A brilliantly concise and revealing assessment of one of the central figures of the twentieth century written by one of Europe's most distinguished historians and Germany's leading authority on the war until his death in 1970. Prof. Schramm served as war diarist for the German General Staff from 1943 to the end. In this text he analyzes Hitler's motives, values and thinking.
some interesting speculation of a wide variety of Hitler's attitudes taken from the 'Table Conversations', but they seem a bit dated and, perhaps, take Hitler's own pronouncements too much at face value. Most of the information has been folded into the better modern biographical works by historians.
This book is actually two essays written by the man who was the diarist for the German general staff under Hitler. It was very interesting. I learned more about Hitler; I was really interested in the fact that he was stuck in the time before World War I. The world had moved on, but Hitler had not. He was a self-educated man who never bothered to study the time he lived in. Schramm did not have personal contact with Hitler regularly, but he caught the essence of the man and answered some of the questions about why Hitler did so much evil. The translator did an excellent job so the book was very easy to read.
Schramm, known as an historian of the Holy Roman Empire, served closely with the German General Staff and Adolf Hitler during the latter war years and was called upon to testify during the war crimes trials afterwards at which time he presented a strong defence of Jodl. This book contains his introduction to Hitler's Table Talk as well as the relevant sections of his and Jodl's testimonies. Clearly organized and concise.