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review 2019-05-20 10:30
The Shortest History of Germany by James Hawes
The Shortest History of Germany - James Hawes

A bare-bones (minus a few phalanges and ribs) of what will eventually become Germany.  The beginning is alright, if very superficial, but the rest is overshadowed by the author's political agenda, dislike for Protestants and rabid anti-Prussianess (or basically a dislike for anything on the east side of the Elbe).  There were also numerous factual errors and typos.  The inclusion of maps was usefull.  There is no timeline or list of references, or even further recommended reading.  In short, a poor offering. 

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review 2016-11-26 23:26
JUDGMENTS AT NUREMBERG
The Nuremberg Interviews - Leon Goldensohn

The chief value in "The Nuremberg Interviews" comes from the views, perspectives, and at times, candid reflections offered by the 33 defendants and witnesses whom Dr. Goldensohn (then a U.S. Army psychiatrist) interviewed during 1946. In reading this book, I felt as if I were in company with Dr. Goldensohn and his interpreter as he carried our his enquiries of each person. Hermann Goering, nominally the Number 2 man in the Third Reich, didn't strike me as a person given to much introspection or regret. Rather, he came across as a man who enjoyed wielding power and showed no contrition about the Holocaust and several of the other crimes committed by Hitler, whom he regarded largely as a genius.

On the other hand, Rudolf Hoess, the commandant of Auschwitz, showed no evasiveness when speaking about his responsibility for the extermination of 5 million people. He fully accepted his guilt and the likelihood he would be hanged for his crimes (which took place in Poland in 1947).

For any reader interested in understanding the mindsets and philosophies of individuals who served a totalitarian state, I strongly recommend this book.

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review 2016-04-23 00:00
Heinkel He 219: An Illustrated History of Germany's Premier Nightfighter (Schiffer Military History)
Heinkel He 219: An Illustrated History of Germany's Premier Nightfighter (Schiffer Military History) - Roland Remp As with many other German weapons of WWII; too late too little. Nevertheless and interesting airplane.

Well written Roland Kemp presents a fine account about the Uhu.
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review 2014-11-05 03:27
ANATOMY OF GENOCIDE
Hitler's Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields - Wendy Lower

This book goes a long way toward elucidating the role a number of German women played as "agents of death" in the Nazi Holocaust.

Before coming to this book, I had thought that the only German women who had willingly taken part in killing Jews and other peoples regarded as "undesirables" by the Nazis were the SS auxiliaries in the concentration camps like Ravensbruck and Bergen Belsen, who acquired a reputation for brutality. But in "Hitler's Furies", the reader learns that there were also German women working in areas as diverse as nursing, teaching, and secretarial work in the East following both the conquest of Poland and Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union who were witnesses to the killings of Jews. Indeed, some, such as Erna Petri and Gertrude Segel, crossed the line and gladly engaged in murder on several occasions.

What is remarkable about this story is how the role of these murderous women in the service of the Third Reich was largely hidden or ignored for close to 70 years after the Second World War. The author explains why this was allowed to happen and endeavors to inform and educate the reader about the role of women in the Third Reich, the Nazis' attitudes about women, and the postwar lives of the women who had chosen to kill in support of the Hitler regime. I'm glad to have read this book, for it gives the reader an added insight into how the Holocaust made some women willing executioners of the Final Solution.

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review 2014-10-19 01:19
AMERICAN EYEWITNESSES IN GERMANY TO THE RISE & GROWTH OF THE THIRD REICH
Hitlerland: American Eyewitnesses to the Nazi Rise to Power - Andrew Nagorski

While many books abound about the experiences of Americans in Paris and London during the 1920s and 1930s, there are correspondingly few books available about the experiences of those Americans who spent time in Germany from the 1920s to the early 1940s. This particular book stimulated my curiosity about some of the Americans --- journalists, military officers, writers, scholars, and diplomats --- who first became aware as early as 1922 of the leader of a then insignificant nationalist, right wing political party whose name was Adolf Hitler, and observed the subsequent growth of the Nazi Party and Hitler's ascension to power in Germany in 1933.

 

One of the most interesting tidbits I was surprised to learn from reading this book was that the Nazis allowed Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, the foremost African American intellectual and historian of his generation, to spend time in Germany on a fellowship from 1935 to 1936. His observations about the Berlin Olympics were fascinating. Indeed, "Hitlerland" is the book I would recommend to anyone who wants an insight into the thoughts, feelings, and attitudes of Americans who served in Germany as witnesses to the growth and consolidation of Nazism and the Third Reich.

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