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鬲丕乇賷禺 兀賱賲丕賳賷丕 丕賱賴鬲賱乇賷丞貙 賳卮兀丞 賵爻賯賵胤 丕賱乇丕賷禺 丕賱孬丕賱孬

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兀乇亘毓 兀噩夭丕亍
https://archive.org/details/germany.h...

Hitler boasted that The Third Reich would last a thousand years. It lasted only 12. But those 12 years contained some of the most catastrophic events Western civilization has ever known.

No other powerful empire ever bequeathed such mountains of evidence about its birth and destruction as the Third Reich. When the bitter war was over, and before the Nazis could destroy their files, the Allied demand for unconditional surrender produced an almost hour-by-hour record of the nightmare empire built by Adolph Hitler. This record included the testimony of Nazi leaders and of concentration camp inmates, the diaries of officials, transcripts of secret conferences, army orders, private letters鈥攁ll the vast paperwork behind Hitler's drive to conquer the world.

The famed foreign correspondent and historian William L. Shirer, who had watched and reported on the Nazis since 1925, spent five and a half years sifting through this massive documentation. The result is a monumental study that has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of one of the most frightening chapters in the history of mankind.

This worldwide bestseller has been acclaimed as the definitive book on Nazi Germany; it is a classic work.

The accounts of how the United States got involved and how Hitler used Mussolini and Japan are astonishing, and the coverage of the war-from Germany's early successes to her eventual defeat-is must reading

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First published October 17, 1960

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About the author

William L. Shirer

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William Lawrence Shirer was an American journalist and historian. He became known for his broadcasts on CBS from the German capital of Berlin through the first year of World War II.

Shirer first became famous through his account of those years in his Berlin Diary (published in 1941), but his greatest achievement was his 1960 book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, originally published by Simon & Schuster. This book of well over 1000 pages is still in print, and is a detailed examination of the Third Reich filled with historical information from German archives captured at the end of the war, along with impressions Shirer gained during his days as a correspondent in Berlin. Later, in 1969, his work The Collapse of the Third Republic drew on his experience spent living and working in France from 1925 to 1933. This work is filled with historical information about the Battle of France from the secret orders and reports of the French High Command and of the commanding generals of the field. Shirer also used the memoirs, journals, and diaries of the prominent British, Italian, Spanish, and French figures in government, Parliament, the Army, and diplomacy.

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Profile Image for Julie.
Author听6 books2,242 followers
September 1, 2012
Three years ago I implemented a personal tradition: to read a "Monster Classic" each year. This is my term, referring to a piece of writing that is great in reputation and girth. The how and when of it is to begin the Monster mid-summer and read it in fits and starts over the course of several months, with a goal of finishing before the end of the year. The why of it isn't so simple. Most avid readers I know have daunting lists of books they want to or feel they should read. I'm no different, but life is too short for shoulds. I'm after something that will change the way I look at writing, at storytelling, at the world.

Without intention, my Monster Classics have been built on the premise of, or are greatly informed by, war. Two years ago I read Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, an allegorical tale shaped largely by Mann's reaction to World War I; last year, Tolstoy brought me War and Peace, that gorgeous and profound tale of Russia during the Napoleanic era.

This summer I turned from fiction to narrative non-fiction. World War II has long fascinated and disturbed me. I've sought, without success, to reconcile the incongruous romance of this war - the films, music, literature that conjure a sense of the heroic and of solidarity, the "Greatest Generation" united as Allies - with its human suffering so incomprehensible that the mind struggles against its limits to accept what the eyes witness in words and photos.

I selected The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich for perhaps the same reason that millions before me have: to understand how one man created a machine of slaughter out of a country in shambles. After 1264 pages in six weeks, I am still bewildered. Of course I knew the external conditions: the carving up of Germany after WWI, the political disaster that the Treaty of Versailles put into motion, the desperate economic conditions in Germany as the Depression ground what little economy it had left into grist. But this diminutive Austrian who so captured the imagination and bent the will of a once-proud nation -- how did he do it? Why did he? And why did so many follow him into the hell of his creation?

William Shirer, a longtime foreign correspondent, worked in the Third Reich from 1934 to 1940, leaving only when it became clear he and his family were no longer safe. He returned to Germany in 1945 to report on the Nuremberg trials. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich was published in 1960, barely a generation after the end of the war.

Because of Shirer's proximity and access to the majors players of the Third Reich and certainly because war was exploding all around him, the book has an immediacy and intimacy that sets it apart from a traditional historical examination of events. It also contains Shirer's interpretations, suppositions and ruminations.

As an American of German-Italian-Norwegian descent, I had a very hard time with Shirer's characterization of Germans as possessing a predilection for cruelty and war. There are few nations that remain exempt from this pointed finger. But it begs the question that even Shirer could not answer: how did the atrocities of the war escape the outrage of the German people? Shirer presents clues and circumstances which serve as a caution to us all. And many of which I recognize in today's socially and politically polarized America that feeds on propaganda and is increasingly indulgent of politicians' idiocy and rejection of facts.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is thick with military history - this is a book about war. That may seem obvious, but do not expect a sociological narrative. Shirer is a great journalist, which assumes certain skill in telling a story that will appeal to a lay audience. But this book, after its introduction to Hitler and his early life, uses the major events, invasions and battles of World War II to show the creation of an empire.

It is a testament to Shirer's skill that I became so caught up in the details of Hitler's conquests and defeats. Although I have read books about individual battles, I have never followed a comprehensive history of the European theatre. It was astonishing to read on-the-ground reports as nearly all of Europe fell at Germany's feet in a short period, then to sit above it all and witness Hitler's increasing megalomania that spelled out his downfall.

It is dense. It is detailed. It is exhausting, exhaustive, overwhelming and shattering. To read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is to have your heart broken again and again. Yet, to hold history at arm's length is to guarantee that it will be repeated.


Profile Image for Lyn.
1,973 reviews17.3k followers
February 11, 2017
Darkness.

You boil this book down, strip it to the foundations, and what the reader finds is darkness of the human soul. Bred in the alleyways and gutters of Vienna before the first World War, this was the angry and hateful opposite of God鈥檚 shining light, the ancient shadows that live in the basement of our souls, given life and expression on the palette of a failed artist.

Shirer鈥檚 scholarly, exhaustive masterpiece paints the portrait of the Third Reich from its beginnings in the back rooms and beer halls of Munich to the terrible, gruesome end in all its grisly, dark detail. The author, a journalist in Germany before and during the early years of the Nazi regime, describes how this political movement began and how it came to power on the backs and in the bloodied fists of brown shirted ruffians.

To draw a modern parallel, it would be as if our country was taken over by a street gang, as if the Bloods and Crips gained political power and ascended the White House and took over. From the September 1938 Sudetenland grab and the failings of Neville Chamberlain, to the horrid crimes that went on behind the lines, to the final days that saw a once proud Europe reduced to rubble, Shirer also details World War II from the Nazi perspective.

Like Milton鈥檚 Paradise Lost and Shakespeare鈥檚 Richard III, the central figure in this epic tragedy, the most intriguing character, is a villain. But unlike Satan and the House of York English King, Hitler rose from the depths of poverty and mediocrity. Shirer reveals Hitler as intelligent and deterministic, but pathologically, sociopathically twisted to evil. The author also shows the German leader to be hopelessly, and in the end, pathetically, delusional.

Perhaps Shirer鈥檚 most compelling observation, though, is his uncompromising portrait of the German people who allowed the monstrosity of National Socialism to come to power and to become accomplices with the Nazis in horrors on a scale previously unimagined.

Finally, Shirer begs the question of whether we owe a higher duty than to our country, and his answer is an affirmative and decisive 鈥測es鈥�.

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2 reviews17 followers
June 1, 2019
Well, I did it. After two years, I have finally finished this beast. The first 600 or so pages are pretty slow, but it flies after that...

We all know the story- a misanthropic, racist, vegetarian, megalomaniac failed artist writes a book that taps into age-old German prejudices, seizes power, and embarks on a quest for European domination. In the process he starts the biggest war in history leading to the deaths of tens of millions of people, subjugates about a dozen other countries, and systematically exterminates the majority of European Jewry. The "Thousand Year Reich" only lasted a total of 12 years, 4 months, and 8 days, but during that brief span it wrought havoc and destruction on scale never witnessed before or since.

William Shirer was a journalist, *not* a historian, but his narrative style coupled with the fact that he lived in Germany during the majority of the time Hitler was in power lends this book both readability and a level of believability that no historian could possibly achieve. Several parts are indeed personal narrative in which Shirer lends his own perspective on what he saw happening, though he is careful to point out which sections are taken from historical records and which are colored by his own experience. The book is thoroughly footnoted (to the tune of about a footnote per page- it takes almost as long to read the notes as it does the main text), indexed, and overflowing with "I didn't know that" moments. It doesn't dwell on minutiae, nor does it give a blow-by-blow account of the war, but nevertheless it attempts to tell a huge story, and the result is a huge (1300+ pages in the printing I own) book.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich was published in 1957, a bare 12 years after the "Fall" that occurs at the end of the story. However, it is very easy to see why it remains today- 50 years after its release- the definitive work on the Nazi regime. I highly recommend it to anyone who shares a passion for history or who is fascinated by the factors that lead to societies devolving into statist forms of government. I also recommend it to anyone who believes that appeasement and "negotiation" is an acceptable means for handling such regimes (that means you, Barack Obama...). Sections of it (if not the entire book) should be required reading for all high school students. Only by understanding the past may we secure our future.
Profile Image for Mark Lawrence.
Author听89 books55.2k followers
May 20, 2025
This is quite a dry book full of technical detail about the state of Germany, of its politics, and, as promised, the rise of the Nazis.

Buried deep inside is a brief section (copied below) that looks up from the statistics of the holocaust to give this harrowing eye-witness account, which has stayed with me for the 30-odd years since I read it. Particularly, the part where the girl points to herself and says her age - probably because I was around that age when I read it.

It is difficult to believe these things happened. But they did. Even more difficult to understand that on a smaller scale things like this still happen time and again.

鈥淲ithout screaming or weeping these people undressed, stood around in family groups, kissed each other, said farewells and waited for a sign from another S.S. man, who stood near the pit, also with a whip in his hand. During the fifteen minutes that I stood near the pit I heard no complaint or plea for mercy鈥� An old woman with snow-white hair was holding a one-year-old child in her arms and singing to it and tickling it. The child was cooing with delight. The parents were looking on with tears in their eyes. The father was holding the hand of a boy about 10 years old and speaking to him softly; the boy was fighting his tears. The father pointed to the sky, stroked his head and seemed to explain something to him. At that moment the S.S. man at the pit shouted something to his comrade. The latter counted off about twenty persons and instructed them to go behind the earth mound鈥�

I well remember a girl, slim and with black hair, who, as she passed close to me, pointed to herself and said: 鈥渢wenty-three years old.鈥� I walked around the mound and found myself confronted by a tremendous grave. People were closely wedged together and lying on top of each other so that only their heads were visible. Nearly all had blood running over their shoulders from their heads. Some of the people were still moving. Some were lifting their arms and turning their heads to show that they were still alive. The pit was already two-thirds full. I estimated that it contained about a thousand people. I looked for the man who did the shooting. He was an S.S. man, who sat at the edge of the narrow end of the pit, his feet dangling into the pit. He had a tommy gun on his knees and was smoking a cigarette.

The people, completely naked, went down some steps and clambered over the heads of the people lying there to the place to which the S.S. man directed them. They lay down in front of the dead or wounded people; some caressed those who were still alive and spoke to them in a low voice. Then I heard a series of shots. I looked into the pit and saw that the bodies were twitching or the heads lying already motionless on top of the bodies that lay beneath them. Blood was running from their necks. The next batch was approaching already. They went down into the pit, lined themselves up against the previous victims and were shot. And so it went, batch after batch. The next morning the German engineer returned to the site. I saw about thirty naked people lying near the pit. Some of them were still alive鈥�

Later the Jews still alive were ordered to throw the corpses into the pit. Then they themselves had to lie down in this to be shot in the neck鈥� I swear before God that this is the absolute truth.鈥�










...
Profile Image for Matt.
1,020 reviews30.3k followers
February 21, 2025
鈥淭he Third Reich which was born on January 30, 1933, Hitler boasted, would endure for a thousand years鈥t lasted twelve years and four months, but in that flicker of time, as history goes, it caused an eruption on this earth more violent and shattering that any previously experienced, raising the German people to heights of power they had not known in more than a millennium, making them at one time the masters of Europe from the Atlantic to the Volga, from the North Cape to the Mediterranean, and then plunging them to the depths of destruction and desolation at the end of a world war鈥heir nation had cold-bloodedly provoked and during which it instituted a reign of terror over the conquered peoples which, in its calculated butchery of human life and the human spirit, outdid all the savage oppressions of the previous ages鈥︹€�
- William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

It is unusual for any single book to match the epic proportions of a grand historical event. William L. Shirer鈥檚 history of Nazi Germany manages this feat, and has become a landmark in a vast historiography.

Published in 1960 鈥� just fifteen years after the Second World War ended 鈥� The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich won the National Book Award, sold millions of copies all over the world, and has the kind of staying power that garnered it both a Thirtieth Anniversary Edition and a Fiftieth Anniversary Edition. Not many 1,143-page books can say that.

Now, sixty-five years after publication, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich remains a touchstone volume. Parts of it are badly dated. Scholars have criticized its methods, substance, and conclusions. Unavailable evidence has become available. Yet for all that, Shirer鈥檚 opus remains a classic. Breathtakingly ambitious, passionately written, and undeniably powerful, it is still well worth reading today.

***

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich begins with the birth of Adolf Hitler. Though this is not a Hitler biography, Shirer stays close to the Fuhrer throughout, finding the man and his party to be one and inseparable. In chronological order, we proceed along a well-known timeline that includes the Treaty of Versailles, the agonies of the Weimar Republic, the cruel turns of fate that allowed Hitler to become chancellor in a parliamentary system, the consequences of Hitler鈥檚 rule, and the series of expansionary movements that led to world war. All of it ends in Hitler鈥檚 bunker, with delusions, tantrums, and a final bullet.

Structurally, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is divided into six parts, each of those parts subdivided into chapters, and each chapter further split up into smaller sections with topical headings. Despite its enormous size, Shirer does an excellent job with organization. In terms of focus, the bulk of the book is set following the September 1939 invasion of Poland, which marks the beginning of the Second World War in Europe. Still, Shirer takes about 455 pages to get to this point, so he does not exactly skimp on the prewar era.

It should be noted that while Nazism and the Second World War are inextricably linked, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is far from a general history of the war itself. The war is summarized in broad strokes, but it is helpful to know what鈥檚 going on in general, since the view is from the bunker looking out.

***

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is written in narrative style, with emphasis on characterizations of the major players. Shirer also shows the ability to create an incredibly gripping set-piece. For example, he does an excellent job with the July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. The final days in Hitler鈥檚 underground lair are also remarkably told.

From 1934 to 1940, Shirer lived and worked in Germany as a journalist, giving this an immediacy that no later histories could achieve. He has a rather lively style, filled with insults directed at Mussolini (the 鈥渟awdust Caesar鈥�), Alfred Rosenberg (the 鈥淏altic dolt鈥�), and Hermann Goering (the 鈥渇at field marshal鈥�). His turns of phrase are also memorable, as when he describes the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact as 鈥渙ne of the crudest deals of this shabby epoch.鈥�

In short, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich works as literature, which is part of the reason it has been available on bookshelves since it first came out.

***

Success breeds criticism, and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich has not been immune. Some of the critiques are valid. For instance, Shirer鈥檚 views on homosexuality 鈥� which are set forth in his discussion of Ernst Rohm and the Brownshirts 鈥� are jarring, especially in light of the fact that gay men and women were persecuted, incarcerated, and executed in Hitler鈥檚 Germany.

It is also true that some of Shirer鈥檚 depictions are made on the basis of incomplete or suspect evidence. His re-creation of the Reichstag Fire, for example, is not in line with the modern understanding. Meanwhile, his chapter on the Final Solution 鈥� though impactful 鈥� relies on early estimates of the Holocaust that undercounts the total number of fatalities, especially by the death squads that followed in the wake of Operation Barbarossa. Mostly this is a function of writing about a major world event within a relatively short period of its ending. Access to important archives 鈥� especially those in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union 鈥� were closed to Shirer, so he worked at a disadvantage to those who came later.

Still, much of the scorn heaped upon The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich comes from academics who insist that Shirer 鈥� as a journalist 鈥� was incapable of doing the work of 鈥渟erious鈥� history. This is a rather weak form of attack. However incomplete, this is not pop-history based on secondary sources. Shirer relied on available documentary evidence, including diaries, captured papers, official reports, and the testimony at the Nuremberg Trials. He also had his own eyewitness accounts. Throughout the book, in numerous footnotes, he discusses where the evidence came from, and the potential problems with its use.

***

One of the things that stands out very poignantly in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is its moral clarity, something often lacking today. At the start of Richard J. Evans鈥檚 trilogy on the Third Reich 鈥� during which he sets aside space to take shots at Shirer 鈥� Evans notes that his own project is a work of objective history, free of judgment.

This is an interesting position to take, one that Shirer would have scorned. He was there for part of it. He saw these men up close. He talked to them. When he insults them, he is not insulting ghosts, but creatures whose paths crossed his. Ultimately, Shirer found them very worthy of judgment, and he judges them hard. There is passion in these pages lacking in those scribbled by authors far removed from this era鈥檚 terrible realities.

Eighty years from the end of the Second World War, it is becoming ever easier to treat it as an ancient occurrence. As living memory recedes, the razor-sharp edges of the catastrophe soften. Historians now treat the Nazis as an artifact, and the Nazis鈥� hidden adherents feel more comfortable stepping out into the open. In some ways, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is hampered by its immediacy to the tale it describes. In more important ways, though, it is helped immeasurably. It is full of shock and outrage, which is 鈥� and will always be 鈥� the appropriate tenor for this age.
Profile Image for Ahmad Sharabiani.
9,562 reviews11 followers
November 30, 2021
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, William L. Shirer

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany is a book by William L. Shirer chronicling the rise and fall of Nazi Germany from the birth of Adolf Hitler in 1889 to the end of World War II in 1945. It was first published in 1960, by Simon & Schuster in the United States, where it won a National Book Award.

The book was feted by journalists, as reflected by its receipt of the National Book Award for non-fiction.

But the reception from academic historians was mixed.

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毓賳賵丕賳: 诏乇丿賵賳賴 鬲丕乇蹖禺 噩賱丿 爻蹖 賵 賳賴: 馗賴賵乇 賵 爻賯賵胤 丌丿賵賱賮 賴蹖鬲賱乇貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 賵蹖賱蹖丕賲 卮丕蹖乇乇貨 賲鬲乇噩賲: 讴丕賵賴 丿賴诏丕賳貨 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 賮乇丕賳讴賱蹖賳貙 爻丕賱1341貨 丿乇182氐貨 趩丕倬 丿蹖诏乇 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 毓賱賲蹖 賮乇賴賳诏蹖貙 爻丕賱1372貨 丿乇231氐貨 賲賵囟賵毓: 丕丿亘蹖丕鬲 賳賵噩賵丕賳丕賳 - 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丌丿賵賱賮 賴蹖鬲賱乇 丕夭 爻丕賱1889賲蹖賱丕丿蹖 鬲丕 爻丕賱1945賲蹖賱丕丿蹖 丕夭 賳賵蹖爻賳丿诏丕賳 丕蹖丕賱丕鬲 賲鬲丨丿賴 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 - 爻丿賴20賲

毓賳賵丕賳: 噩賴丕賳 倬乇賮乇丕夭 賵 賳卮蹖亘 丌丿賵賱賮 賴蹖鬲賱乇貨 賲鬲乇噩賲: 賴乇賲夭 賴賲丕蹖賵賳 倬賵乇貨 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 讴鬲丕亘 乇賵卮賳貙 爻丕賱1389貙 丿乇248氐貨 卮丕亘讴9789649681290貨

讴鬲丕亘 丿乇 趩賴丕乇 亘禺卮 丕爻鬲: 芦馗賴賵乇 丌丿賵賱賮 賴蹖鬲賱乇禄貨 芦賴蹖鬲賱乇 丌賱賲丕賳 乇丕 賮鬲丨 賲蹖讴賳丿禄貨 芦賴蹖鬲賱乇 丕乇賵倬丕 賮鬲丨 賲蹖讴賳丿禄貨 芦爻賯賵胤 丌丿賵賱賮 賴蹖鬲賱乇禄貨

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鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 29/01/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 08/09/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
Profile Image for Nandakishore Mridula.
1,307 reviews2,600 followers
September 23, 2017
Whew! After six months of exhilarating yet exhausting reading, I have finally managed to finish this massive tome - William L. Shirer's definitive account of the rise and fall of the Third Reich under the evil and mad genius, the warlord Hitler. Hitler expected that the Reich will last for a thousand years - in reality, it lasted just over 12 years. In those twelve, the Fuehrer managed to create hell on earth for the people whom he ruled over as well as in those areas which he conquered; the war he initiated managed to destroy 50 to 80 million people all over the world.

I am not going to summarise the book here- the story is well known to most, and anyway to do that would mean writing a small book itself! Rather, let me lay down what I took away from the book: the pluses as well as the minuses.

The book is incredibly detailed. Shirer, being privy to most of the secret correspondence in the Reich archives, the majority of which survived destruction at the hands of the Nazis by a quirk of fate, puts his journalistic skills to excellent use as he tells the story of the meteoric rise and even faster demise of Hitler with consummate storytelling skill. The pace never flags and the story never fails to grip - and hardly a facet of this distressing yet fascinating era is ignored. This is the first book you should read if you want a front seat at the Hitler drama.

I found two major drawbacks to the book. One - a lack of maps, in the absence of which following the war spatially was impossible (unless you have an eidetic memory of European geography, that is). Two - the long list of dramatis personnae among whom I got lost more than once.

Shirer's book does not have any historical analysis - it's history from a journalistic point of view. However, for a layman such as me, it does not matter, because what matters is the story after all. How Hitler moved in from the lunatic fringe to the mainstream of German politics: how he used all dirty tricks in the political book to backstab his colleagues and steam roll his opponents: how the great colonial powers played hopscotch across the world stage, protecting their interests and cheerfully sacrificing those of others: and how man can be so unbelievably cruel to his fellow human being - these are some of the takeaways I have. And I believe that these are important in today's world, when once again the fringe is becoming the new normal. As Shirer says
In our new age of terrifying, lethal gadgets, which supplanted so swiftly the old one, the first great aggressive war, if it should come, will be launched by suicidal little madmen pressing an electronic button. Such a war will not last long and none will ever follow it. There will be no conquerors and no conquests, but only the charred bones of the dead on an uninhabited planet.
Profile Image for Mikey B..
1,100 reviews465 followers
November 5, 2012
I had read this book about thirty-five years ago. Since then I have gone through several books on World War II 鈥� Churchill鈥檚 great memoirs volumes, Toland and Fest biographies of Hitler, books on the Nuremberg trials鈥�

So I thought that Shirer鈥檚 book would be a simple re-hash 鈥� it wasn鈥檛.

If I were to be asked to recommend only one book on Nazi Germany this would be it. I was also very moved by the elegance of Shirer鈥檚 writing. His prose is stirring and makes these cataclysmic events of the twentieth century very vivid.

It is all here 鈥� Hitler鈥檚 rise to power in the 1920鈥檚, the appeasement of the European powers during the 1930鈥檚, the sordidness of the Hitler-Stalin pact and then the war itself with, for a time Britain and Churchill standing alone. Enveloping all this is the hatreds of Hitler and the Nazi party; above their hatred of the Jews and then the Slavic and Russian peoples, their hatred of democratic values (what we would now call human rights), their hatred of the Versailles Treaty.

Shirer makes no excuses for these and puts the blame squarely on Hitler and the German people. Versailles was never the humiliation it was made out to be. As Shirer points out this 鈥榮tab in the back鈥� myth was also propagated by Weimar as well. Hitler knew how to rally the nationalistic fervor and pagan impulses of the bulk of his people.

All the personalities are in here 鈥� and they are a powerful and colourful lot 鈥� but sad, as both German and non-German acquiesce to the force of the German leader. Chamberlain鈥檚 fruitless efforts to achieve peace are overlooked today as he is framed with the word appeasement; but what politician today would be as honest as he was. Shirer quotes Chamberlain鈥檚 honest and touching 鈥榙eclaration of war鈥� speech when Poland is brutally invaded by Germany 鈥搎uite possibly one of the most poignant passages in the book as the world is now stepping over the precipice into war.

Shirer uses many of Hitler鈥檚 speeches to illustrate how the German people adored their beloved leader. One is struck by how a people could swallow these words so whole-heartedly 鈥� words that are so diametrically opposed to the best values of the Western World. The speeches are filled with hatred for Jews and ridicule for the leaders of the Western World. Hitler鈥檚 reply to Roosevelt in 1939 before the war 鈥� though so successfully manipulative 鈥� is haunting in retrospect.

There are perhaps a few things left out. One is the destruction of the Polish resistance uprising in Warsaw that Stalin left to the Germans to ruthlessly suppress 鈥� with the Russian army just outside Warsaw watching as the Germans slaughtered the Polish resistance movement.
And there is maybe too much, I feel, on the Stauffenberg plot to kill Hitler. But again Shirer is correct in pointing out the hypocrisy of these 鈥榓nti-Nazi鈥� conspirators who waited too long (Germany was obviously losing the war at this stage and its cities were decimated). Were they not morally inept 鈥� were they doing this to seize political power only? Were they really morally repulsed by the Nazi regime 鈥� or just mere opportunists?

As mentioned if one reads only one book on Nazi Germany this has it all. But as a warning 鈥� reading over 1,100 pages on Nazism can wear one down 鈥� it becomes very depressing. However you are left with a greater understanding of this tumultuous era.
Profile Image for Erik Graff.
5,133 reviews1,359 followers
April 5, 2013
This was the first, really serious grownup book I ever read.

My sole brother being almost eight years younger and no cousins being in the States, I was virtually an only child, condemned to the weekly dinner parties of my parents and paternal grandparents and their friends, most of them held elsewhere than our own home. At one particularly excruciatingly boring party held at Great Aunt Synnove's I was scanning the magazines and bookshelves for something to occupy the time. Being ten, the great swastika on the cover of one otherwise unknown book caught my eye. Nazis! I picked it up, checked out the maps on the inside covers and started to read . . . When, finally, they, the Old Ones, were ready to go, I was far enough into it to not want to stop. Aunt Synnove was kind enough to loan it out.

The reading went on for probably a couple of weeks. I recall reading about the Lutheran pastor, Niedemeyer (not looking it up--it may be misspelled, but I remember this in detail after all these years), who, almost alone amongst German churchmen, stood up publicly against the Nazis--and this in the backyard, at the juncture of our rickety garage and decaying white picket fence amidst the early flowers of springtime. I recall, days later, now on my sun-warmed bed downstairs at grandmother's cottage in Michigan, reading with fascinated horror about the death camps and the "scientific experiments" conducted in them.

Now a thirteen year old friend of mine has picked up Shirer, buying it in hardcover himself at a local used bookstore. He, not normally a big reader (he has a sister, two brothers and lots of cousins and friends), says he likes it because Shirer writes so clearly. Now, while all of us are, as citizens, in moral positions uncomfortably similar to those occupied by Germans sixty years or so ago, it is good to see that a book like this and the story it tells can still be read with interest by the young.
Profile Image for Esdaile.
353 reviews66 followers
August 28, 2017
I have a very strong feeling of enthusiasm and at the same time of aversion for this book, which I read when I was 16. William Shirer wrote a no-holds barred account of the rise of Adolf Hitler from the perspective of a fanatical (in the full sense of the word) opponent of everything Hitler stood for. Shirer was also a journalist writing as though he were a historian, so his writing reads easily and persuasively but is not necessarily a font of historical accuracy. Whatever one's own position, this is far and away a more honest book than many of the cold cynical assessments made after the events by historians who also have a private agenda but who unlike Shirer do not make it obvious or claim to be objective when they are no such thing. Shirer is however in my opinion,right to stress more than is often stressed, the novelty of the Nuremburg Laws, which essentially disenfranchised a large section of the population on the basis of a postulated alien ethnicity. These laws undermined the fundamental principles of citizenship as understood in Europe since the American and French revolutions and were profound and potentially murderous in their implications. Shirer also laid stress on medical experimentation on human subjects, which in my humble opinion is as close to Hell as human beings are likely to get on earth. I do not think there are any medical experiment "deniers" : of course, medical experimentation on human beings is in no way something unique to the Hitler dictatorship, but Shirer is right to highlight it as a particularly pernicious abuse of power by politicians and doctors, one which should serve as a reminder to us, if we really need a reminder, of the arrogance and ever lethal potential of the notions of so many representatives of both. It is all very well talking about controlling decadence, crime or whatever, but who controls the controllers, is a question that should never be for a moment forgotten.

I give this two stars but the two stars award is misleading in the sense that I would give his work 4 or 5 stars for readability as a breathtaking introduction to the history of the Third Reich, and 4 or 5 stars for highlighting certain aspects of that history so full of suffering and desolation, but 1 star for reliability, balanced view, veracity, objectivity. Shirer will have no track with the notion that Polish fears of Russia could have been justified, that Churchill wanted war, that in a sense whatever one thinks of him, Hitler was right in claiming that the war was between a Jewish and anti-Jewish world view, that Roosevelt was deeply anti-German and pro-Jewish, that the Soviet Union was planning a preemptive strike on Germany, that the Poles had been put up to provoking Germany and did provoke Germany and that Hitler in this case as later, with the British bombing of civilian targets, fell into a trap and allowed himself to be provoked just in the way his enemies planned he should be provoked; Shirer says nothing as I recall, about the appalling condiitons which induced many to vote for the NSDAP, and there are plenty more imbalances in this work, and half-truths and untruths besides, for there is plenty of history that Shirer does not mention, but I do not have the book any more and I read it 40 years ago. Shirer's is a book to be read by anyone interested in the time, but to be read with rather more than the proverbial pinch of salt. I was going to award this book three stars but I'll put that down to 2 to counter-balance the wave of quasi psychophantic enthusiasm with which so many 欧宝娱乐 readers have greeted it. It is a deeply flawed book after all, for readibility it is up there in the top rank, for historical balance, down far below.
Profile Image for Brett C.
911 reviews211 followers
June 19, 2021
This was a superb account of Nazi Germany! William Shirer was a journalist/foreign correspondent during his time in Germany from 1934 to 1940. He wrote the book based on his first-hand reporting, extensive document research, and multiple and reliable third-party evidence. The writing was clear and very thorough but not oversaturated with details to become boring. Shirer did a fine job on the narrative because it was linear and logical as to eliminate confusion.
The First Reich was the medieval Holy Roman Empire; the Second Reich had been which was formed by Bismarck in 1871 after Prussia's defeat of France. Both added glory to the German name. The Weimar Republic, as Nazi propaganda had it, had dragged that fair name in the mud. The Third Reich restored it, just as Hitler had promised. pgs. 90-1

Shirer presented a clear picture on the rise of Hitler, and his philosophy, the rise of the Nationalist Socialist Party, the Nazification of Germany, life in the Third Reich, the gradual increase of a totalitarian state, the escalation to war, both Western and Eastern Fronts, the loss of momentum towards the end, and the inevitable destruction of the Nazi regime.

I have read many WW2 and Nazi Germany books; this one should be considered the cornerstone of the entire history from that time period. I would recommend it to anyone who wants the complete story of Nazi Germany from its creation to demise. Thanks!
Profile Image for Trevor.
1,472 reviews24.1k followers
May 9, 2010
The detail with which this book deals with the Third Reich and the unspeakable evil that was Hitler's Germany is almost too much to take. Some of the discriptions, particularly towards the end of 'medical' experimentation, are simply too shocking and too challenging to read in one sitting. If you need to be reminded of just how evil the bastards in charge of Germany in the 30s and 40s really were then this is the book you need to read.

Like I said, the detail is mind-blowing - the story of this period of history still seems incomprehensible. I dare you not to be horrified by this remarkable book
Profile Image for Michael Ferro.
Author听2 books229 followers
June 18, 2019
Shirer's masterpiece has long sat untouched on my shelves鈥攊t's ominous block swastika unsettling all guest who entered my home (not always fun to explain to people that you're not a Nazi...).

That said, I decided to read this book in tiny increments alongside other books for the past few months, and at over 1,000 pages, it took a bit to finally knock this one out, but wow... what a book. I truly find it surprising that authors and journalists would bother to continue to write about the Third Reich after such a complete and comprehensive book was written about that disastrous time almost a century ago.

Quite simply, we all know the basics of the story: Hitler rises to power, does some horrible things, starts a world war, and eventually falls ignominiously鈥攂ut the secret to this incredible book is the amount of detail and sheer breadth of knowledge within concerning life, war, and the troublesome arch of human history.

A MUST READ... especially in these modern times.
Profile Image for BAM doesn鈥檛 answer to her real name.
2,031 reviews448 followers
March 6, 2017
I went into this believing I had a well-grounded understanding of Prussian history and a basis of the Hitler regime. Ummm this book is everything I don't know.
I feel way over my head. There are so many layers to peel like some history-containing onion. Shirer wrote an entire college course worth of information. I regret that I will not retain it all. An impressive collection of memories and experience, we should feel so privileged to have this thorough documentation of one of the most horrific eras in modern history to remind us how easily a society can fall prey to manipulation when it believes all hope is lost and all value is expended.
I was startled to find that the experiments discussed in a previous read, Doctors in Hell, were spot on. All of them are delved into more deeply on this book. The horror takes on greater proportion when one hears it in audiobook format.
Profile Image for B..
56 reviews5 followers
Read
January 9, 2019
DNF at 25%.

This would鈥檝e been my first deep dive into Nazi history, but after half a dozen counts of listing homosexuality in the same breath as murder, and even going as far as attributing Naziism in part to many early Nazis being prone to 鈥渟exual perversion鈥�, I started to wonder if this was going to be a reliable history at all.

It鈥檚 my fault for not properly researching the book beforehand. It appears the consensus is that it was outdated even upon its release, and in some cases espouses opinions no actual historian has ever supported, grossly misrepresenting the German people in the process. It seems the trilogy by Richard J Evans is the way to go, so I might try that at a later date.
Profile Image for Mohamed Shady.
629 reviews7,098 followers
October 8, 2021

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丕賱丨賯賷賯丞 兀賳賴 賰丕賳 賲賳 丕賱賲賲賰賳 兀賳 賷爻鬲賲乇 賱兀賯賱 賲賳 匕賱賰 亘賰孬賷乇貙 賱賵 賱賲 賷賰賳 丕賱丨賱賮丕亍 亘賴匕賴 丕賱爻匕丕噩丞貙 賵賱賵 賱賲 鬲賰賳 亘乇賷胤丕賳賷丕貙 賵毓賱賶 乇兀爻賴丕 乇卅賷爻 賵夭乇丕卅賴丕貙 乇丕睾亘賷賳 亘卮丿丞 賮賷 賲賳毓 丨丿賵孬 丨乇亘 毓丕賱賲賷丞 噩丿賷丿丞貙 禺丕氐丞賸 賵兀賳 丕賱毓丕賱賲 賱賲 賷鬲毓丕賮賻 亘毓丿 賲賳 丨乇亘賴 丕賱兀賵賱賶.
賵氐賱 賴鬲賱乇 廿賱賶 丨賰賲 兀賱賲丕賳賷丕 賮賷 毓丕賲 佟侃伲伲貙 賵亘丿兀 毓賱賶 丕賱賮賵乇 賮賷 禺胤鬲賴 賱賮乇囟 丕賱爻賷胤乇丞 毓賱賶 兀賵乇賵亘丕貙 賵賱丕爻鬲毓丕丿丞 丕賱兀乇丕囟賷 丕賱兀賱賲丕賳賷丞貙 賵賱賱丕賳鬲賯丕賲 賲賳 丕賱丨賱賮丕亍 丕賱匕賷賳 兀匕賱賵賴 賵兀匕賱賵丕 丿賵賱鬲賴 賮賷 賲毓丕賴丿丞 賮乇爻丕賷.
賲賳匕 匕賱賰 丕賱賵賯鬲貙 兀賷 賵氐賵賱 賴鬲賱乇 賱賱丨賰賲貙 賵丨鬲賶 丕賳丿賱丕毓 丕賱丨乇亘 賮賷 毓丕賲 佟侃伲侃貙 賰丕賳 賲賳 丕賱賲賲賰賳 廿賷賯丕賮 賴鬲賱乇 賵乇賮賷賯賴 賲賵爻賵賱賷賳賷 兀賰孬乇 賲賳 賲乇丞. 賰丕賳 賲賳 丕賱賲賲賰賳 廿賷賯丕賮 賲賵爻賵賱賷賳賷貙 賰亘丿丕賷丞貙 丨賷賳 賯乇乇 丕賱丕爻鬲賷賱丕亍 毓賱賶 丕孬賷賵亘賷丕貙 孬賲 賰丕賳 賲賳 丕賱賲賲賰賳 廿賷賯丕賮 賴鬲賱乇 毓賳丿賲丕 賯乇乇 廿毓丕丿丞 鬲爻賱賷丨 丕賱噩賷卮 丕賱兀賱賲丕賳賷 賵毓丿賲 丕賱丕賳氐賷丕毓 賱賲毓丕賴丿丞 賮乇爻丕賷. 賰丕賳 賲賳 丕賱賲賲賰賳 廿賷賯丕賮賴 兀賷囟賸丕 丨賷賳 賯乇乇 丕丨鬲賱丕賱 丕賱乇丕賷賳賱丕賳丿 (丕賱賲賳胤賯丞 賲賳夭賵毓丞 丕賱爻賱丕丨)貙 賵丨賷賳 賯乇乇 囟賲 丕賱賳賲爻丕 賵鬲卮賷賰賵爻賱賵賮丕賰賷丕 廿賱賶 丕賱兀乇丕囟賷 丕賱兀賱賲丕賳賷丞.
賱賰賳 賲丕 丨丿孬 賯丿 丨丿孬貙 賵爻賷丕爻丞 廿乇囟丕亍 賴鬲賱乇 丕賱鬲賷 丕鬲亘毓賴丕 丕賱丨賱賮丕亍 賮賷 賲丨丕賵賱丞 鬲噩賳賾亘 丨乇亘 毓丕賱賲賷丞 噩丿賷丿丞. 丕賳丿賱毓鬲 丕賱丨乇亘 丕賱毓丕賱賲賷丞 丕賱孬丕賳賷丞 亘毓丿 丕丨鬲賱丕賱 兀賱賲丕賳賷丕 丕賱賳丕锟斤拷賷丞 賱亘賵賱賳丿丕貙 丕賱丨乇亘 丕賱鬲賷 爻鬲爻鬲賲乇 賱爻賳賵丕鬲 胤賵賷賱丞 賵爻鬲丨氐丿 賲賱丕賷賷賳 丕賱兀乇賵丕丨 賵爻鬲賰賵賳 賴賷 丕賱丨丿孬 丕賱兀賰孬乇 亘卮丕毓丞 賵賯爻賵丞 賮賷 丕賱鬲丕乇賷禺 丕賱亘卮乇賷.

毓丕氐乇 丕賱氐丨賮賷 丕賱兀賲乇賷賰賷 "賵賱賷丕賲 卮丕賷乇乇" 賴匕賴 丕賱丨乇亘 賵乇兀賶 亘賳賮爻賴 丕賱兀丨丿丕孬 丕賱鬲賷 兀丿賾鬲 廿賱賷賴丕 賵丕賱兀孬乇 丕賱賲丿賲乇 丕賱匕賷 鬲乇賰鬲賴.
賵亘丕賱丕毓鬲賲丕丿 毓賱賶 賲賱丕丨馗丕鬲賴 (賮賷 爻賳賵丕鬲 毓賲賱賴 賰賲乇丕爻賱 賮賷 亘乇賱賷賳)貙 賵毓賱賶 丌賱丕賮 賲賳 丕賱賵孬丕卅賯 丕賱爻乇賷丞 丕賱鬲賷 鬲賲 丕賱賰卮賮 毓賳賴丕 亘毓丿 丕賱丨乇亘貙 賯丿賾賲 廿賱賷賳丕 兀丨丿 兀卮賲賱 賵兀賴賲 賲丕 賰購鬲亘 毓賳 氐毓賵丿 兀賱賲丕賳賷丕 丕賱賳丕夭賷丞 孬賲 爻賯賵胤賴丕 丕賱爻乇賷毓 賵丕賱賲乇賵賾毓.
丕爻鬲賲鬲毓鬲 亘賰賱 賱丨馗丞 賯囟賷鬲賴丕 賲毓 賴匕丕 丕賱賰鬲丕亘貙 賵兀賳氐丨 亘賴 亘卮丿丞 賱賱賲賴鬲賲賷賳 亘賴匕賴 丕賱賮鬲乇丞 丕賱爻丕禺賳丞 賲賳 丕賱鬲丕乇賷禺 丕賱丨丿賷孬.
Profile Image for Helga.
1,291 reviews372 followers
March 7, 2025
This is one of the best accounts about Hitler and Nazi Germany. Shirer's Berlin Diaries were also excellent. I recommend his books to anyone who's interested to know what really went on. Not only his books are based on captured documents, diary entries and eyewitness accounts but also they're engaging and unputdownable.
Profile Image for Michael Perkins.
Author听6 books453 followers
January 3, 2022
update....

"My father, raised in Berlin under the Nazis, saw in European fascism a course that any country could take. He knew that US democracy was not exceptional in its capacity to resist the forces that shattered his family and devastated his youth. My mother, a court stenographer in US criminal courts for 44 years, saw in the anti-Black racism of the American legal system parallels to the vicious antisemitism she experienced in her youth in Poland, attitudes which enabled eastern European complicity with fascism. And my grandmother, Ilse Stanley, wrote a memoir, published in 1957, of her experiences in 1930s Berlin, later appearing on the US television show This is Your Life to discuss it. It is a memoir of the normalization years of German fascism, well before world war and genocide. In it, she recounts experiences with Nazi officers who assured her that in nazism鈥檚 vilification of Jews, they certainly did not mean her."

What we are seeing here today....



=================

In 鈥淭he Free World,鈥� Louis Menand paraphrased Hannah Arendt to describe the early 20th-century proponents of totalitarianism as 鈥渢he refuse of every class: disempowered aristocrats, disillusioned intellectuals, gangsters, denizens of the underworld. They were people who believed that the respectable world was a conspiracy to deny them what they were owed; they were the embodiments of the politics of resentment.鈥�

===============

鈥淗istory doesn鈥檛 repeat itself, but human nature remains the same.鈥�

鈥� Ken Burns

=================

Nazi tactics never seem to go away. Just watched "I am not your Negro" based on the testimony of James Baldwin. It was the incitement of hate that got Medgar Evers, MLK, and Malcom X assassinated.

Trump's chant of "send her back" already caused death threats to spike way up for these Congresswomen. Now we have this abomination....



----------------

So why aren't more GOP speaking out? Interesting you ask. One of the lessons of Nazi Germany is that indifference or cowardice can be as bad as active hostility. "it is not necessary that people be wicked, but only that they be spineless." (James Baldwin)

From other research, in addition to this book....

Nazi support started out with thugs, but eventually spread to most Christians and most non-Jewish academics and intellectuals, along with innumerable other members of German society.

But there was also a Jewish presence in the military....



==========

from my research....

"The term "German resistance" should not be understood as meaning that there was a united resistance movement in Germany at any time during the Nazi period.....The German resistance consisted of small and usually isolated groups. They were unable to mobilize political opposition."

in other words, most of the German people of that era were complicit, either actively or passively

=========

In his introduction, Rob Rosenbaum suggests the importance of the release of "Rise and Fall" in 1961. Up until then, he says there was a "willed forgetfulness" about what happened. This is an important point. My father was drafted the day after he finished his medical residency at Boston General and spent four years in France, sometimes under fire. But when he returned home safely, he had no sense of the big picture. For him, Shirer provided that. The author, in his Foreword, describes the treasure trove of archives he was able to consult for his book, but also admits his book is not the final word on the subject because it usually takes "decades" for historians to absorb and write about a subject this complex. But he is also aware about the need to raise consciousness about this history, sooner than later, as well as provide some of the story to people such as my late father.

==========

Rosenbaum also makes a powerful point about Karl Adolf Eichmann based on Shirer's account in his 1961 book, one that contradicts Hannah Arendt's notion of the "banality of evil."

Rosenbaum writes:

"Shirer, who had been stationed in Berlin during Hitler鈥檚 rise, also had a take on Eichmann before he became Eichmann, the icon of evil. Shirer鈥檚 book had been completed before Eichmann鈥檚 capture. Shirer found the key damning document 鈥� the testimony of a fellow office who quoted the Chief Operating Officer of the Final Solution, Eichmann, toward the end of the war. Here was Eichmann not experiencing any regret or any of the misattributed 鈥渂anality.鈥� Instead, with a vengefully triumphant snarl (he knows who鈥檚 really won the war), Eichmann declared 鈥渉e would leap laughing into the grave because the feeling that he had five million people on his conscience would be for him a source of extraordinary satisfaction.鈥�

This, of course, is not the Eichmann of Hannah Arendt described here, who credulously bought into this 鈥減oor schlub,鈥� pen pusher of the trial defense 鈥� just following orders, moving things along deep within the bureaucracy, 鈥渘othing against the Jew鈥� facade. Just doing a job, according to Arendt, equally credulous about her feverishly devoted 鈥渆x-Nazi鈥� lover Heidegger, for whom she used her influence to help in his sham postwar 鈥渄e-Nazification.鈥�

============

鈥淭he simple truth is that truth is hard to come by, and that once found may easily be lost again.鈥�

鈥� Karl Popper

============

A brilliant new take on Hitler and the Holocaust. Hitler's aim, the author demonstrates, was to completely eliminate the law (first in Germany, then elsewhere) and defined nation-states, so that all things were permissible, nothing was against the law, including the destruction of the Jews wherever they might reside.



Excellent review on new Hitler biography....

/review/show...
Profile Image for Tim.
225 reviews168 followers
September 4, 2023
William Shirer was an American journalist who lived and worked in Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1940 as a correspondent. His reporting of this period is incredible 鈥� he not only has great insights in what daily life was like, but he also attended many of the meetings with Hitler and other German leaders. He was there during the Nuremberg rallies as Hitler increased his grip on the country. He was there when Hitler invaded and occupied Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. He was there when Hitler made his invasions on the Western front in Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. He even traveled to France with the German army as Paris fell.

I鈥檇 love to learn more about the 鈥渟tory behind the story鈥� here 鈥� I鈥檓 not sure how much personal danger he was in, and what it was like to try to fly under the radar of German authorities. Shirer doesn鈥檛 address that in this book. Though, this approach has its advantages in keeping the focus on the history and not Shirer himself.

The most memorable parts of the book for me was this period of time where he was living there and could describe first-hand what daily life was like as totalitarianism took hold and dissenters and minorities were crushed. I think it鈥檚 natural to read this book hoping for some sort of explanation to 鈥渉ow did this all happen鈥�. I think I am just as confused as I was before I read the book, but there is certainly a lot to ponder.

Shirer is very blunt in describing the German population as accepting the Nazi party (sometimes quite rapturously, as shown in his description of some of the rallies), with resistance movements being small until they started losing the war. There were many who were receptive to Hitler鈥檚 message of how the country was betrayed at the end of WW1 by the 鈥淣ovember criminals鈥�, and there were many who were receptive to the scapegoating of foreigners and Jews. But while the Nazis gained a plurality in the vote total, they never gained a majority. Why weren鈥檛 the people who didn't vote for the Nazis more impactful?

Part of the answer is Hitler benefited from timing. He began the Chancellorship on a low economic tide, and as fortunes improved so did the popularity of the Nazis. There were a lot of people who, while they had a job and their families were safe, weren鈥檛 really paying a lot of attention to the goon squads if they weren鈥檛 coming for them. And of course, a lot of people were just afraid.

Since it is a study of Nazi Germany and not just Hitler, you learn a lot about Hitler鈥檚 various enablers and henchmen that helped him to power. There were the German politicians who were the enablers. Even though they were supposed to be the 鈥渙pposition鈥�, they made short-sighted deals with Hitler, either out of gullibility or an attempt to preserve some amount of power for themselves. As for the henchmen, each has a different story for how they got there 鈥� what their motivation was and how/if they changed over time. It鈥檚 tempting to think of them as simple cartoonish villains, but a fuller understanding of them can help understand how the power structure was built and maintained for so many years. Not that it is unfair to condemn them in the strongest terms, or even to think of them as 鈥渆vil鈥�, but just that they weren鈥檛 all the same, and were more complex than you might think.

One pattern was the continual lust for power of the various henchmen, and how Hitler was able to play this off for his own benefit. But there were also some key differences in the henchmen. Some were less submissive than others. Some had different opinions from Hitler on war strategy 鈥� for instance many of his advisors felt that Germany was not yet ready for a larger scale World War 鈥� and when Hitler wouldn鈥檛 listen, that began a period of disenchantment (but they were fine with pillaging countries that were easy to conquer). Some had more squeamishness than others about certain of Hitler鈥檚 actions, such as the crackdown in freedoms of German citizens (but they didn鈥檛 have objections to the subjugation of foreigners). And some plotted against him and tried to assassinate him.

Shirer describes the assassination attempts in detail. I was surprised to see how many different conspiracies there were against him, and how a significant number of high-level officials were involved. But it was disorganized, and many of the recruits to the plot were not trusted to be fully committed (for good reason, as it turns out) 鈥� which in turn made the leaders reluctant to take action. The select few times where they summoned the courage to act, it never worked.

I鈥檒l wrap this up, even though I鈥檝e barely scratched the surface of this great book. I鈥檝e pretty much just taken one sliver of this book and tried to flesh out a few thoughts. One thing that immediately came to mind as I finished this book is that I鈥檒l have to read it again. It seems like the kind of book you learn a lot more each time you read it.
Profile Image for Roy Lotz.
Author听2 books8,911 followers
March 19, 2018
Reading this book is an ordeal. It is very long and very depressing. Charting the Third Reich from the birth of Hitler to the collapse of Germany, Shirer tells the whole story with the sweep of a novelist and the detail of an accountant. He wrote the book after having access to huge stores of documents captured by the Allies after the war. Diaries, schedules, testimonies from the Nuremberg trials, the minutes of meetings, and much more were the raw material marshalled to create this tome.

As is often noted, Shirer was a journalist, not a historian, a fact that helps to explain much about this book. He lived in Berlin as a foreign correspondent from 1933 to the end of 1940, reporting on the rise of Hitler and the beginnings of the war, until the threat of the Gestapo forced him to return home. This firsthand experience lent color to his narrative, but also focused his attention on readily observable events. Rather than talk of larger trends鈥攕ocial shifts, economic pressures, cultural developments鈥擲hirer focuses almost exclusively on the doings of individuals in power, such as he had been reporting on.

This focus makes the narrative vivid and pleasingly concrete, but also results in a superficial analysis. A historian would naturally spend more time on the rampant inflation of the times, the institutional weakness of the Weimar Republic, the wider political trends in Europe, the mechanics of a totalitarian state, and so on. Further, Shirer鈥檚 explanation of why Germany embarked on such a destructive enterprise boils down to: because it is peopled by Germans. That is, he locates a kind of cultural essence in the German people, an essence stemming from the Reformation and especially Martin Luther, added to by Hegel and then by Nietzsche, which came to full fruition in National Socialism. But this sort of cultural essentialism is, for me, just intellectual laziness. It can be used to explain anything or everything, since these posited cultural qualities are vague and unobservable.

In any case wider historical analysis plays a very small part in this book, which is mainly a record of the decisions and actions of the leading men of the Nazi regime. That is to say that this book is a political and not a military history. The Second World War is discussed, of course, but only insofar as its developments affected or were caused by the Nazi leaders. Shirer is mainly concerned with charting the rise to power of these ruthless men: how they outsmarted the Weimar Republic leaders, fooled the international community, bullied and threatened their way to conquests, and finally instigated a war that resulted in their own ruin.

The balance of the book is tilted heavily towards the rise of the Third Reich. This can make for some dreary reading. In retrospect it is stupefying to witness how blind, inept, and spineless were Hitler鈥檚 opponents, first within Germany and then beyond its borders, until the final crisis spurred the world into action against him. Though Shirer's sturdy prose is normally quite plain and unadorned, he has a steady instinct for the dramatic and writes several unforgettable scenes. Nevertheless the scale of detail Shirer saw fit to include sometimes weighs down the narrative into benumbing dullness. The endless, petty diplomatic maneuvers that preceded the beginning of the War鈥攏egotiations, ambassadors, threats, ultimatums, calculations, second thoughts, and so on鈥攎ade it a relief when the soldiers finally started shooting.

These political dealings of the Nazis constitute the vast bulk of this book. It is a masterclass in how far a little cunning, shameless lying, and absolute ruthlessness can get you. It is also a lesson in the need to cooperate to take decisive action against common threats. In the years since Vietnam, many have concluded that the main lesson to be drawn from America鈥檚 foreign policy is the folly of interventionist wars. After the First World War, the Western powers were understantly ever more chary of violence. And yet, at least in Shirer鈥檚 telling of the history, a timely show of force could have nipped Hitler鈥檚 rise in the bud. If England and France had upheld their treaties and defended their territories and their allies, Hitler could not have amassed so much power at a time when the German military was still small. (Though it must be said that Shirer鈥檚 intellectual weakness appears here, too, since he attributes this inaction to pure cowardice.)

In any case, this does bring out an interesting dilemma in foreign policy concerning the benefits and risks of violent intervention. In the case of Hitler, timely action could have prevented a disastrous conflict. And yet in many other historical cases, such as with Saddam Hussein, the threat of non-intervention was vastly overestimated, while the cost of intervention vastly underestimated. The word 鈥渆stimate鈥� is key here, since these decisions must necessarily be based on guesses of future threats and costs鈥攇uesses which may easily be wrong. Since it is impossible to know with certainty the scale of a threat that a situation may pose if left unchecked, there is no surefire way out of this dilemma. This, of course, is just a part of a wider dilemma in life, since so many of our everyday decisions must necessarily be made based on guesses of what the future holds.

You can see that this book, though a popular account, is not lightweight in its details or its implications. Yet it does show its age. Published in 1960, it was written before many valuable sources of information became available, such as the French archives. It also shows its age in its occasional references to homosexuality, which Shirer treats as a perverted vice. This is, of course, morbidly ironic, considering the Nazi persecution of homosexuals (something that Shirer fails to mention). But all in all The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich remains a gripping popular overview of this nightmarish time.
Profile Image for Brad Lyerla.
214 reviews221 followers
February 2, 2025
鈥淭hose who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.鈥� 鈥� Voltaire (1694 鈥� 1778)

Hitler was the master of the 鈥渂ig lie鈥�. His big lie was that Germany won the First World War, but that the Weimar elites negotiated a bad peace for Germany at Versailles. (鈥淭hey stabbed us in the back,鈥� Hitler claimed.) This was nonsense, of course, but Hitler convinced more than a third of German voters that it was true.

While not a flawless book, it is nonetheless a must read if you wonder how authoritarianism can arise among a sophisticated, western people. Wickedness lurks just beneath the surface of human society like a poisonous disease. It is always there, despite appearances to the contrary. And it takes only a charismatic liar to catalyze the brooding elements of society with the wickedly greedy who are only too happy to exploit the anger as a means of grabbing power. In Germany, the conservative oligopoly thought it could control Hitler and his brown shirts. No such luck and soon Hitler controlled the (formerly) influential and rich Herren and Damen.

Fortunately for the world, after an initial period of success when he caught the rest of Europe by surprise, Hitler鈥檚 fanaticism led him into a series of mistakes that assured Germany鈥檚 ultimate defeat by the Allies.

It is fascinating history and scrupulously researched. Shirer took full advantage of the documents gathered by the Nuremberg prosecutors to detail his long and inclusive description of the Nazi years, including the Holocaust. I recommend RISE AND FALL highly.
Profile Image for Michael.
963 reviews164 followers
December 8, 2013
I actually do hate this book, which would earn it 1 star according to goodreads' rating system, but my personal ethics prevent me from going quite so far. The reason I hate it, really, is because it remains wildly popular (you can find it in pretty much any bookstore that has any non-fiction in English at all), in spite of the fact that literally mountains of far better works on the subject have been written.

When I come back and look at it objectively, however, I have to admit that it鈥檚 not really as terrible as I imagine it to be, it鈥檚 just outdated and flawed. As an introduction to the lay-reader about National Socialism, it鈥檚 probably a decent enough starting-point. It gives a reasonable chronology and narrative of events which, if you know nothing at all about Germany or World War Two (and I didn鈥檛 when I read it, really), gives you a pretty good handle on the basics. Beginners have to start at the beginning, and this is pretty much it, so far as most people are concerned.

Shirer was working primarily off the masses of documents collected for the Nuremberg trials, which contained much important material, but had not been properly indexed or sorted, so to a large degree he looked for things he was already familiar with, 鈥渨here the light was better,鈥� as it were and missed anything that would have problematized his account. In fairness, he avoids giving credence to some of the wilder ideas that were current in the fifties and sixties, referring to the death of Geli Raubal as a 鈥渟uicide鈥� for example and does not completely buy into the theory that the SS planted a bomb at the B眉rgerbr盲ukeller that nearly killed Hitler. He states that there is 鈥渁mple evidence鈥� that the Nazis were responsible for the burning of the Reichstag, but even here he is more cautious than some writers of the period.

The reason that this book continues to appeal to Americans, however, is bound up in its flawed nature. It is written from an extremely biased pro-American perspective that verifies the myth of the 鈥済reatest generation鈥� and the heroism of the Allies, and unquestioningly demonizes the other side. Ironically, it manages to do this without really delving into the actual horrors of the Holocaust, presenting a rather more cartoonish version of the evil of Nazism: the bad guys are Darth Vader and his Storm Troopers, while the good guys are Indiana Jones and GI Joe. It鈥檚 easy enough to see how that would appeal to people looking to be 鈥渆ntertained鈥� by history, but it doesn鈥檛 constitute actual historical study.

Shirer was an American journalist, who lived in Germany until he had to leave as an 鈥渆nemy alien鈥� after Germany declared war following Pearl Harbor. He has a certain perspective on events, for that reason, but not necessarily an un-biased one. He often can鈥檛 help slipping invectives and personal feelings into the text. Ribbentrop, we are repeatedly told, was 鈥渟tupid鈥�, while R枚hm is consistently described as a 鈥渉omosexual pervert.鈥� Other redundant tropes include the use of 鈥渕uch-vaunted鈥� to describe the Luftwaffe and, of course 鈥渇anatical鈥� to describe the loyalty of Hitler鈥檚 closest followers. These adjectives add little to our understanding of the time, are not justified by historical analysis, and serve to tell us more about Shirer and his audience than about the Third Reich and its leadership. On the whole I would recommend reading other, less partial accounts, but must admit that this is not the worst one available.
Profile Image for Raghad.
138 reviews991 followers
Want to read
January 21, 2025
*silently adds to tbr after watching elon hit that salute on national tv*
Profile Image for Jill Hutchinson.
1,592 reviews100 followers
February 22, 2010
Believe it or not, I have read this massive book twice. Shirer, who spent much of the years leading up to WWII in Germany, fills in all the blanks and tells a tale of a country spiraling into madness and the ultimate failure of the "1,000 Year Reich". Suffice it to say, this is probably the finest book ever written on the history of Nazi Germany and is a "must read" for all history lovers. "Berlin Diary" also by Shirer is a good preface to this book. Magnificent!!!!
Profile Image for Maziyar Yf.
739 reviews526 followers
December 7, 2022
賵蹖賱蹖丕賲 卮丕蹖乇乇 乇賵夭賳丕賲賴 賳诏丕乇爻乇卮賳丕爻 賵 禺亘乇賳诏丕乇 丨賵夭賴 噩賳诏 丌賲乇蹖讴丕蹖蹖 丿乇 讴鬲丕亘 亘爻蹖丕乇 賲毓乇賵賮 禺賵丿 馗賴賵乇 賵 爻賯賵胤 乇丕蹖卮 爻賵賲 亘賴 诏賵賳賴 丕蹖 卮诏賮鬲 丌賵乇 貙 亘丕 亘蹖丕賳 噩夭蹖蹖丕鬲 亘爻蹖丕乇 趩诏賵賳诏蹖 鬲賵賱丿 貙 倬蹖丿丕蹖卮 貙 乇卮丿 賵 爻乇丕賳噩丕賲 賲乇诏 乇跇蹖賲蹖 乇丕 亘乇乇爻蹖 讴乇丿賴 丕爻鬲 讴賴 诏乇趩賴 亘賴 噩丕蹖 1000 爻丕賱 賵毓丿賴 丿丕丿賴 卮丿賴 鬲賳賴丕 12 爻丕賱 毓賲乇 讴乇丿 丕賲丕 鬲亘丿蹖賱 亘賴 鬲噩乇亘賴 丕蹖 亘爻蹖丕乇 鬲乇爻賳丕讴 賵 禺賵賳亘丕乇 亘乇丕蹖 亘卮乇蹖鬲 卮丿 .亘丕 賵噩賵丿 丌賳讴賴 倬蹖卮 丕夭 60爻丕賱 丕夭 丕賳鬲卮丕乇 讴鬲丕亘 賵蹖賱蹖丕賲 卮丕蹖乇乇 賲蹖 诏匕乇丿 丕賲丕 讴鬲丕亘 丕賵 丿乇 賲蹖丕賳 丕賳亘賵賴 讴鬲丕亘 賴丕蹖 賲乇亘賵胤 亘賴 丌賱賲丕賳 賳丕夭蹖 賴賲趩賳丕賳 蹖讴蹖 丕夭讴丕賲賱鬲乇蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 賴丕 賵 蹖丕 亘賴 诏賵賳賴 丕蹖 讴鬲丕亘 賲乇噩毓 丕爻鬲 .

賲卮禺氐丕鬲 賮蹖夭蹖讴蹖 賵 鬲乇噩賲賴 讴鬲丕亘
诏乇趩賴 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 乇丕 倬蹖卮鬲乇 丕賳鬲卮丕乇丕鬲 賲禺鬲賱賮蹖 趩丕倬 讴乇丿賴 亘賵丿賳丿 丕賲丕 鬲賯乇蹖亘丕 鬲賲丕賲蹖 丌賳賴丕 亘賴 卮丿鬲 賳丕蹖丕亘 賴爻鬲賳丿 貙 鬲賳賴丕 趩丕倬 賲賵噩賵丿 讴鬲丕亘 丿乇 丨丕賱 丨丕囟乇 賲乇亘賵胤 亘賴 丕賳鬲卮丕乇丕鬲 賳诏丕賴 賵 亘丕 鬲乇噩賲賴 丕亘賵 胤丕賱亘 氐丕乇賲蹖 丕蹖爻鬲 . 鬲乇噩賲賴 丕賵 乇丕 賲蹖 鬲賵丕賳 賲鬲賵爻胤 賵 賳賴 趩賳丿丕賳 丌夭丕乇 丿賴賳丿賴 丿丕賳爻鬲 . 丕賲丕 讴鬲丕亘 賲卮讴賱丕鬲 丕爻丕爻蹖 丿乇 賵蹖乇丕蹖卮 丿丕乇丿 貙 丕賳賵丕毓 賵 丕賯爻丕賲 丕卮鬲亘丕賴丕鬲 賳賵卮鬲丕乇蹖 乇丕 丿乇 讴鬲丕亘 賲蹖 鬲賵丕賳 丿蹖丿 貙 亘乇丕蹖 賲孬丕賱 讴卮賵乇 倬乇鬲睾丕賱 丿乇 賴賲賴 噩丕 亘賴 卮讴賱 賲蹖賵賴 倬乇鬲賯丕賱 賳賵卮鬲賴 卮丿賴 ! 蹖丕 讴賱賲丕鬲 丿乇 賵夭蹖乇 亘丕 乇賵夭 噩丕 亘賴 噩丕 賵 蹖丕 丕毓丿丕丿 丿乇 鬲丕乇蹖禺 倬爻 賵 倬蹖卮 賳賵卮鬲賴 卮丿賴 丕賳丿 讴賴 亘丕 鬲賵噩賴 亘賴 丕蹖賳讴賴 讴鬲丕亘 趩丕倬 賳賴賲 丕爻鬲 賵禺賵丕賳賳丿賴 400 賴夭丕乇 鬲賵賲丕賳 亘乇丕蹖 丌賳 賴夭蹖賳賴 讴乇丿賴 賲噩賲賵毓賴 丕卮鬲亘丕賴丕鬲 亘賴 讴蹖賮蹖鬲 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 丕乇夭卮賲賳丿 賱胤賲賴 夭丿賴 丕爻鬲 .
讴鬲丕亘 丿乇 賯胤毓 賵夭蹖乇蹖 賲賳鬲卮乇 卮丿賴 賵 1331 氐賮丨賴 丿丕乇丿 讴賴 丿乇 氐賮丨賴 1222 讴鬲丕亘 鬲賲丕賲 卮丿賴 賵 109 亘乇诏 賲丕亘賯蹖 丌賳 賮賴乇爻鬲 賲賳丕亘毓 賵 丕爻丕賲蹖 丕蹖爻鬲 . 賮賵賳鬲 讴鬲丕亘 亘蹖 賳賴丕蹖鬲 乇蹖夭 亘賵丿賴 賵 诏賵蹖丕 丕賳卮丕乇丕鬲 賳诏丕賴 亘丕 丕賳鬲禺丕亘 趩賳蹖賳 賮賵賳鬲蹖 賯氐丿 丿丕卮鬲賴 賲丿丕賲 亘丕賱丕 乇賮鬲賳 爻賳 禺賵丕賳賳丿賴 賵 讴賲 爻賵 卮丿賳 賯丿乇鬲 趩卮賲丕賳卮 乇丕 亘賴 丕賵 蹖丕丿 丌賵乇蹖 讴賳丿 .
馗賴賵乇 賵 爻賯賵胤 乇丕蹖卮 爻賵賲 趩诏賵賳賴 賵 亘乇 倬丕蹖賴 趩賴 丕爻賳丕丿蹖 賳賵卮鬲賴 卮丿 責
丕夭 丌賳 噩丕 讴賴 亘丕 爻賯賵胤 丌賱賲丕賳 賳丕夭蹖 貙 賳賴 乇跇蹖賲蹖 蹖丕 丿賵賱鬲蹖 貙 賳賴 倬賱蹖爻 賵 蹖丕 卮賴乇丿丕乇蹖 亘丕賯蹖 賳賲丕賳丿 賵 讴賱 賵 鬲賲丕賲蹖 乇跇蹖賲 亘丕 賴賲 爻賯賵胤 讴乇丿 丕賳亘賵賴蹖 丕夭 丕爻賳丕丿 賲乇亘賵胤 亘賴 賵夭丕乇鬲 禺丕乇噩賴 貙 丕乇鬲卮 賵 賳蹖乇賵蹖 丿乇蹖丕蹖蹖 貙 倬賱蹖爻 賲禺賮蹖 貙 丕爻賳丕丿 丨夭亘 賳丕爻蹖賵賳丕賱 爻賵爻蹖丕賱蹖爻鬲 賴賲丕賳賳丿 诏賳噩蹖賳賴 丕蹖 亘賴 丿爻鬲 賲賵乇禺丕賳 丕賮鬲丕丿 貙 丕賮夭賵賳 亘乇丌賳 賵 亘丕 鬲賵噩賴 亘賴 亘賵乇賵讴乇丕爻蹖 亘爻蹖丕乇 賯賵蹖 丌賱賲丕賳 賲丿丕乇讴 诏乇丕賳 亘賴丕蹖 丿蹖诏乇蹖 賲丕賳賳丿 蹖丕丿丿丕卮鬲 賴丕蹖 禺氐賵氐蹖 貙 賳胤賯 賴丕 丿乇 噩賱爻丕鬲 亘爻蹖丕乇 爻乇蹖 賵 丨鬲蹖 乇賵賳賵卮鬲 賲讴丕賱賲丕鬲 鬲賱賮賳蹖 爻乇丕賳 賳丕夭蹖 賴賲 亘賴 卮讴賱 賲讴鬲賵亘 賳氐蹖亘 賲賵乇禺丕賳 賵 讴丕乇卮賳丕爻丕賳 卮丿 .
亘賴 賴賲蹖賳 鬲乇鬲蹖亘 禺丕胤乇丕鬲 賲賮氐賱 跇賳乇丕賱 賮乇丕賳鬲爻 賴丕賱丿乇 貙 乇蹖蹖爻 爻鬲丕丿 毓丕賱蹖 賮乇賲丕賳丿賴蹖 賳蹖乇賵蹖 夭賲蹖賳蹖 丌賱賲丕賳 亘賴 賲丿鬲 4 爻丕賱 讴賴 亘丕 賳馗賲 賵 倬卮鬲讴丕乇 丨蹖乇鬲 丕賳诏蹖夭 诏夭丕乇卮 乇賵夭丕賳賴 賵 丨鬲蹖 爻丕毓鬲 亘賴 爻丕毓鬲 丕夭 爻乇蹖 鬲乇蹖賳 噩賱爻丕鬲 乇丕 賳賵卮鬲賴 亘賵丿 賵 賴賲蹖賳 诏賵賳賴 賳賵卮鬲賴 賴丕蹖 亘爻蹖丕乇 丨噩蹖賲 讴賳鬲 趩蹖丕賳賵 賵夭蹖乇 丕賲賵乇 禺丕乇噩賴 丕蹖鬲丕賱蹖丕 賵 丿丕賲丕丿 賲賵爻賵賱蹖賳蹖 賴賲 賲賳亘毓 亘爻蹖丕乇 丕乇夭卮賲賳丿蹖 亘乇丕蹖 卮丕蹖乇乇 賵 爻丕蹖乇 賲賵乇禺丕賳 亘賵丿賴 丕賳丿 . 丿乇 噩丕 亘賴 噩丕蹖 讴鬲丕亘 賲蹖 鬲賵丕賳 丕乇噩丕毓丕鬲 賮乇丕賵丕賳 賵蹖賱蹖丕賲 卮丕蹖乇乇 乇丕 亘賴 禺丕胤乇丕鬲 丕蹖賳 丿賵 賮乇丿 丿蹖丿 .
賮氐賱 賴丕 賵 賲胤丕賱亘 讴鬲丕亘
賴賲丕賳诏賵賳賴 讴賴 丕夭 讴鬲丕亘蹖 亘丕 丕蹖賳 丨噩賲 丕賳鬲馗丕乇 賲蹖 乇賵丿 卮丕蹖乇乇 鬲賯乇蹖亘丕 亘賴 鬲賲丕賲蹖 賲賵囟賵毓丕鬲 丿乇 賲賵乇丿 賲賵乇丿 丨夭亘 賳丕夭蹖 貙 丕夭 丌睾丕夭 鬲丕 倬丕蹖丕賳 蹖毓賳蹖 賴賳诏丕賲 鬲丕爻蹖爻 丨夭亘 賳丕爻蹖賵賳丕賱 爻賵爻蹖丕賱蹖爻鬲 亘丕 鬲毓丿丕丿 丕賮乇丕丿蹖 賲丨丿賵丿 賵 鬲丕 賱丨馗賴 倬丕蹖丕賳 锟斤拷毓賳蹖 夭賲丕賳 爻賯賵胤 丌賳 倬乇丿丕禺鬲賴 丕爻鬲 . 丨噩賲 夭蹖丕丿蹖 丕夭 讴鬲丕亘 亘賴 趩诏賵賳诏蹖 亘賴 賯丿乇鬲 乇爻蹖丿賳 賴蹖鬲賱乇 丿乇 丨夭亘 禺賵丿 賵 倬爻 夭丿賳 賵 丨匕賮 丿蹖诏乇 丕賮乇丕丿 爻乇卮賳丕爻 賵 賲亘丕乇夭丕鬲 倬丕乇賱賲丕賳蹖 賵 鬲賱丕卮 賳丕夭蹖 賴丕 亘乇丕蹖 亘賴 丿爻鬲 丌賵乇丿賳 丕讴孬乇蹖鬲 丿乇 倬丕乇賱賲丕賳 賵 鬲卮讴蹖賱 丿賵賱鬲 賳丕夭蹖 丕禺鬲氐丕氐 倬蹖丿丕 讴乇丿賴 貙 卮丕蹖乇乇 丨鬲蹖 诏乇蹖夭蹖 賳爻亘鬲丕 胤賵賱丕賳蹖 賴賲 亘賴 賮賱爻賮賴 睾賳蹖 丌賱賲丕賳 賵 賮乇賴賳诏 賲乇丿賲丕賳 丌賳 夭丿賴 鬲丕 亘鬲賵丕賳丿 賮賱爻賮賴 賲亘鬲匕賱 賵 倬蹖卮 倬丕 丕賮鬲丕丿賴 賴蹖鬲賱乇 賵 賳丕夭蹖 賴丕 乇丕 卮乇丨 丿賴丿 . 丕蹖賳 亘禺卮 讴鬲丕亘 囟毓賮 賴丕蹖 丿賲賵讴乇丕爻蹖 賵 丕蹖賳讴賴 趩賯丿乇 丿乇 亘乇丕亘乇 蹖讴 卮禺氐蹖鬲 夭賵乇诏賵 賵 賯賱丿乇 賵 丕賮乇丕丿 賱亘丕爻 卮禺氐蹖 丕賵 囟毓蹖賮 賵 賳丕鬲賵丕賳 賵 賮丕賯丿 丕乇丕丿賴 賵 鬲爻賱蹖賲 亘丕夭蹖 賴丕蹖 倬卮鬲 倬乇丿賴 亘賵丿賴 賵 賴爻鬲 乇丕 亘賴 乇賵卮賳蹖 賳卮丕賳 賲蹖 丿賴丿 诏乇趩賴 賴賳乇 爻禺賳賵乇蹖 賴蹖鬲賱乇 貙 鬲亘賱蹖睾丕鬲 賵 倬乇賵倬丕诏丕賳丿丕 诏賵亘賱爻 賵 鬲卮讴蹖賱丕鬲 賵 爻丕夭賲丕賳 丿賴蹖 乇賵丿賱賮 賴爻 賵 丕賱亘鬲賴 卮丕禺賴 賳馗丕賲蹖 丌賳 亘賴 乇賴亘乇蹖 賴乇賲丕賳 诏賵乇蹖賳诏 賵 丕乇賳爻鬲 乇賵賴賲 乇丕 賴賲 賳亘丕蹖丿 賳丕丿蹖丿賴 诏乇賮鬲 .

賯爻賲鬲 亘毓丿蹖 讴賴 卮丕蹖乇乇 讴丕賲賱 丌賳乇丕 亘乇乇爻蹖 讴乇丿賴 丿賵乇丕賳 氐丿乇丕毓馗賲蹖 賴蹖鬲賱乇 倬蹖卮 丕夭 丌睾丕夭 噩賳诏 亘賵丿賴 . 賮鬲賵丨丕鬲 爻蹖丕爻蹖 賳丕夭蹖 賴丕 亘丿賵賳 丿丕卮鬲賳 丕乇鬲卮蹖 賲賳馗賲 賵 蹖丕 丕賲讴丕賳丕鬲 讴丕賮蹖 賵 鬲爻禺蹖乇 丌賱夭丕爻 賵 賱賵乇賳 貙 丕鬲乇蹖卮 賵 趩讴 丕爻賱丕賵丕讴蹖 亘丿賵賳 卮賱蹖讴 蹖讴 诏賱賵賱賴 賵 鬲賳賴丕 亘丕 亘賱賵賮 賵 丨乇賮 夭丿賳 诏乇趩賴 丿爻鬲丕賵乇丿蹖 卮诏賮鬲 丕賳诏蹖夭 亘賵丿賴 丕賲丕 亘丕夭 賴賲 囟毓賮 賲賮乇胤 丿賲賵讴乇丕爻蹖 丿乇 鬲氐賲蹖賲 诏乇賮鬲賳 乇丕 賳卮丕賳 賲蹖 丿賴丿 貙 趩賲亘乇賱賳 賳禺爻鬲 賵夭蹖乇 丕賳诏賱爻鬲丕賳 囟毓蹖賮 貙 鬲乇爻賵 賵 爻爻鬲 毓賳氐乇 賴賲賵丕乇賴 鬲爻賱蹖賲 賴蹖鬲賱乇 亘賵丿賴 賵 賮乇丕賳爻賴 賴賲 亘蹖卮鬲乇 锟斤拷賵丕乇丿 丿賵賱鬲蹖 賳丿丕卮鬲賴 .
賲胤丕賱亘 讴鬲丕亘 丿乇 賲賵乇丿 噩賳诏 噩賴丕賳蹖 乇丕 賲蹖 鬲賵丕賳 亘賴 丿賵 賯爻賲鬲 鬲賯爻蹖賲 讴乇丿 : 倬蹖乇賵夭蹖 賴丕蹖 亘乇賯 丌爻丕 丌賱賲丕賳 丿乇 賱賴爻鬲丕賳 貙 丿丕賳賲丕乇讴 賵 賳乇賵跇 賵 賮乇丕賳爻賴 賵 亘賱跇蹖讴 賵 賴賱賳丿 貙 賳亘乇丿 亘乇 賮乇丕夭 丌爻賲丕賳 丕賳诏賱爻鬲丕賳 貙 丨賲賱賴 亘賴 亘丕賱讴丕賳 賵 賳亘乇丿 亘丕乇亘丕乇賵爻丕 賵 倬蹖乇賵夭蹖 賴丕蹖 卮诏賮鬲 丌賵乇 丕賵賱蹖賴 丿乇 禺丕讴 乇賵爻蹖賴 亘禺卮 丕賵賱 賵 爻賴 诏丕賳賴 丕賱毓賱賲蹖賳 賵 卮讴爻鬲 賲丕乇卮丕賱 乇賵賲賱 丕夭 丕賳诏賱蹖爻蹖 賴丕 貙 丕爻鬲丕賱蹖賳诏乇丕丿 賵 賳丕亘賵丿蹖 丕乇鬲卮 卮卮賲 賵 倬乇賱 賴丕乇亘乇 賵 賵乇賵丿 丕蹖賱丕鬲 賲鬲丨丿賴 亘賴 噩賳诏 亘禺卮 丿賵賲 蹖丕 卮乇賵毓 倬丕蹖丕賳 乇丕蹖卮 爻賵賲 乇丕 鬲卮讴蹖賱 賲蹖 丿賴賳丿 .
卮丕蹖乇乇 丕賲丕 亘賴 噩夭蹖蹖丕鬲 賳亘乇丿賴丕 賵 噩賳诏 賴丕 賳倬乇丿丕禺鬲賴 貙 丕賵 噩賳诏 乇丕 亘賴 卮讴賱蹖 讴賱蹖 丿蹖丿賴 賵 賳鬲蹖噩賴 丌賳 賴丕 乇丕 賴賲 丕夭 亘購毓丿 丕爻鬲乇丕鬲跇蹖讴 賵 趩賴 爻蹖丕爻蹖 亘乇乇爻蹖 讴乇丿賴 丕爻鬲 .
賯爻賲鬲 丌禺乇 讴鬲丕亘 賴賲 卮乇丨 爻賯賵胤 賴賲賴 噩丕賳亘賴 賴賲 丕乇鬲卮 丌賱賲丕賳 丿乇 鬲賲丕賲蹖 噩亘賴賴 賴丕 賵 賮乇賵倬丕卮蹖 毓氐亘蹖 賵 噩爻賲蹖 賴蹖鬲賱乇 鬲丕 丌禺乇蹖賳 乇賵夭 夭賳丿诏蹖 倬乇丿丕禺鬲賴 . 倬蹖卮賵丕蹖蹖 讴賴 卮丕蹖乇乇 丿乇 丕蹖賳 亘禺卮 鬲乇爻蹖賲 讴乇丿賴 鬲賮丕賵鬲 趩賳丿丕賳蹖 亘丕 蹖讴 丿蹖賵丕賳賴 賵 賲噩賳賵賳 賳丿丕乇丿 . 乇丿倬丕蹖 賴蹖鬲賱乇 乇丕 賲蹖 鬲賵丕賳 丿乇 鬲賲丕賲蹖 卮讴爻鬲 賴丕蹖 丌賱賲丕賳 丿蹖丿 . 賲卮禺氐 賳蹖爻鬲 讴賴 賮乇賲丕賳 賲卮賴賵乇 丕賵 蹖毓賳蹖 毓賯亘 賳卮蹖賳蹖 賲賲賳賵毓 貙 丨鬲蹖 蹖讴 诏丕賲 噩丕賳 趩賳丿 賲蹖賱蹖賵賳 賳賮乇 乇丕 诏乇賮鬲 . 卮丕蹖乇乇 亘賴 卮乇丨 鬲賵胤卅賴 賴丕蹖 诏賵賳丕诏賵賳 毓蹖賱賴 賴蹖鬲賱乇 賴賲 倬乇丿丕禺鬲賴 貙 爻賵賯氐丿賴丕蹖蹖 讴賴 賴賲賵丕乇賴 亘丕 爻爻鬲蹖 賵 鬲乇爻 跇賳乇丕賱 賴丕蹖 賲禺鬲賱賮 丕乇鬲卮 丌賱賲丕賳 蹖丕 賴乇诏夭 丕賳噩丕賲 賳卮丿 賵 蹖丕 賴乇 亘丕乇 亘賴 毓賱鬲蹖 亘賲亘 讴丕乇 賳讴乇丿 . 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 賲賴賲鬲乇蹖賳 丕蹖賳 鬲乇賵乇賴丕 毓賲賱蹖丕鬲 賵丕賱讴賵乇賴 蹖丕 賵丕賱讴蹖乇蹖 亘賵丿賴 讴賴 卮丕蹖乇乇 賴賲丕賳诏賵賳賴 讴賴 丕夭 丕賵 丕賳鬲馗丕乇 賲蹖 乇賮鬲賴 亘丕 噩夭蹖蹖丕鬲 賮乇丕賵丕賳 亘賴 丌賳 賵 爻乇賳賵卮鬲 鬲賱禺 胤乇丕丨丕賳 鬲賵胤卅賴 亘賴 賵蹖跇賴 賮賳 丕卮鬲賮丕賳亘乇诏 倬乇丿丕禺鬲赖.
鬲乇賵乇 丌禺乇蹖 讴賴 賲賳噩乇 亘賴 噩乇丕丨鬲 賴蹖鬲賱乇 卮丿 噩賳賵賳 丕賵 乇丕 鬲讴賲蹖賱 讴乇丿 貙 亘賴 丿丕賵乇蹖 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 丌賳趩賴 倬蹖卮 丕夭 丌賳 丿乇 丕賵 禺卮賵賳鬲 亘賵丿 丕讴賳賵賳 鬲亘丿蹖賱 亘賴 爻鬲賲 卮丿賴 亘賵丿 賵 丌賳趩賴 丿乇 丕賵 丿乇賵睾倬乇丿丕夭蹖 亘賵丿 丨丕賱 亘賴 亘蹖 卮乇丕賮鬲蹖 丌卮讴丕乇 丕賳噩丕賲蹖丿賴 亘賵丿 . 诏賵蹖丕 賲賯丿乇 卮丿賴 亘賵丿 讴賴 爻乇賳賵卮鬲 丌賱賲丕賳 亘賴 丕蹖賳 賲乇丿讴 丕讴賳賵賳 賳蹖賲賴 丿蹖賵丕賳賴 賲賯丿乇 卮賵丿 .
倬丕蹖丕賳 讴鬲丕亘 賴賲 卮乇丨 乇賵夭賴丕蹖 丌禺乇 夭賳丿诏蹖 賴蹖鬲賱乇 丿乇 倬賳丕賴诏丕賴 丕賲賳 禺賵丿 亘賴 賴賲乇丕賴 丕賮乇丕丿蹖 丕蹖爻鬲 讴賴 倬蹖賵爻鬲賴 丕夭 鬲毓丿丕丿卮丕賳 讴丕爻鬲賴 賲蹖 卮丿 . 讴賴 亘賴 爻亘亘 賮蹖賱賲 爻賯賵胤 賵 亘丕夭蹖 毓丕賱蹖 亘乇賵賳賵 诏丕賳鬲爻 丿乇 賳賯卮 賴蹖鬲賱乇 貙 賴賲 賮囟丕蹖 倬賳丕賴诏丕賴 賵 賴賲 卮丿鬲 噩賳賵賳 賴蹖鬲賱乇 亘賴 卮丿鬲 賲賱賲賵爻 賵 賯丕亘賱 丿乇讴 丕爻鬲 .
倬丕蹖丕賳 讴丕乇 賴蹖鬲賱乇 丕賲丕 丕賳賴丿丕賲 丌賱賲丕賳 賳亘賵丿 诏乇趩賴 亘丕 賵噩賵丿 賲蹖賱 賴蹖鬲賱乇 丿乇 賳丕亘賵丿 讴乇丿賳 丌賳 貙 丌賱賲丕賳 賵蹖乇丕賳 卮丿 賵 賲乇丿賲丕賳 丌賳 賲亘賴賵鬲 賵 禺賵賳 丌賱賵丿 賵 诏乇爻賳賴 丿乇 爻乇賲丕蹖 夭賲爻鬲丕賳 亘蹖 賱亘丕爻 賵 亘蹖 賲爻讴賳 貙 跇賳丿賴 倬賵卮 賵 爻丕讴賳 丿乇 禺乇丕亘賴 賴丕蹖 亘賴 噩丕 賲丕賳丿賴 丕夭 亘賲亘丕乇丕賳 賴丕 亘賴 噩丕 賲丕賳丿賳丿 貙 丕賲丕 丌賳賴丕 賲丕賳丿賳丿 賵 乇丕蹖卮 爻賵賲 丿乇 诏賵乇爻鬲丕賳 鬲丕乇蹖禺 賲丿賮賵賳 卮丿 .
趩乇丕 賴賲趩賳丕賳 亘丕蹖丿 馗賴賵乇 賵 爻賯賵胤 乇丕蹖卮 爻賵賲 乇丕 禺賵丕賳丿 責
讴鬲丕亘 丿蹖丿 讴丕賲賱蹖 丕夭 蹖讴 丨讴賵賲鬲 鬲賲丕賲蹖鬲 禺賵丕賴 貙 鬲卮讴蹖賱 賵 夭賳丿诏蹖 丿乇 丌賳 乇丕 賳卮丕賳 賲蹖 丿賴丿 貙 卮丕蹖乇乇 亘丕 丕爻鬲丕丿蹖 賲爻蹖乇 賴蹖鬲賱乇 賵 丨夭亘 賳丕夭蹖 丿乇賯丿乇鬲 诏乇賮鬲賳 丿乇 趩丕乇趩賵亘 丿賲賵讴乇丕爻蹖 賵 爻倬爻 丕爻鬲賮丕丿賴 丕夭 丌賳 亘乇丕蹖 賲亘丕乇夭賴 賵 丿爻鬲诏蹖乇蹖 鬲賲丕賲蹖 賲禺丕賱賮丕賳 禺賵丿 賵 亘乇丕賳丿丕夭蹖 丿賲賵讴乇丕爻蹖 乇丕 賳卮丕賳 賲蹖 丿賴丿 . 卮丕蹖乇乇 亘丕 賲賴丕乇鬲 賳丕鬲賵丕賳蹖 丕禺賱丕賯蹖 丿賲賵讴乇丕爻蹖 賴丕蹖 睾乇亘蹖 賵 亘賴 賴賲蹖賳 鬲乇鬲蹖亘 丌夭丕丿蹖禺賵丕賴丕賳 丌賱賲丕賳 乇丕 丿乇 亘乇丕亘乇 丿蹖讴鬲丕鬲賵乇 乇丕 鬲乇爻蹖賲 讴乇丿賴 貙 卮丕蹖乇乇 卮乇丨 丿丕丿賴 讴賴 蹖讴 丿蹖讴鬲丕鬲賵乇 亘賴 賴蹖趩 丕氐賵賱 丕禺賱丕賯蹖 丕蹖賲丕賳 賳丿丕乇丿 貙 賴賲賵丕乇賴 賵 丿乇 亘乇丕亘乇 賴賲诏丕賳 丿乇賵睾 賲蹖 诏賵蹖丿 賵 讴爻蹖 賴賲 鬲賵丕賳丕蹖蹖 賲禺丕賱賮鬲 亘丕 丕賵 乇丕 賳丿丕乇丿 . 賴蹖鬲賱乇 賴賲 賲丕賳賳丿 丿蹖讴鬲丕鬲賵乇賴丕蹖 丿蹖诏乇 丕毓鬲亘丕乇 倬蹖乇賵夭蹖 賴丕 乇丕 亘賴 禺賵丿 丿丕丿賴 賵 亘丕 賵噩賵丿 賯丿乇鬲 賲胤賱賯 賵 丿禺丕賱鬲 丿乇 賴賲賴 趩蹖夭 诏賳丕賴 卮讴爻鬲 乇丕 亘賴 诏乇丿賳 賴賲賴 賵 丿蹖诏乇丕賳 賲蹖 丕賳丿丕夭丿 . 丕賵 丿乇 鬲賵賴賲 賲胤賱賯 貙 丿乇 鬲賳賴丕蹖蹖 賵 禺賱賵鬲 賵 亘賴 丿賵乇 丕夭 賴賲賴 夭賳丿诏蹖 賲蹖 讴賳丿 . 丕賵 賴賲 賲丕賳賳丿 丿蹖诏乇 丿蹖讴鬲丕鬲賵乇賴丕 賴賲賵丕乇賴 賮讴乇 賲蹖 讴賳丿 讴賴 讴爻蹖 蹖丕 诏乇賵賴蹖 丿乇 丨丕賱 禺蹖丕賳鬲 賵 蹖丕 禺賳噩乇 夭丿賳 丕夭 倬卮鬲 丕爻鬲 . 丕賵 丨鬲蹖 蹖讴 诏丕賲 賴賲 毓賯亘 賳賲蹖 乇賵丿 賵 亘丕 賱噩亘丕夭蹖 爻乇 賲賵囟毓 爻乇丕爻乇 丕卮鬲亘丕賴 禺賵丿 賲蹖 丕蹖爻鬲丿 . 亘乇丕蹖 丕賵 鬲賳賴丕 禺賵丿 賲夭禺乇賮卮 丕爻鬲 讴賴 丕賴賲蹖鬲 丿丕乇丿 賵 亘乇 丕蹖賳 亘丕賵乇丕爻鬲 讴賴 丿乇 賳亘賵丿 丕賵 賲賱鬲 丌賱賲丕賳 賱蹖丕賮鬲 夭賳丿诏蹖 賳丿丕乇丿 .

亘賴 爻禺鬲蹖 賲蹖 鬲賵丕賳 丕蹖乇丕丿蹖 丕夭 讴鬲丕亘 卮丕蹖乇乇 诏乇賮鬲 貙 夭賲丕賳蹖 讴賴 丕賵 氐乇賮 胤亘賯賴 亘賳丿蹖 丕爻賳丕丿 讴乇丿賴 貙 丨囟賵乇 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 丿乇 丿丕丿诏丕賴 賳賵乇賳亘乇诏 賵 鬲丨賯蹖賯丕鬲 賲賮氐賱 丕賵 貙 馗賴賵乇 賵 爻賯賵胤 乇丕蹖卮 爻賵賲 乇丕 亘丕 賵噩賵丿 丌賳讴賴 爻丕賱 賴丕 丕夭 賳诏丕乇卮 丌賳 賲蹖 诏匕乇丿 亘賴 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 賲毓鬲亘乇鬲乇蹖賳 賵 卮丕蹖丿 賴賲 賲毓鬲亘乇鬲乇蹖賳 鬲丨賯蹖賯 丿乇 賲賵乇丿 乇丕蹖卮 爻賵賲 鬲亘丿蹖賱 讴乇丿賴 丕爻鬲 .
Profile Image for Nick Borrelli.
399 reviews451 followers
February 28, 2017
Three historical periods always have fascinated me and I usually will read anything published with regard to them. The first is The American Revolution, the second is The Civil War and the third is Nazi Germany/WWII. William Shirer has penned the definitive account of this horrendous time in world history and I believe it is the most comprehensive and compelling telling ever published. I did read Richard Evans' trilogy but I still view Shirer's book as better. I thought that Evans speculated too much and also focused more on Germany itself rather than giving a more expanded view of the entire world stage during this time. Shirer does this while also having the benefit of proximity - The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich was published a mere 15 years after the fall of Germany. Shirer was also a foreign correspondent working inside Germany when the Nazis took power. That's the thing that really grabs you when you read this book. The fact that Shirer actually witnessed the gradual oppression and brutality as it was taking place gives a certain sense of realism to a time that seems so unreal looking back on it now. This book begins at the end of WWI when Germany was embarrassed and sanctioned mercilessly by the allied powers. Shirer uses this example to define what initially motivated Hitler to restore Germany to greatness - intense love of country and a desire to see that Germany exacted its retribution on the "criminals" of Versailles. Hitler simply could not tolerate the fact that Germany was militarily and diplomatically emasculated after the Treaty of Versailles. He set a course to use any means necessary and to point the finger at any scapegoat he could to begin a campaign of ethnic nationalism. Also contained in this gut-wrenching history book is a thorough description of how piece by piece and country by country, Hitler used his demented vision to take over the entirety of Europe and North Africa. The book ends with Germany's ultimate defeat and The Nuremberg Trials where many of the top Nazi leadership were tried and sentenced for war crimes. Simply a stunning book that is a can't miss for anyone who wants to know how this period of time came about. I read it with mouth agape for large portions as I could not believe that this evil was allowed to grow and thrive for as long as it did. It's not an easy read, but a necessary one I believe.
Profile Image for Jan-Maat.
1,655 reviews2,383 followers
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July 16, 2019
The great strength of this book is that it was written by a journalist. There is a simple narrative and clear prose. Best of all in a couple of places at least he draws upon his own experiences (for example a conversation with a German General during the re-militarisation of the Rhineland and seeing German troops and English prisoners of war during the invasion of France in 1940 (Shirer had been a journalist based in France from 1925 and in Germany from 1934).

Equally the great weakness of this book is that it was written by a journalist. There's no subtly, while its clarity and certainty mask the fact that it is dated now - research has moved much further on. To pick up on a few points the book is from memory relatively weak on the Holocaust, you don't get any sense of the polycentralism and factionalism of the fascist government. Shirer traces a long view or perhaps more aptly a Sonderweg from roughly Luther to the Third Reich, when, on the whole, taking a broader view of Northern and Central Europe much of what is exceptional in the German political context seems to come from the conduct of political life during the Second Empire from 1871. Shirer though, having found his story, sticks to it in the process creating a mirror image of the kind of history that political extremists on the far right themselves liked to create. In other words for Shirer Nazism in Germany was an accident always waiting to happen, this is a very comforting and simple argument which has the huge advantage of absolving everyone else, the problem with it, is that it makes explaining both the post war and pre-Nazi periods much more complicated.

Read it for enjoyment as a one volume, pacy narrative, but don't regard it as the definitive word on the subject.
Profile Image for E. G..
1,140 reviews793 followers
April 6, 2022
A New Introduction, by Ron Rosenbaum
Foreword


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

Afterword
Notes
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index
Profile Image for Max.
355 reviews479 followers
November 3, 2012
Was the Third Reich an extension of the national character and value system or was it an episodic totalitarianism derived from concentration of power and fueled by modern technology. Shirer鈥檚 narrative supports the former but the latter view has many proponents. One relevant piece of history I have not seen mentioned in the context of this argument is the German colonization of South-West Africa, now Namibia. I first stumbled on this awful history in Thomas Pynchon鈥檚 excellent novel 鈥淰.鈥�, which led me to look into it a little deeper.

Between 1904 and 1907, well before the Nazi party, Germany set out to exterminate the Herero and Nama peoples in its colony of South-West Africa resulting in over 60,000 killed. The UN designated this tragedy the first genocide of the 20th century. The colonists took the natives cattle and property, and when they rebelled with their spears, the Germans went about killing every man, woman and child they could find. This only stopped when the civilian administration objected because there would not be enough natives left to tend the colonizers stolen cattle and perform manual labor.

The horrific acts of the Third Reich were conducted in Southwest-Africa 30 years earlier: Concentration camps were set up where there was mass starvation and extreme cruelty, woman and children were kept in pens to serve as sex slaves, and even the sinister medical experiments of Third Reich were conducted first here on innocent natives. The leader of these experiments, Eugen Fischer, became the chancellor of the University of Berlin where he trained prominent Nazi physicians in the 1930鈥檚 including the infamous Josef Mengele.

Clearly the evil of the Third Reich was more than an episode. Still, I find it hard to believe that this devolution into the abyss can be explained by the traits of a single nationality. With continued advances in technology and increased ability to concentrate power, understanding how and why a society can become this evil becomes an imperative.

Check out the Wikipedia entry on the Herero and Namaqua Genocide, .
Profile Image for WarpDrive.
273 reviews488 followers
December 31, 2014
This is a classic. A very detailed, almost day-by-day account of this momentous period of World history. Relevant primary sources, including documents used in Nuremberg, are persuasively referenced throughout the account.
The book is an important reference to whoever is interested in the period; however there are a few issues with it:
- you can see that the author was a journalist writing as though he were a historian. On the positive side, this makes for a fresh, vivid and compelling narrative, but on the negative side there is, in parts of the book, a substantial lack of depth and of nuance, and the underlying complex background of economic, cultural, social aspects is not explored at a level that a professional historian would naturally go down to. Thus, rather than a "history" of Nazism, this should probably be described as a "chronicle" of Nazism
- the lack of accompanying maps is really frustrating at times. This is especially relevant when describing particular military events such as the invasion of Norway and of Belgium/Holland/France, where, without the support of an accompanying map, it is close to impossible to gain a real appreciation of the developments of the war.

Overall, however, it is an interesting book recommended to whoever is interested in this period. It might not be the most rewarding book for readers interested in deep historical analysis, but it provides a very interesting, vivid account of this period.
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