.