Day 225 – 52 Books in 52 Weeks

My fascination with WWII continues. I’ve started reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany by William L. Shirer. Shirer lived and worked in Germany during the first part of the Third Reich and had personally met some of the notorious figures of that time. He also covered the first part of the Nuremberg trials.

During Shirer’s introduction, he lists the volumes of information (Nazi, government, personal) that became available after the fall of the Reich – much of which he personally sifted through for this massive piece of work. At the end of the book is a 46-page list of Notes (double columned), Acknowledgments, and Bibliography. His work is very well documented, and by many other authors writing about Hitler and the Third Reich, Shirer’s book is often quoted.

The volume is divided into six books. I’ve just finished book one: The Rise of Adolf Hitler. Most of this book I was familiar with, having just read Ian Kershaw’s biography of the dictator. What I really like about this book, in comparison to Kershaw’s, is that Shirer goes into much more detail about the history between Germany and Prussia, which I found quite helpful.

After he covers that ground, and the failed Beer Hall Putsch, we get into one of the most fascinating chapters I’ve read on Hitler. Chapter Four: The Mind of Hitler and the Roots of the Third Reich. This is where Shirer starts pulling from Hitler’s own Mein Kampf to show us what the dictator was thinking. He makes an interesting point on page 81, “Not every German who bought a copy of Mein Kampf necessarily read it. I have heard many a Nazi stalwart complain that it was hard going… But it might be argued that had more non-Nazi Germans read it before 1933 and had the foreign statesmen of the world perused it carefully while there still was time, both Germany and the world might have been saved from catastrophe. For whatever other accusations can be made against Adolf Hitler, no one can accuse him of not putting down in writing exactly the kind of Germany he intended to make if he ever came to power and the kind of world he meant to create by armed German conquest.”

Shirer then continues with more intriguing information. He gives detailed information on people (or their works) who had an impact on Hitler’s ideals. This not only included traditional German thinking (gone to extremes) but also the works of composer Richard Wagner, Friedrich Nietzshe, Houstan Stewart Chamberlain, Heinrich von Treitschke, and Count Joseph Arthur de Gobineau, and even a little bit on Charles Darwin.

Shirer tells us about their beliefs (one of which admitted to being possessed by demons) and how they became so popular in the culture of that day – and those who actually came in contact with Hitler.

This chapter alone is worth study by anyone. The impact that these people had on culture then is still very prevalent in today’s society.

Thus ends book one.

Book two is titled: Triumph and Consolidation. I’ve only gotten through the first chapter, The Road to Power: 1925 – 31. It starts when Hitler gets out of prison and Shirer arrives in Germany.

Again, there is a lot of background information: what the Nazi party structure was like, how the organization was divided into various units and groups. Shirer gives a clearer explanation of the S.A. (Brownshirts) and the S.S. (the group that would end up being headed by Himmler and that struck terror into anyone at the mention of the group) and what their roles encompassed.

One of the most telling items was the fact that they even had groups for children. I knew about the Hitler Youth (ages 15-18) but they actually had a group for those ages 10-15: Deutsches Jungvolk. There were special groups for girls, women, students, teachers, lawyers, etc. As Hitler said in Mein Kampf – he knew to start with the youth.

On page 121-122 he says of Hitler and the Nazi party, “He (Hitler), who was so monumentally intolerant by his very nature, was strangely tolerant of one human condition – a man’s morals. No other party in Germany came near to attracting so many shady characters… a conglomeration…flocked to the party as if to a natural haven. Hitler did not care, as long as they were useful to him.”

Hitler even had to set up an in-party court – which was basically set up to keep nefarious deeds hushed up.

Now enter Paul Joseph Goebbels. Shirer devotes several pages to the future propaganda minister. He talks about his parents, his education, how at first he was on Strassers side of the Nazi party (even reportedly calling for Hitler to be expelled from the Nazi party), but became mesmerized by Hitler in 1926 and remained by his Fuhrer’s side until the end.

Next is a short section about Hitler’s relationship with his niece, Geli, and her “suicide.” Since no definitive evidence was available for either the relationship or her death, Shirer gives us the most likely scenario and quotes various sources who knew the couple.

The chapter ends with a discussion of Hitler’s income (and his problem with tax collectors), those who invested in the Nazi party, both individuals and big industrialists, then wraps things up with the Depression and how that kicked off Hitler’s rise to power.

Due to the size of the book (1200 pages) and the fact that the other info I’ve read on the topic had been slow going, I expected this to be a long, difficult read. However, this volume is easier to read because everything is explained. Shirer does not assume the reader knows who everyone is, or the various factions in Germany, nor its history. He does a very good job of walking the reader through all of that.

I probably should have read it before I read the other materials!