Day 151 – 52 Books in 52 Weeks

When I left off on Hitler: A Biography by Ian Kershaw, we were in the year 1933 and Hitler had just become the Reich Chancellor of Germany.

I’ve read four more chapters, about 200 pages, which take us from that time to late autumn 1938. Throughout these years, Kershaw shows how “legally” Hitler’s power grew, mainly through the use of propaganda and impressive victories – to the point that the “cabinet” as we’d refer to them, voted themselves out of work.

It is amazing to see how the political game was played, and that even though other world powers had suspicions, most of the German people had no idea what Hitler had in mind.

Little by little, different ministries fall under Hitler’s direct care – until he controls everything, including the army.

Also throughout these years we also see four “questions” brought up that follow Hitler throughout his rule, and indeed were on his mind years ago when he wrote Mein Kampf. The first question was the Jewish Question. Part of that was taken care of, but not to the extent that we know about today. Second question as the “Church Question” – again taken care of, this time through propaganda. Third question: Austrian question. War was averted at the last minute and Austria became a German province without any shed blood. Now they’re onto the Czech question.

It is at this point in 1938 that high standing members in Hitler’s circle are beginning to be wary of his plans. Though bold, they were rarely reckless. But when it came to Czechoslovakia, Hiter wanted war. Peace wasn’t an option. He wanted to destroy that country. The timing was both good and bad. Coming off the seemingly masterful attainment of Austria, it also caught the attention of England, France and Italy (who had been behind Hitler’s move into Austria).

It is after the Austria event that people say that Hitler changed. He began to believe in the Führer cult himself. As Kerhsaw says, “It was not a good premise for rational decision-making.” (p422). It was just after this that the talk of an invasion into Chezechoslovakia began to stir up some questions in the rank and file of the army.

The first attempt to go to war was thwarted when Mussolini stepped in and asked Hitler to give the Czechs more time to reach a peaceable agreement. It was that Hitler was fond of Mussolini that he backed down. But in the back of his mind, he is still planning a strike.

It was also starting to come apparent that Hitler would stop at nothing to get what he wants.

The book itself is a tough read. I’ve found a couple of typos, grammatical errors, which worries me when I’m reading a book written about men from other countries; in a style of English only truly dominate in England itself, and where titles, certain words, are given in their original language with no definition given. This has cause my reading to be much slower since I’ve had to look up several words.

Also, since this is an abridged edition of a two-volume set, I’ve found several instances, pages at length, that have been almost repeated word for word. I think they were pulled from extended sections, but put together in this version. Sometimes I’m wondering if I had read before of if I’m just losing my mind.

Again, this book is geared more for the historian who specializes in German history. This book would be a great read for them. The most it is doing for me is getting to see some diaries of his closest confidants (and there weren’t many); and find out that up until now, his rise to power had been through the people (granted those people had been inundated with propaganda). But it is interesting to see just how powerful the media can be in changing people’s opinion on things. The taking of Austria is a prime example. A vote placed before the German and the Austrians landed a 99.08% and 99.75% respectively in favor of the union. Even though propaganda was hard at work, it still had to have a massive backing by the people to pass with such high marks.

I still have about 550 pages to go. I’m hoping to crank through those this week… but that depends on if I get my air conditioning back on. It’s been hard to read when you fingers stick to the pages.