Hitler, 1936-1945: Nemesis (Paperback)

Publisher and industry reviews

UK Kirkus review

This gripping, eminently readable book is the second half of the best life of Hitler, the 20th century's principal villain. (The first half, 'Hubris', came out two years ago). It runs from his political high point in 1936 when he got away with remilitarizing the Rhineland, through his military peak when in six weeks in 1940 he wiped out France as a great military power, to his suicide in the ruins of his capital in 1945. Kershaw presents the troubled diplomacy of the late 1930s primarily through Hitler's eyes, and shows how Hitler and Chamberlain misjudged each other at Munich with fatal consequences for European peace. He has a thorough grasp of the lack of system with which the Nazis ran Germany, and often shows how 'working towards the Fuehrer' had disastrous results. He demonstrates that Hitler had his eye on eventual domination of the world by Germany, and meanwhile was determined to rid the world of Jews. No one can be left in any doubt that the massacre of millions of Jews by the Nazis derived from Hitler's own wishes, though he was sly enough never to sign an order enforcing it. Many of Hitler's decisions, such as the one to attack Russia before he had defeated Great Britain, now seemed absurd; at the time they seemed to him obvious and necessary. He was a tremendous self-deceiver, as well as a spellbinding orator. Kershaw shows also that the blame for atrocities belongs not only to Hitler, nor to his SS killing squads: the army was to blame too, and the bulk of the population either approved, or did nothing to interfere. He has plenty of graphic detail as well, for instance on the intricacies of the 20 July 1944 plot, from which only the devil's own luck preserved Hitler, or the final bonfire - unwitnessed, because the shelling was so heavy - which used so much petrol that all was left of the Fuehrer fitted into a cigar box. (Kirkus UK)

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