As Conspirações em Torno de Hitler - O Terceiro Reich e a Imaginação Paranoica

by Richard J. Evans

As teorias da conspiração em torno de Adolf Hitler e dos nazis, num livro de História fundamental para a era «pós-verdade»


A ideia de que nada na história acontece por acaso, de que nada é exatamente o que parece à primeira vista, de que tudo o que acontece resulta dos conluios secretos de grupos de pessoas malévolos que tudo manipulam dos bastidores, é tão antiga como a própria história. Mas, na opinião de muitos, as teorias da conspiração parecem estar a tornar-se mais populares e a ganhar terreno no século XXI, impulsionadas pela expansão da Internet e das redes sociais - ao mesmo tempo que se assiste ao declínio da influência dos tradicionais guardiões da opinião, como editores de jornais e de livros -, e encorajadas pela cada vez maior incerteza em torno da verdade e da falsidade, associada ao perverso conceito de «factos alternativos».

Em As Conspirações em Torno de Hitler, o conceituado historiador Richard Evans pega em cinco alegações amplamente discutidas, que envolvem Hitler e os nazis, e submete-as ao escrutínio forense: que os judeus estavam a conspirar para minar a civilização, conforme descrito em Os Protocolos dos Sábios de Sião; que o exército alemão foi «apunhalado pelas costas» por socialistas e judeus, em 1918; que os nazis incendiaram o Reichstag para tomar o poder; que a fuga de Rudolf Hess para o Reino Unido, em 1941, foi sancionada por Hitler e transmitiu os termos de paz suprimidos por Churchill; e que Hitler escapou do bunker em 1945 e fugiu para a América do Sul. Nesta análise, o autor revela algumas das mais surpreendentes características que estas e outras teorias da conspiração têm em comum.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, Germany, Politics, Holocaust, War

312 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2020

About the author

Richard J. Evans is one of the world's leading historians of modern Germany. He was born in London in 1947. From 2008 to 2014 he was Regius Professor of History at Cambridge University, and from 2020 to 2017 President of Wolfson College, Cambridge. He served as Provost of Gresham College in the City of London from 2014 to 2020. In 1994 he was awarded the Hamburg Medal for Art and Science for cultural services to the city, and in 2015 received the British Academy Leverhulme Medal, awarded every three years for a significant contribution to the Humanities or Social Sciences. In 2000 he was the principal expert witness in the David Irving Holocaust Denial libel trial at the High Court in London, subsequently the subject of the film Denial. His books include Death in Hamburg (winner of the Wolfson History Prize), In Defence of History, The Coming of the Third Reich, The Third Reich in Power, and The Third Reich at War. His book The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914, volume 7 of the Penguin History of Europe, was published in 2016. His most recent books are Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History (2019) and The Hitler Conspiracies: The Third Reich and the Paranoid Imagination (2020). In 2012 he was knighted for services to scholarship.

Reviews

[David Crumm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Repairing the damage when conspiracy theorists confuse World War II history

In May, I reviewed Richard J. Evans' 2015 collection of writings in which he tries to correct errors and fill in gaps in public assumptions about World War II. That book was called The Third Reich in History and Memory . The general focus of that book is the ongoing series of debates among historians, including newer researchers trying to rewrite established "history."

Now, I am reviewing his 2019 The Hitler Conspiracies , which is essentially a sequel to the earlier volume and was published by Oxford University Press. This time, Evans focuses specifically on five popular myths that continue to proliferate, often in the online realm of amateur investigators and in the realm of made-for-streaming TV series. Rather than debating with other historians, as he did in the earlier book, this time Evans explains how sometimes very strange conspiracy theories evolved about key turning points in World War II history.

I have been a professional journalist for 50, focusing throughout my career on religious and cultural diversity, which means I have reported many times on the legacy of World War II and the Holocaust. Several of the topics in this book have kept popping up in my own reporting since the 1970s, so I know the importance of correcting some of these myths that Evans identifies.

The five topics he covers are:

The influence of the antisemitic "Protocols" on the Third Reich and its antisemitic legacy
The notion that WWII was a necessary German reaction to having been "stabbed in the back" toward the end of WWI
The source of the Reichstag fire
The origins of the bizarre flight to the UK by Rudolf Hess
And, finally, the conspiracy theory that Hitler somehow escaped from the bunker and lived long after the war

The two that I kept encountering, as a journalist, were the first and the fifth. I was based throughout most of my career in Detroit, although I have reported from around the world, and Detroit is the home base of the most infamous American antisemite: Henry Ford. As Evans documents, Ford was pumping out thousands of copies of The Protocols even after leaders in Europe had concluded this text was a fake. Of course, today, everyone knows The Protocols were a fake originating in Czarist Russia.

What Evans explores in great detail is the relationship between The Protocols and the Holocaust. He walks readers through convincing evidence that antisemitism was deeply rooted in the movement Hitler led in Germany and the Protocols were used by the Nazis more as a confirmation than as a source of their hatred of Jews.

This may seem like a moot point: From whatever cultural sources the Nazis summoned their hatred, the result was the Shoah. But I find Evans' section on The Protocols both clarifying and very helpful. On Henry Ford, in particular, his section confirms that Ford was infamously ignorant about his own deeply entrenched hatred. For Detroit-based historians, this is no surprise. At one point in his life, Ford wound up testifying in a courtroom in which the opposing attorney proved to the world how little Ford actually knew about world history. The resulting public humiliation of Ford was front-page news at the time. Also, it should be noted when discussing this topic: Both the Ford family and the Ford Motor Company have spent many years publicly atoning for the founder's antisemitism in a variety of ways.

For anyone who cares about the history of antisemitism and the influence of The Protocols specifically, this section of Evans' book is essential reading. I would recommend it in particular to my journalistic colleagues who may occasionally touch on this topic in their reporting.

I won't belabor this review by discussing the middle three points, except to say: Those sections of the book are really fascinating! Evans has painstakingly tracked down many of the varying conspiracy theories and their origins and details how they unfolded over time. In many passages, this book reads like "true crime" literature as he lays out evidence on who took what steps in these conspiracy theories and what followed as a result.

Finally, the closing section takes us into the disastrous recent period of American culture in which "alternative facts" have exploded into the mainstream. The crazy notion that Hitler somehow escaped from the bunker is quite simply: ridiculous and dangerous. There are deluded small groups around the world who continue to regard Hitler as a patron saint.

As Evans begins exploring the many bizarre ideas conspiracy theorists have been spinning about Hitler's survival, I was astonished to discover that some have argued that aliens in UFOs were involved in helping him. In yet another bonkers theory, some have argued that the Nazis built a secret underground Antarctic base where Hitler continued to scheme after the war.

Ultimately, I want to praise Evans for explaining in careful detail how such conspiracy theories weave their way into our media culture. Some of the strangest conspiracy concepts about Hitler have found their way onto streaming channels in programs claiming to be "documentaries" about World War II that remain quite popular with millions of TV watchers.

Thank goodness for a balanced scholar like Evans! In September 2023, he turns 76 years old and I am personally hoping he remains with us, and continues to write such books, for many more years.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Working out what really happened in history is difficult: it requires a great deal of hard work, it demands direct examination of the evidence, presupposing a willingness to change one’s mind, it involves the abandonment of one’s prejudices and preconceptions in the face of evidence that tells against them.

Although the previous occupant of the White House is only mentioned once in The Hitler Conspiracies, his shadow and legacy are never far away and the reader doesn’t have to strain to read between the lines to figure it out. “This is a history book, but it is a history book for the age of ‘post-truth’ and ‘alternative facts’, a book for our own troubled times.” And what troubled times we have. Instead of fearing nuclear annihilation, however, the very idea of democracy, republican representation, and that-which-we-clearly-see-with-our-own-eyes is at stake right now. We see it every day in the U.S., from the Capitol building itself to the so-called heartland.

What do Evans’s arguments about conspiracisms [the term “conspiracy theory” conveys a certain aspired, unearned legitimacy. Isn’t fairy tales more appropriate? Therefore, I will use the term coined by Thomas Milan Konda: conspricism, which refers to belief systems, not isolated “theories”] undergirding the Third Reich teach us? Perhaps that we’re not so far removed from the Germans of that age—those who didn’t question or resist the injustices and atrocities all around them—as we think we are. And that probably means many of the firm ideas that make us American are not so firm after all, especially since we can’t even agree on a basic set of assumptions from which to make common decisions. It's not hard see obvious similarities when objectively looking at the conspiracies that supported Nazi doctrine and mythology. Evans examines five conspiracisms that directly supported the rise and legitimacy, for want of a better word, of Nazis in the Thirds Reich.

Conspiracisms range from the anti-semitic myth of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which claimed that there was a late 19th century secret meeting of Jewish leaders “who were engaged in a worldwide conspiracy to overthrow society and its institutions” to favor Zionist Jews; to the “stab-in-the-back” (der Dolchstoss) theory that Germany would it have won World War I if not for the actions of leftists on the home front who betrayed the army; to the burning of the Reichstag, which was used as legal justification for the nascent Nazi government to crack down on its opponents; to speculation about the motive of Hitler associate Rudolf Hess to fly alone to Britain in a vain—some call it mentally deluded—attempt to negotiate a separate peace; and finally with the cottage conspiracism that Hitler somehow escaped his Berlin bunker to live out a quiet life in obscurity somewhere in the wilds of Argentina.

Evans not only surveys the history behind each myth, he does the dirty work of analyzing other, related conspiracisms and how they support each other. Most importantly, he examines the reasons for their staying power, how they still reverberate in today’s politics. Oftentimes the facts, or more specifically, the lack thereof, behind a conspiracy do nothing to deter true believers. They just re-rationalize their preconceived conclusions. For example even long after the Protocols were proven to be a myth, Joseph Goebbels still wrote, “I believe in the inner, but not the factual, truth of The Protocols.” The same happened as the stab-in-the-back theory was being discarded by its initial proponents. Regardless of the facts, they too “expressed an essential truth that in the end was not susceptible to empirical verification at all.” Perversely, at other times the mere complexity of the theory is reason enough to believe it as with the Reichstag fire. One side posited at Nazi coup, the other a violet takeover of the Left, but the reality was more happenstance than plan. Nevertheless, the story is one in which both sides came up with conspiracy theories that bore little resemblance to the truth built on “evidential edifices of such staggering detail and complexity that they are frequently almost impossible for the layperson to navigate.”

Purveyors of these fairy tales buttress their cases on a flurry of citations, but Evans notes that is generally limited to other conspiracists who also have books to sell. In order to prop those dubious sources up, “accepted professional scholarship is dismissed as ‘official’, as if thousands of historians and investigative journalists had all been suborned by governments to tell lies, or been fooled by state-controlled propaganda.” The link between profit and irrationality is inescapable and sinister. For example, because there is a market for the stories about Hitler’s survival, companies like the History Channel bankroll film projects for millions of dollars to push sensationalist speculation as a negotiable truth. One of the traffickers and profiteers of these programs is Jerome Corsi, a political operative responsible for the “Swift boating” of John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election, claimed September 11th was an inside job used to justify the invasion of Iraq, was one of the original “birthers” who claimed Barack Obama was not born in the U.S., and was an early supporter the previous occupant of the White House. The mere broadcasting of this tripe provides a veneer of legitimacy onto which the feeble-minded cling because they “lived in a hermetically sealed cocoon which could not be penetrated by any rational criticism.”

Ultimately and most terrifyingly, these interpretations serve a larger idea, one that is devoid of democratic debate, the uncertainty that is inherent in life, and see plurality as an insidious aberration, not a reason for celebration. And they have real consequences, as we can see. The “fundamental…failure [of WWI] to bring peace and stability” could be found in “Germans’ refusal to accept the fact that they had lost,” a belief that could be directly—and wrongly—traced to the stab-in-the-back narrative. It was nurtured by “a progressive polarization…which saw an ever more radical nationalist, authoritarian and anti-socialist right confronting an increasingly critical, oppositional and ultimately revolutionary left.” All of this has nothing to do with the truth, but building upon the lies creates a weak foundation. “The Third Reich [after all] was built on the foundations of a conspiracy theory, the theory that Communists had set fire to the Reichstag as the first act in a plot to overthrow the Republic.” Compare that to the present day in the United States and other nations.

Evans’s takedown of the authors of a Hess conspiracism could apply to just about any one, anywhere of these sordid fantasies: “The tissue of coincidences and connections they spin is no substitute for the facts, and ‘it may have been’ and ‘could have been’ are no replacement for actual evidence.” Regardless of when or how they happen, conspiracisms brainwash people who willingly, desperately, want their misconceptions, irrational fears, and most treasured bigotries to be confirmed and validated. Evans equips us with the discerning, intellectual ammunition to recognize and refute conspiracisms, but considering the age in which we now live, this is not comforting.

The interesting thing about ascendant, agenda-driving conspiracisms is that we don’t need history books to learn about them. They are in our daily newspapers and media reports. As we have learned over the past five years, conspiracisms don’t need the darkness of intrigue to thrive, they do quite well in the openness of a clear day, especially if it confirms and comforts, facts and context be damned. When conspiracisms take hold in a population, they are almost impossible to extricate completely without great damage and tragedy. They imperil and undermine the stability of the world.

[Adrian Dumitru · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recomand

[Mujda · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.7 (There were a few tangents here and there which made my head go a little numb but the writing found its way back fairly quickly each time).

The real drive is how this book in and of itself, using proper, thoughtful and rigorous historical research, shows how to respond properly and with intellectual etiquette, to people who A) produce conspiracy theories for a myriad of deceitful reasons and B) the consumers who decide to let their braincells have an extended holiday and then pass on their wilful ignorance to the rest of their networks.

Set in the current context of alternative truths and the Internet's never-ending births of self-appointed experts, I found this book interesting in the way it compared our current context with 5 of the major conspiracies in how the Nazis are written about either in academic or public circles.

Evans begins each chapter by outlining the real historical event, using veritable and consensus driven historical research, and then delves into the crazy conspiracies behind it. He impressively tracks down each writer, author, publication, affiliations, motivations etc and uses a sharp, and often biting, style to put them down. He is essentially calling them out on their lies, exaggerations and badly concealed agendas.

I found the chapters on the Reichstag fire, stab-in-the-back theory and Hitler's bunker escape particularly useful, because they are a part of the school curriculum and its fascinating to see how sometimes a student will raise their hand and allude to some sort of conspiracy theory attached to it.

Finally, I enjoyed his analysis of how conspirators operate within their structures, their mechanisms and ambitions, and actually at several points throughout this book I got a real case of concern/anxiety at the paranoid nature of humans, how deceitful or susceptible they can be.

At the same time, it does make you laugh a bit at the thought of Hitler riding a lady's bike in Argentina selling herbs, living in a Tibetan monastery, hiding in Saudi Arabia, or the poor fella named Albert Panka who said he had been detained/mistaken for Hitler nearly 300 times by his 80th birthday in 1969!

Quote: "As so often in conspiracy theories, accepted professional scholarship is dismissed as 'official', as if thousands/millions of historians and investigative journalists had all been suborned by various governments to tell lies, or been fooled by state propaganda."

[David Lowther · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sir Richard Evans is our leading modern historian and a debunker of myths and seeker after truth. The Hitler Conspiracies reduces some previously held ideas to rubble using sound, irrefutable historical technique.

So, if you're ever in conversation with like minded folk, don't suggest that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were genuine, accept that the Central Powers lost the First World War because they were defeated on the battlefield, that the Reichstag Fire of 1933 was not part of either a Communist or Nazi plot, treat with contempt the notion that Rudolf Hess flew to Britain on orders from Hitler to enter peace negotiations and laugh at the risible idea that Hitler survived the war and lived in Argentina with Eva Braun and reached a ripe old age.

All this is carried out by Sir Richard mercilessly using the tried and tested approach of testing historical evidence. Some people, in fact many people, are made to look complete fools as their standpoints are shredded in this brilliant book.

David Lowther. Author of The Blue Pencil, Liberating Belsen, Two Families at War and The Summer of '39, all published by Sacristy Press.

[Eric Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The German army would have won the First World War, except that it was “stabbed in the back” by Socialists and Communists. Hitler was convinced by the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which he believed to be a genuine historical document, that the Jews were taking over the world and needed to be the stopped. The Reichstag fire of 1933 was a Nazi plot (or a Communist one) and not the work of one arsonist. Rudolf Hess made his solo flight to Britain in 1941 at Hitler’s behest and at the invitation of a ‘peace party’ in the U.K. which was plotting a coup against Churchill. Hitler survived the war, having been rescued from Berlin, placed on a U-boat and sent off to a comfortable retirement together with his wife Eva Braun, somewhere in Argentina.

None of those sentences are true. All of them are widely believed, to one degree or another.

I’ve taken an interest in one or more of those ideas over the years, and particularly enjoyed reading the theory that the prisoner who spent decades in Berlin’s Spandau prison wasn’t actually Rudolf Hess but a double. Richard J. Evans has poured ice cold water on some much-loved conspiracies.

His forensic dismantling of each of those “alternative histories” could not come at a more timely moment, as the notion of “alternative facts” is defended by the current occupant of the White House. His book deserves a wide readership.

[Mariann · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://www.hyperebaaktiivne.ee/2021/1...

Aitäh, Varrak, raamatu eest!

Richard J. Evans "Natsid ja vandenõuteooriad. Kolmas Riik ja paranoilised kujutelmad" käsitleb viit põhilist vandenõuteooriat, mis Natsi-Saksamaa ümber keerlevad. Kuna viimasel ajal levib nii palju valeinfot, siis äratas see raamat mu huvi, saamaks kuulsate näidete kaudu rohkem aimu, miks ja kuidas sellised teooriad üldse tekivad, ja muidugi tahtsin lugeda, kuidas autor need pihuks ja põrmuks teeb.

Kas juudid planeerisid kogu maailma üle võimu võtta? Kas sakslased oleks esimese maailmasõja võitnud, kui sotsialistid ja juudid neile nuga selga poleks löönud? Kas Riigipäevahoone tulekahju taga oli natside (või kommunistide) vandenõu? Kas Rudolf Hess lendas 1941. aastal Suurbritanniasse Hitleri korraldusel? Kas Hitler ise pääses Berliinist eluga ja põgenes allveelaevaga Lõuna-Ameerikasse? Ei, ei, ei, ei ja veel kord ei. Need kõik on laialt levinud vandenõuteooriad.

Viiest teooriast huvitas mind kõige rohkem see viimane ehk Hitleri Argentiinasse põgenemise lugu. See on lihtsalt nii utoopiline. Olen näinud paari osa sellest History kanali sarjast, kus nad mehe jälgi üritavad ajada. See on köitvalt üles ehitatud ja meelelahutuseks võib ju vaadata, aga juba paari episoodiga peaks igaühele selge olema, et kunagi kuhugi ei jõuta ja ühtki päris tõendit neil ei ole. Teistest vandenõudest olen vähem kuulnud. Midagi nagu hägusalt meenus Hessi ja Riigipäevahoone tulekahju kohta, aga sügavamalt ma neil teemadel juurelnud ei ole.

Evans kirjeldab sündmusi, toetudes faktidele, ja asub seejärel tutvustama neist võrsunud vandenõuteooriaid, et need siis ümber lükata. Ta kasutab erinevaid allikaid, analüüsib argumente, seoseid ning motiive. Korduvalt torkas silma, kuidas üks põhilisi vandenõu pooldajate väiteid oma versiooni kinnitamiseks on see, et ametlik versioon ei saa olla tõsi, kuna selle koostajad on ise kinnimakstud, ja kui muudmoodi ei osata argumenti ümber lükata, rünnatakse selle esitanud isikut ja tema motiive. Ükskõik, kui palju on ametlikku versiooni kinnitavaid uuringuid või erinevaid allikaid, ikka eelistatakse teooriaid, mis kubisevad meelevaldselt loodud seostest, spekulatsioonidest, vasturääkivustest ja isegi sulaselgetest valedest.

Tõendid on nii veenvad ja ilmselged, teooriad puudulikud ja absurdsed. Ometi püsivad need ikka veel. Minu jaoks on parim põhjendus see, et tõde on lihtsalt liiga igav ja vandenõud on palju põnevam uskuda. Tõendeid leiab alati. Võtame näiteks selle Riigipäevahoone põlengu. Mismõttes süütas selle tähtsa maja lihtsalt üks mees, kellele meeldis asju põlema panna? Kasu oli sellest saada nii natsidel kui ka kommunistidel, nii et üks neist pidi ju ometi tulekahju taga olema. Vot nii need teoreetikud mõtlevad.

[Ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richard Evans really did say fuck conspiracy theorists.

[Ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

“This is a history book, but it is a history book for the age of ‘post-truth’ and ‘alternative facts’, a book for our own troubled times.”⁣
⁣
The conspiracy theory: a political tool, a rebellion against fact and authority, an inevitability in the era of internet rabbit holes? Historian Richard J. Evans looks at the conspiracy theory through the lens of his area of expertise— the Third Reich. He investigates five speculations surrounding Nazi Germany: some were theories that formed major pillars of Nazi propaganda, like the threat intended by the supposedly leaked plan for Jewish world domination, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Others were theories that focused on specific events of WWII, like the question of who burned down the Reichstag. Evans delves into the origins and legitimacy of the five theories, debunking falsehoods and examining the implications of mistruths. ⁣
⁣
On the surface, it seems almost a waste for such an esteemed historian to devote time and energy to disproving far-fetched plots (especially in the chapter dedicated to whether Hitler could have escaped the bunker and lived in disguise in Argentina), but Evans shows the importance of conspiracy theories in the study of history. It’s fascinating to learn about the inception of a theory, how an idea with little evidence backing it can become almost legitimate, or how the questions of one event could be warped to support two contrasting arguments.⁣
⁣
The Hitler Conspiracies is meticulously researched and Evans is unrelenting in his careful and considered dismantling of various Third Reich speculations. It is a brilliant and necessary investigation.⁣

[Sem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I'm not a conspiracy theorist or a post-truther I read this for entertainment rather than to be convinced by his arguments. In certain respects it's a pot boiler and there are moments where he bogs down or wanders off into a side street and takes ages to find his way back again. However, it left me with some pleasant images - Hitler "wearing huge boots and riding a black ladies' bicycle from house to house selling herbs" in Argentina; Hitler hunting for buried treasure in Nossa Senhora do Livramento with his black girlfriend; Hitler converting to Islam and marrying a young woman in Indonesia... This is supermarket tabloid stuff and absolutely delightful.

[Jo Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Richard Evans, an eminent historian of German history, analyzes and debunks some of the major conspiracy theories surrounding the Third Reich and Hitler. He examines such notorious theories such as the survival and escape of Hitler from the bunker.It is an interesting and informative book.

[Jasper Van Belle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderbaarlijk.

[Magnus Carlstedt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jag återger en recension som återfinns på skyddsomslaget:
”Lysande […] att ställa honom mot konspirationsteoretiker är lite som att knäcka en nöt med en slägga.”

[Patricia Roberts-Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like everything else Evans has done, beautifully written and elegantly argued.

[Mark Maliepaard · Rating 4 out of 5]

"[E]r kunnen geen verschillende, met elkaar strijdige ware beweringen over iets bestaan; er kan slechts één waarheid zijn, zelfs als die soms bijzonder moeilijk is vast te stellen. Een verontrustend kenmerk [sic] van complottheorieën is de schijnbare overtuiging dat het nauwelijks uitmaakt of ze kloppen of niet. Maar dat maakt wel degelijk uit." (pag. 231-2).

Dit citaat somt voor mij wel een beetje dit zeer goede boek van Sir Evans op; met een aantal voorbeelden uit zijn expertise toont Sir Evans aan hoe complottheorieën werken en zijn gebruikt om beelden te creëren, en wat het gevaar van het klakkeloos aannemen van dergelijke beweringen kan zijn. Zijn 47 pagina's aan bronnen laten zien dat hij zijn eigen oproep tot "diepgravend onderzoek" zeker serieus genomen heeft. Bovendien was ik in de gelegenheid om hem direct te horen spreken in een debat over dit boek en zijn drijfveer om te strijden tegen de 'revival' van de complottheorie. De besproken complottheorieën zelf lopen uiteen van bijzonder tot ronduit bizar, wat soms net niet neutraal doorschemert in de tekst. Deze houding wordt echter terecht opgevoerd, o.a. door het bewijs van het tegendeel, dat helder en duidelijk wordt weergegeven door de auteur. Met de retorische vragen die Sir Evans vervolgens stelt poogt hij extra aan het verstand te brengen hoe wild sommige theorieën zijn (geworden), terwijl daar geen waarheidsgrond voor te vinden is.
Elk hoofdstuk kent een duidelijke opbouw van de daadwerkelijke gebeurtenis, naar de meest voorkomende complottheorieën en hun ontwikkeling en de ontkrachting van elk van deze theorieën.

[Adam Balshan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars [Historiography]
(W: 2.80, U: 2.62, T: 2.88)
Exact rating: 2.77

One thing I love about Evans is his fair presentation of both sides. In Chapter 2, he represented the pro-Kaiser side so well that I found myself thinking, "Maybe there WAS a stab in the back!" But then Evans detailed much more specific evidence for the other side.

The genre of this book is almost a gestalt of history and historiography, but the book's title and focus was a little more on the historiography. He even overdid it by the end: he bumbled a bit in his final foray into American, post-Carter politics. It was loose-ended. If he had wanted to talk about John Kerry, Barack Obama, or Jerome Corsi, he should have written chapters on them. Just brushing against them cheapened his ending. Had Evans stuck only to the 5 main chapters, it would have been a stronger showing.

The pacing is probably too slow for anyone except enthusiasts of historiography, Richard Evans, conspiracy theories, or WWII history. But it was somewhat interesting.

_______
//W lex 3.5, syn 2.63 (phrasing 2.5, segues 2.75), sem 3.13, dyn 2.5, pac 2.25

[aLejandRø · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me interesaba más que nada de este trabajo, profusamente documentado y anotado, la sección dedicada a la supuesta huida del bunker, casualmenete la única de las cinco que contiene el libro, que involucra a Hitler directamente.

Solo quiero decir que me resulta mucho más conspiranoico que el señor Evans, un multipremiado profesor de historia, dedique su tiempo a desacreditar dudosos autores, libros y programas de TV, que las propias teorías de la conspiración.
Parece estar haciendo un mandado, vaya a saber uno para quien.

[Syd Sawyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was good but I’ll say it bothered me a little bit. I appreciate how the author made his point and discussed how damaging conspiracies can become, but I think some things are worth questioning. In all transparency though, I don’t know enough about world war 2 to say what needs to be questioned.

[Anne Kamsteeg · Rating 5 out of 5]

hdp

[Watto Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Look....
Conspiracies just really aren't for me

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

me gusto q sea de teorias pero en ciertas partes fue dificil de leer porq eran muchas palabras que no conectaban en mi cerebro, igual me gusto como redactaba ciertas cosas

[Harry Weaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the conspiracies more unknown/interesting to me than others. The theory on conspiracies was useful for my own work

[Pino Sabatelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tre stelle e mezza

[James Council · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the line in the book, "bogus history does harm". As someone who loves history and who talks to many people who will just incorrectly make historical claims, I thought the book really hit the mark. The conclusion of this book is something that a great many people could learn a lot from on how to spot a conspiracy theory.

[Peter Kavanagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting debunking of some common myths and conspiracy theories surrounding the Third Reich. But it's more than just that. It's an impassioned defence of the historical profession and the proper use of evidence and documents to understand the past. It's timely in the current post-truth world we now live in.

[Emmanuel Gustin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This compact book is a polemic against conspiracy theories, in particular conspiracy theories that have a connection to Nazism. Evans picks five theories, or more correctly groups of theories, to investigate: The infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the "stab in the back" theory that the German right used to explain the defeat of 1918, the competing allegations around the burning of the Reichstag, the various theories surrounding Rudolf Hess, and finally the imaginative conspiracy theories that saw Hitler survive the fall of Berlin in 1945.

As conspiracy theories go, these are a diverse set. Evans does spend a lot of time dissecting events and shooting holes in the far-fetched assumptions and falsified evidence: His effort in this direction well documented, fascinating, and occasionally hilarious.

But his real interest appears to be in the people who create and spread these conspiracy theories, their motivations and their actions. What motivates people to artfully slalom between inconvenient facts, invent entire biographies, insert fake documents in archives, write hundreds and hundreds of pages of speculations? Of course in many cases the motive is simply to make money off the gullible (a business model for "History" Channel), and in others it is overtly political and rarely of a benign kind.

The author tracks, in the gloomy basement of conspirational thinking, a commonality of thought between people who value their opinion more than reality: Extreme ideologies, a penchant for the occult, and deep suspicion of the "official version". The author is harsh about their motives. Where I would apply Hanlon's Razor (never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity) and suspect mental illness in the case of some of the more outrageous fantasists, Evans sees moral and ethical failure. Conspiracy theories, he rightly enough concludes, are not an innocent pastime, but do real harm.

Evans certainly takes us on an entertaining walk through this rogue's gallery. This is a brisk read and very amusing. At the end does feels a bit superficial, perhaps because the unsubstantial and often ridiculous nature of conspiracy theory does not lend itself to impactful conclusions.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely splendid and wonderful book that looks at both serious historical controversies, such as the Reichstag Fire, as well as the more lunatic fringe theories about Rudolph Hess, why he flew to Britain, was a double substituted for him in Spandau and did Hitler escape the bunker and retire to Argentina etc. If you know of Prof. Evans work in the David Irving libel trial (see his book 'Telling Lies about Hitler') then you will not be surprised by the excellent way he handles the various historical episodes and questions with intelligence, enlightenment and humour. You have to feel a great deal of sympathy and respect for Prof. Evans patience in reading through the drek which has accrued around Rudolph Hess's flight to the UK and Hitler's death. Not simply because so many of these books are devoid of real facts and betray a woeful lack of knowledge but because they are so badly written. A fascinating and also important book - it will not disappoint.

[Dylan Levey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a slog. While I appreciate the author’s craft, attention to detail, and criticism of some of the most notable conspiracy theories involving the Third Reich, this is essentially an extended bibliography rather than an historical narrative.

Maybe it’s above my pay grade, maybe I don’t have the attention span, but I just found myself re-reading lines so often, because I couldn’t focus on this one. Evans is witty, authoritative, and a fantastic critical writer, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

[Agnes]

Edizione italiana

[jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard J. Evans is among the more well-known historians of Nazi Germany, but this book is not really about Nazi Germany. It’s a book about conspiracy theories related to Nazi Germany. I picked this out randomly in a bookstore because I felt like reading some nonfiction and I thought I recognized the author’s name, and conspiracy theories couldn’t be any more topical atm could they?

What I really liked about this book is that Evans isn’t just recounting conspiracy theories and then debunking them; true to the German subtitle he also sets out to analyze who is spreading them and what they’re trying to achieve. After a short introductory chapter about the characteristics of conspiracy theories, he does a deep dive into five different, fairly prominent conspiracy theories relating in some way to Nazi Germany that I had varying levels of familiarity with. Going in, I wasn’t sure how much I would get out of the chapters about the Dolchstoßlegende (“the stab in the back” - the narrative that the German army lost WW1 because the people at home had given up on them and worked against them) and the Reichstag fire, mostly because both of these topics were covered in detail in my history classes. This is where I found Evans’s approach of getting into the different sources for the conspiracies and their goals interesting - if he’d just said “here’s what happened and this is what people are saying about it” I doubt I would’ve gained as much new insight as I did this way.
I was much less familiar with the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and Rudolf Heß’s flight to England though I’d heard of both, which is why I was surprised that I almost liked the other two chapters better. In the chapter on Heß especially I kinda felt like Evans sometimes got so preoccupied with exploring the conspiracy theorists’ backgrounds and detailing some of their other works that he lost track of the original topic of the chapter, a little like he’d done all this research and now wanted to put it in the book even though it wasn’t directly relevant.

This is a very dry book, which to be clear I’m in no way complaining about. It’s a book written by a historian; meticulously researched and cited (there are literally 100+ of footnotes for some chapters) and told in a factual style with no attempts at fancy prose. It’s still interesting for the most part when Evans doesn’t distract himself with tangents about individual conspiracy theorists and their other works. I understand he wanted to be thorough in proving the theories completely and utterly wrong, I just thought sometimes he went a little too far past the mark.
At times the book can also get a bit repetitive, since Evans always ties each theory back to his first introductory chapter about the general characteristics of conspiracy theories and explains how they fit into that scheme, but I can see how this was an important thing to do in an academic sense.

The most interesting thing to me personally I learned in this book, though, was that James Holland, historian of war (not military historian!) and brother of my favourite history podcast host Tom Holland, was part of a TV show called Hunting Hitler, which tried to prove that Hitler had survived the war and escaped to South America. Holland himself says he was always clear about the fact that he did not think Hitler survived and escaped but. Like. It certainly makes me look at his scholarly work with different eyes.

Not the most exciting book of all time (certainly not the most exciting book about conspiracies) but I think that’s actually part of its strength. There’s no sensationalism, it’s just a book calmly and thoroughly explaining where these conspiracy theories go off the rails.