Adolf Hitler

by Brenda Stalcup (Editor)

This collection examines one of the most infamous figures of human history. Authors in this anthology examine Hitler's early life and influences, his effect on the German people, his responsibility for World War II and the Holocaust.

Genres: History

202 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1999

Reviews

[Miles Nilsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am in the process of reading about Adolf Hitler, initially because I have been working on a historical novel in which Hitler plays a part and I need to know more about him. This is quite a large subject because many people have written about Hitler. They all have different opinions about who he was and what his career meant. This book is an anthology written for intelligent young adults and makes a very good introduction to the subject. There is an introductory thumbnail biography of Hitler which is then followed by chapters that are actually excerpts from books about Hitler by a number of well-known authorities. Among the most famous of these are H.R. Trevor-Roper and Lucy Dawidowicz. The book 19s choice of excerpts does not tend toward one point of view but rather each contributor is liable to offer a view that is contradicted by other contributors.

Another, unintended consequence of reading such a book is that it makes me look at the world in which I live and see parallels between history and the present. The economic collapse of Germany after World War I, some contributors argue, made for a perfect storm in which Hitler could rise; if the Great Depression had not occurred, Hitler might have continued to be a rabble-rouser whom no one took seriously. One wonders whether there is a Hitler in the wings or already out and about in our own time.

Once Hitler got into power, there were those who thought that he would moderate under the responsibilities of power, but he only consolidated his absolute control, and the more authority he was given the more he took, and the more he took, the more he followed the twin plans that he had set out in his book, 1CMein Kampf 1D: marginalize and ultimately exterminate undesirables, believing them to have been the source of all tribulation, and seize as much land as possible between Germany and Asia, subjugating and, yes, exterminating the people who already live there. Hitler was like the serial killer John Wayne Gacy: the only one of his victims who survived said that as soon as he gained full power over his victim he changed in the blink of an eye into a monster. Hitler knew how to bide his time until he got the upper hand, but when he got all the power he needed to do whatever he wanted, he suddenly became less tolerant of opposition of any kind and destroyed anything and everyone in his path.

One of the questions I have been asking 14as I have opened several books about Hitler at once 14is 1CJust who was he? 1D This is a question that historians have been asking, too. Most seem to have given up on a real psychological investigation, and you will find little of that in this anthology. Hitler is as Hitler does. He is the focus of his fixed ideas about Jews and Lebensraum (living space), a bundle of prejudices wherever they came from. (It is my impression that, while anti-Semitism and anti-communism as well as anti-capitalism were popular sentiments in Central Europe and were heightened following World War I, Hitler was more anti-Semitic than the average anti-Semite and he brought together this animus with an almost equal hatred of the Slavic peoples including or I should say especially the Russians, and he married all of this to an ideology of xenophobic nationalist socialism as opposed to international socialism.)

H.R. Trevor-Roper notes that Hitler 19s own words show that he was consistent in his ideology from the early 1920s until his death in his intent to seize territory in the whole of Eastern Europe and subject it to a kind of neo-feudalism in which Germans would lord it over the few indigenous people they did not exterminate. Even when Hitler seemed to set aside or deviate from this goal, as when he made a pact with Stalin in 1939, it was a calculated delay rather than a change of mind. Trevor-Roper cites Hermann Rauschning 19s book "Hitler Speaks" (1939) for its quote of Hitler saying that he might have to gamble on a temporary peace with the Russians in order to consolidate his expansion into Eastern Europe. Trevor-Roper also remembers vividly that Sir Robert Ensor predicted Hitler 19s annexing of Austrian and threats to Czechoslovakia. When these events came to pass exactly as Ensor predicted he was asked how he had known. 1CI read 18Mein Kampf 19, 1D he replied. This inspired Trevor-Roper to read Hitler 19s book himself, even though he found it badly written and its author 19s arrogance and poisonous animosity hard to take.

Ultimately, Hitler 19s conviction that he had to conquer Russia rather than merely consolidate German power in western and central Europe led him to bite off more than he could chew. Curiously, he blamed Mussolini's drawing him into the Italian 19s campaign in Greece for delaying Hitler 19s invasion of Russia by five weeks. Hitler thought that made all the difference. No one in this book goes into this too deeply, but another book on my shelf, 1CSun Tzu at Gettysburg, 1D contains an analysis of Hitler 19s strategy in Russia and concludes that he made quite a few mistakes, especially in vacillating between taking Moscow versus taking the Russian oil fields.

An essay in this anthology, by James V. Compton, shows how Hitler refused to appreciate the threat posed by the United States. His prejudices made him think that America, as a racial melting pot and a democracy (and therefore decadent because Germany 19s brief experience with democracy had been attended by decadence), was nothing to worry about. Most of his diplomatic corps warned him that the United States could be a dangerous enemy, but Hitler listened to the one man who told him that the United States was riven by discord and unable to mount a military threat; Hitler believed exactly what he wanted to believe and ignored the rest. Another point that Compton makes that is worth remembering is that Hitler had absolutely no idea of what to do with the German navy and gave them no place in his plan with its monomaniacal focus on Russia. Likewise, he left it to Japan to take care of the United States. This, of course, only led to the United States joining the war in Europe as well as Asia.

Sebastian Haffner argues that Hitler 19s war against the Jews (to borrow another contributor, Lucy Dawidowicz 19s phrase) as well as his extermination programs against Slavs, gypsies and other 1Cundesirables, 1D actually helped bring about the downfall of Nazi Germany because there was no strategic value in devoting resources to mass murders of noncombatants while German troops fighting real enemy combatants had to make do without the timely delivery of weapons, supplies and reinforcements. (Tangentially, I am put in mind of a story that I always associate with Hitler 19s ineptitude at war-waging: One day he met with a sergeant who had won a medal on the Russian front. 1CWhat can I do to help you win the war? 1D asked Hitler. The sergeant readily replied, 1CSend us more assault rifles, 1D to which Hitler reacted with confusion. Until that moment he had all but forgotten about the new kind of automatic rifle whose advantages he had been incapable of seeing and whose production he had cancelled. The German military had gone ahead and ordered the production of the weapon anyway, and it turned out to be exactly what gave the beleaguered and outnumbered German soldiers the extra firepower they needed to postpone their otherwise inevitable defeat. The sergeant knew that the only thing wrong with this weapon was that his men did not have enough of them.)

But if anything is clear about the enigmatic mind of Hitler, it is that he firmly believed that he had to focus on defeating Russia and capturing her land and he had to focus on subjugating and exterminating people he believed were in his way or, as in the case of the Jews in particular, seemed to him to have an almost magical ability to oppose and foil his schemes even after he had disarmed them and rounded them up. He was in a hurry to defeat his imagined enemies and achieve his singular goals regardless of realities that contradicted his faith that if he could only achieve his fixed goals then everything else would take care of itself. For example, he thought that if he could take down Russia, then England and the United States would back off. While there might have been some logic to this notion, there was not as much as Hitler thought there was. And when the Soviet Union pushed back and marched into German territory, Hitler could not do anything but reject the thought that he had made a mistake in attacking Russia in the first place. It was just matter of timing, he told his secretary, Martin Bormann. He believed that he should have invaded Russia earlier than he had.

This book is part of a series called 1CPeople Who Made History. 1D The book is aimed at intelligent young adults, and foreign or unfamiliar terms such as 1Craison d 19etre 1D are given definitions in brackets: [reason for existence]. There are final essays on the impact of Hitler on post-war Europe and on popular culture. There is also an appendix which includes some interpreted excerpts from 1CMein Kampf 1D (the psychoanalysts are represented in this section of the anthology). There are also passages from Hitler 19s speeches, as well as entries by enemies. This section is followed by a "Chronology" of dates in Hitler 19s life and career. The section called 1CFor Further Research 1D includes a dozen memoirs and twice as many biographies. (There have been several more since the 2000 publication of this anthology.)

[Lynzie Dixson · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the book People Who Made History: Adolf Hitler edited by Brenda stalcup, the book talks about the life of Adolf Hitler from beginning to end. In the beginning of the book it talks about what had happened in Hitler’s childhood like how his mother and siblings died and later on his father left him. Towards the middle of the story the editor talk’s about Hitler‘s hobbies and what he wanted to be, the book tells us that Hitler never intended to be a leader in politics if anything he wanted to be an artist but failed twice to get in to an art college and that is when he started paying more attention to politics and anti-Semitism, sooner or later Hitler started making plans to kill all Jews or people who are of a lower class ( gays, gypsies, etc). In towards the end of the book it talks about Hitler’s defeat and suicide the book ends with Hitler going into hiding with his wife and Both biting into a cyanide capsule and shooting themselves in the head. I don’t recommend this book for people who do not care for Hitler and what he has done especially for those who are Jewish at th both biting into a cyanide capsule and shooting themselves in the head. I don’t recommend this book for people who do not care for Hitler and what he has done especially for those who are Jewish this may be an offensive book otherwise this book would be great for people who would like to know more about Hitler and what was going on with him during the World War II, personally I feel like this was a very boring book but if you’re into history you’ll like this book.

[Mitchell]

Throughout the history of the world many people are remembered for the great things they’ve done or the tragedies they have caused. Although many people are remembered for the positive things they have done one person that will goes down in infamy as one of the most horrible, vile person of all time will be Adolf Hitler. If someone were to mention his name in a group of people I assure you almost every single one will know who he is unless someone lives in a bubble and they are oblivious to the world around them. In the beginning of the book it states, “Adolf Hitler: The name is instantly recognizable across the globe” (Stalcup 11).
To start the book off, it goes into depth about his early life and some of his major influences. In his youth he aspired to follow an artistic career but failed the entrance exam that would have allowed him to follow his passion. When he was denied it’s believed that this experience of defeat stimulated a suspicion of hating authority. Soon after he moved to Vienna and that’s where he was exposed to anti-Semitic pamphlets and other writings which he adopted many ideas of as the basis of his racist theories.
One main reason Hitler joined politics was because of the outcome of World War I. He was devastated when Germany lost and believed Germany had been betrayed by Jewish politicians. Once into politics he used his charisma to obtain the obedience of the German people. Since everything was crazy after the war people looked to Hitler in hopes of finding a savior for their nation. Moreover, he deceived the German people in his plans and his criminal involvement with the Nazis.
Hitler set all of his goals for WW2 in his book Mein Kampf, which he wrote while in prison. One of Hitler’s main goal was to exterminate all minorities especially the Jews and gypsies. He was so obsessed with cleansing the regions he sacrificed any chance Germany had of winning the war.
Although the war did not result in the supremacy he longed for, it still had a huge impact on the balance of global power and the rise of racist nationalist movements in the upcoming future. Lastly, when he realized that defeat in the war was bound to happen he planned on completely destroying Germany before taking his own life.
After analyzing the novel in its entirety, I would say it was written in a great chronological order and it is a great book discussing the life and actions of Hitler. The book starts with his early years and overviews how he progressed as a child and was influenced by many things. What shocked me after reading the book was I learned so much about the man I previously had no idea about. I knew his major motives and actions but I had no idea what sparked those actions and what sparked his racist ideals which are all talked about and discussed in the book.
As a whole, the authors of the book are not trying to persuade the reader one bit. Their goal is just to inform about the subject matter in the most concise way as possible while making it an interesting read, which it for sure was. Overall I would say the tone of the piece is informational and straight-to-the-point. Each section includes a plethora of facts and the authors state them with a tone of seriousness. When I first started reading the book I thought that it may have been dry and or boring but I was surely mistaken. Each individual section had countless facts in store that leaves the reader pondering of how a man could act such a way or have such motivation to be such a horrible human being.
One section that I read about that was the most interesting to me was the one discussing his plans of extermination and how the holocaust costed him the war. I had no idea that if he was not so concerned about the cleansing of his nation then he would have possibly been able to win the war. Furthermore, what came across as shocking to me was the idea of exterminating the minorities was not Hitler’s original plan. During the section one of the authors states, “...it may be said that he used the war as a pretext for committing mass murders which had nothing to do with the war” (Stalcup 111). At first he wanted to move them to different parts of the world but realized it would be too hard to manage or too much work so he came across the idea of establishing death/work camps.
Another aspect of the novel which is quite intriguing and helpful for the reader is a chronology in the back of the book starting with the date of Hitler’s parents getting married and ending with the year 1945 which last talks about Hitler and his wife committing suicide along with the Germans surrendering on May 7th. The chronology better helps the reader understand key events that were talked about in the book and adds many other details that were not talked about within the chapters. One of the more interesting lines I found was, “In the November elections, the Nazis win 92.2% of the vote; they now completely dominate the Reichstag” (Stalcup 191).
After reading the novel in its entirety I believe that most readers would appreciate the piece of literature and be pleased with themselves that they made the decision to open the first page. Readers will be able to learn a great deal about German history, the lifestyle of Hitler, and the impact his actions and ideas had on the rest of the world during that time and the impact they had in the future. Individuals of all ages would enjoy the novel and I recommend it to anyone that wants to learn more about a person that made history for gruesome, unimaginable actions.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting overview, but not particularly helpful. It gives a glimpse into various scholarly opinions about Adolf Hitler, provides an adequate idea of the man, and offers discussion questions, etc. for a classroom.
Not something I'd reccomend reading for fun, and it wasn't particularly useful for my research either, but for a curriculum or something, I guess it would work.

[Theresa · Rating 1 out of 5]

the history of the man and redirect of the most corrupt and disillusioned world power