Hitler

by Ian Kershaw

  V

  Never in history has such ruination – physical and moral – been associated with the name of one man. That the ruination had far deeper roots and far more profound causes than the aims and actions of this one man has been evident in the preceding chapters. That the previously unprobed depths of inhumanity plumbed by the Nazi regime could draw upon wide-ranging complicity at all levels of society has been equally apparent. But Hitler’s name justifiably stands for all time as that of the chief instigator of the most profound collapse of civilization in modern times. The extreme form of personal rule which an ill-educated beerhall demagogue and racist bigot, a narcissistic, megalomaniac, self-styled national saviour, was allowed to acquire and exercise in a modern, economically advanced, and cultured land known for its philosophers and poets was absolutely decisive in the terrible unfolding of events in those fateful twelve years.

  Hitler was the main author of a war leaving over 50 million dead and millions more grieving their lost ones and trying to put their shattered lives together again. Hitler was the chief inspiration of a genocide the like of which the world had never known, rightly to be viewed in coming times as a defining episode of the twentieth century. The Reich whose glory he had sought lay at the end wrecked, its remnants to be divided among the victorious and occupying powers. The arch-enemy, Bolshevism, stood in the Reich capital itself and presided over half of Europe. Even the German people, whose survival he had said was the very reason for his political fight, had proved ultimately dispensable to him.

  In the event, the German people he was prepared to see damned alongside him proved capable of surviving even a Hitler. Beyond the repairing of broken lives and broken homes in broken towns and cities, the searing moral imprint of Hitler’s era would remain. Gradually, nevertheless, a new society, resting in time, mercifully, on new values, would emerge from the ruins of the old. For in its maelstrom of destruction Hitler’s rule had also conclusively demonstrated the utter bankruptcy of the hyper-nationalistic and racist world-power ambitions (and the social and political structures that upheld them) that had prevailed in Germany over the previous half a century and twice taken Europe and the wider world into calamitous war.

  The old Germany was gone with Hitler. The Germany which had produced Adolf Hitler, had seen its future in his vision, had so readily served him, and had shared in his hubris, had also to share his nemesis.

  Main Published Primary Sources on Hitler

  Adolf Hitler: Monologe im Führerhauptquartier 1941–1944. Die Aufzeichnungen Heinrich Heims, ed. Werner Jochmann, Hamburg, 1980 (Hitler’s Table Talk, 1941–1944, introd. by H. R. Trevor-Roper, London, 1953).

  Akten der Partei-Kanzlei, ed. Institut für Zeitgeschichte, 4 vols, Munich, 1983–92.

  Akten der Reichskanzlei. Die Regierung Hitler 1933–1938, 4 vols, Boppard/Munich, 1983–99.

  Akten zur Deutschen Auswärtigen Politik 1918–1945. (Serie D: 1.9.37–11.12.41; Serie E: 1941–1945).

  Baur, Hans, Ich flog Mächtige der Erde, Kempten, 1956.

  Becker, Josef and Ruth (eds.), Hitlers Machtergreifung, 2nd edn, Munich, 1992.

  Below, Nicolaus von, Als Hitlers Adjutant 1937–1945, Mainz, 1980 (At Hitler’s Side, London, 2001).

  The Bormann Letters: The Private Correspondence between Martin Bormann and his Wife from January 1943 to April 1945, ed. H. R. Trevor-Roper, London, 1954.

  Das Buch Hitler. Geheimdossier des NKWD für Josef W. Stalin, zusammengestellt aufgrund der Verhörprotokolle des Persönlichen Adjutanten Hitlers, Otto Günsche, und des Kammerdieners Heinz Linge, Moskau 1948/49, ed. Henrik Eberle and Matthias Uhl, Bergisch-Gladbach, 2005 (The Hitler Book, London, 2005).

  Burckhardt, Carl J., Meine Danziger Mission 1937–1939, Munich, 1962.

  Ciano, Galeazzo, Tagebücher 1937/38, Hamburg, 1949 (Ciano’s Diary 1937–1943, London, 2002).

  Ciano’s Diary 1939–1943, ed. Malcolm Muggeridge, London/Toronto, 1947.

  Ciano’s Diplomatic Papers, ed. Malcolm Muggeridge, London, 1948.

  Coulondre, Robert, Von Moskau nach Berlin 1936–1939. Erinnerungen des französischen Botschafters, Bonn, 1950.

  Dahlerus, Birger, Der letzte Versuch. London–Berlin. Sommer 1939, Munich, 1948.

  Das Diensttagebuch des deutschen Generalgouverneurs in Polen 1939–1945, ed. Werner Präg and Wolfgang Jacobmeyer, Stuttgart, 1975.

  Der Dienstkalender Heinrich Himmlers 1941/42, ed. Peter Witte et al., Hamburg, 1999.

  Deuerlein, Ernst (ed.), Der Hitler-Putsch. Bayerische Dokumente zum 8./9. November 1923, Stuttgart, 1962.

  Deuerlein, Ernst (ed.), Der Austieg der NSDAP in Augenzeugenberichten, Munich, 1974.

  Dietrich, Otto, Zwölf Jahre mit Hitler, Cologne (n.d., 1955?).

  Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919–1939, 2nd Series, 1929–1938, 3rd Series, 1938–1939, London, 1947–61.

  Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–1945, Series C (1933–1937), The Third Reich: First Phase; Series D (1937–1945), London, 1957–66.

  Dodd, William E. and Martha (eds.), Ambassador Dodd’s Diary, 1933–1938, London, 1941.

  Doenitz, Karl, Memoirs. Ten Years and Twenty Days, New York, 1997.

  Dollmann, Eugen, Dolmetscher der Diktatoren, Bayreuth, 1963.

  Domarus, Max (ed.), Hitler, Reden und Proklamationen 1932 –1945, 2 vols, in 4 parts, Wiesbaden, 1973 (Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations, 1932 –1945, London, 1990– ).

  Engel, Gerhard, Heeresadjutant be i Hitler 193 8–1943, ed. Hildegard von Kotze, Stuttgart, 1974.

  François-Poncet, André, Souvenirs d’une ambassade à Berlin, Septembre 1931–Octobre 1938, Paris, 1946.

  Frank, Hans, Im Angesicht des Galgens, Munich/Gräfelfing, 1953.

  Fröhlich, Elke (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels. Teil I, Aufzeichnungen 1923 – 1941, 14 vols, Teil II, Diktate 1941–1945, 15 vols, Munich 1993–2006.

  ‘Führer-Erlasse’ 1939–1945, ed. Martin Moll, Stuttgart, 1997.

  Galante, Pierre, and Silianoff, Eugen, Last Witnesses in the Bunker, London, 1989.

  Generaloberst Halder: Kriegstagebuch, ed. Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, 3 vols, Stuttgart, 1962–4 (The Halder War Diary, 1939–1942, ed. Charles Burdick and Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, abridged, London, 1988).

  Giesler, Hermann, Ein anderer Hitler. Erlebnisse, Gespräche, Reflexionen, Leoni am Starnberger See, 1977.

  Gisevius, Hans Bernd, Bis zum bittern Ende, 2 vols, Zurich, 1946 (To the Bitter End, Cambridge, Mass., 1947).

  Görlitz, Walter (ed.), Generalfeldmarschall Keitel. Verbrecher oder Offizier? Erinnerungen, Briefe, Dokumente des Chefs OKW, Göttingen/Berlin/Frankfurt, 1961.

  Haffner, Sebastian, Geschichte eines Deutschen. Die Erinnerungen 1914–1933, Stuttgart-Munich, 2000 (Defying Hitler: A Memoir, London, 2002).

  Hanfstaengl, Ernst, 15 Jahre mit Hitler. Zwischen Weißem und Braunem Haus, 2nd edn, Munich/Zurich, 1980 (Hitler. The Missing Years, London, 1957).

  Heinz, Heinz A., Germany’s Hitler, 2nd edn, London, 1938.

  Henderson, Nevile, Failure of a Mission. Berlin, 1937–1939, London, 1940.

  Hill, Leonidas E. (ed.), Die Weizsäcker-Papiere 1933–1950, Frankfurt am Main, 1974.

  Hitler, Adolf, Mein Kampf, 876–880th reprint, Munich, 1943 (Mein Kampf, trans. by Ralph Manheim with an introduction by D. C. Watt, London, 1969).

  Hitlers politisches Testament. Die Bormann-Diktate vom Februar und April 1945, Hamburg, 1981 (The Testament of Adolf Hitler. The Hitler-Bormann Documents, February–April 1945, with an Introduction by H. R. Trevor-Roper, London, 1961).

  Der Hitler-Prozeß 1924. Wortlaut der Hauptverhandlung vor dem Volksgericht München I, ed. Lothar Gruchamm and Reinhard Weber, assisted by Otto Gritschneder, 4 vols, Munich, 1997–9.

  Hitler. Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen: February 1925 bis Januar 1933, ed. Institut für Zeitgeschichte, 5 vols (in 12 parts), Munich, 1992–8.

  Hitlers Lagebesprechungen – Die Protokollfragmente seiner militärischen Konferenzen 1942–1945, ed. Helmut Heibert, Stuttgart, 1962 (Hitler
and his Generals. Military Conferences 1942–1945, ed. Helmut Heiber and David M. Glantz, London, 2002).

  Hitlers Weisungen für die Kriegführung 1939–1945. Dokumente des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht, ed. Walther Hubatsch, Munich, 1965 (Hitler’s War Directives, ed. Hugh Trevor-Roper, London, 1964).

  Hoffmann, Heinrich, Hitler Was My Friend, London, 1955.

  Hoßbach, Friedrich, Zwischen Wehrmacht und Hitler 1934–1938, Wolfenbüttel, 1949.

  Irving, David (ed.), The Secret Diaries of Hitler’s Doctor, paperback edn, London, 1990.

  Jäckel, Eberhard, and Kuhn, Axel (eds.), Hitler. Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen 1905–1924, Stuttgart, 1980.

  Jacobsen, Hans-Adolf (ed.), Dokumente zur Vorgeschichte des Westfeldzuges 1939–1940, Göttingen, 1956.

  Jacobsen, Hans-Adolf (ed.), Dokumente zum Westfeldzug 1940, Göttingen, 1960.

  Jochmann, Werner (ed.), Nationalsozialismus und Revolution, Frankfurt am Main, 1963.

  Junge, Traudl, Bis zur letzten Stunde. Hitler’s Sekretärin erzählt ihr Leben, Munich, 2002 (Until the Final Hour, London, 2003).

  Kempka, Erich, Die letzten Tage mit Adolf Hitler, Preußisch-Oldendorf, 1975.

  Kersten, Felix, The Kersten Memoirs 1940–1945, London, 1956.

  Koller, Karl, Der letzte Monat. Die Tagebuchaufzeichnungen des ehemaligen chefs des Generalstabes der deutschen Luftwaffe vom 14. April bis 27. Mai 1945, Mannheim, 1949.

  Kordt, Erich, Nicht aus den Akten … Die Wilhelmstraße in Frieden und Krieg. Erlebnisse, Begegnungen und Eindrücke 1928–1945, Stuttgart, 1950.

  Kotze, Hildegart von, and Krausnick, Helmut (eds.), ‘Es spricht der Führer’. 7 exemplarische Hitler-Reden, Gütersloh, 1966.

  Krebs, Albert, Tendenzen und Gestalten der NSDAP, Stuttgart, 1959.

  Kriegstagebuch des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht (Wehrmachtsführungsstab), ed. Percy Ernst Schramm, 4 vols (in 6 parts), Frankfurt am Main, 1961–5.

  Kubizek, August, Adolf Hitler. Mein Jugendfreund, 5th edn, Graz, 1989 (The Young Hitler I Knew, London, 2006).

  Lagevorträge des Oberbefehlshabers der Kriegsmarine vor Hitler 1939–1945, ed. Gerhard Wagner, Munich, 1972 (Fuehrer Conferences on Naval Affairs 1939–1945, London, 1990).

  Linge, Heinz, ‘Kronzeuge Linge. Der Kammerdiener des “Führers” ’, Revue, Munich, November 1955 March 1956.

  Linge, Heinz, Bis zum Untergang. Als Chef des persönlichen Dienstes bei Hitler, Munich/ Berlin, 1980.

  Lipski, Josef, Diplomat in Berlin 1933–1939, ed. Waclaw Jedrzejewicz, New York/London, 1968.

  Loringhoven, Bernd Freytag von, In the Bunker with Hitler. The Last Witness Speaks, London, 2006.

  Ludecke (= Lüdecke), Kurt G. W., I Knew Hitler, London, 1938.

  Maser, Werner, Hitlers Briefe und Notizen. Sein Weltbild in handschriftlichen Dokumenten, Düsseldorf, 1973.

  Meissner, Otto, Staatssekretär unter Ebert-Hindenburg-Hitler, Hamburg, 1950.

  The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Kesselring, Greenhill Books edn, London, 1997.

  Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, ed. Office of the United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, 11 vols, Washington, 1946–8.

  Noakes, Jeremy, and Pridham, Geoffrey (eds.), Nazism 1919–1945: A Documentary Reader, 4 vols, Exeter, 1983–98.

  Orr, Thomas, ‘Das war Hitler’, Revue, Munich Series, Nr 37, 1952 – Nr 8, 1953.

  Papen, Franz von, Memoirs, London, 1952.

  Picker, Henry, Tischgespräche im Hauptquartier 1941–2, ed. Percy Ernst Schramm, Stuttgart, 1963.

  Raeder, Erich, Mein Leben von 1935 bis Spandau 1955, 2 vols, Tübingen, 1957.

  Ribbentrop, Joachim von, Zwischen London und Moskau, ed. Analies von Ribbentrop, Leoni am Starnberger See, 1953 (The Ribbentrop Memoirs, London, 1954).

  Röhm, Ernst, Die Geschichte eines Hochverräters, 2nd edn, Munich, 1930.

  Rosenberg, Alfred, Letzte Aufzeichnungen. Ideal und Idole der nationalsozialistischen Revolution, Göttingen, 1948.

  Schacht, Hjalmar, Abrechnung mit Hitler, Berlin/Frankfurt am Main, 1949 (Account Settled, London, 1949).

  Schirach, Baldur von, Ich glaubte an Hitler, Hamburg, 1967.

  Schmidt, Paul, Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne 1923–1945. Erlebnisse des Chefdolmetschers im Auswärtigen Amt mit den Staatsmänner Europas, Bonn, 1953.

  Schroeder, Christa, Er war mein Chef. Aus dem Nachlaß der Sekretärin von Adolf Hitler, Munich/Vienna, 1985.

  Schwerin von Krosigk, Lutz Graf, Es geschah in Deutschland, Tübingen/Stuttgart, 1951.

  Seraphim, Hans-Günther (ed.), Das politische Tagebuch Alfred Rosenbergs 1934/35 und 1939/40, Munich, 1964.

  Shirer, William, Berlin Diary, 1934–1941, paperback edn, London, 1970.

  Speer, Albert, Erinnerungen, Frankfurt am Main/Berlin, 1969 (Inside the Third Reich, London, 1970).

  Staatsmänner und Diplomaten bei Hitler. Vertrauliche Aufzeichnungen 1939–1941, ed. Andreas Hillgruber, Frankfurt am Main, 1969.

  Staatsmänner und Diplomaten bei Hitler. Vertrauliche Aufzeichnungen 1942–1944, ed. Andreas Hillgruber, Frankfurt am Main, 1970.

  Strasser, Otto, Ministersessel oder Revolution?, Berlin, 1930.

  Strasser, Otto, Hitler und ich, Constance, 1948 (Hitler and I, Boston, 1940).

  Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal, 42 vols, Nuremberg, 1947–9.

  Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals, 12 vols, Nuremberg, 1946–9.

  Tyrell, Albrecht (ed.), Führer befiehl … Selbstzeugnisse aus der ‘Kampfzeit’ der NSDAP, Düsseldorf, 1969.

  Wagner, Eduard, Der Generalquartiermeister. Briefe und Tagebuchaufzeichnungen des Generalquartiermeisters des Heeres General der Artillerie Eduard Wagner, ed. Elisabeth Wagner, Munich/Vienna, 1963.

  Wagner, Otto, Hitler aus nächster Nähe. Aufzeichnungen eines Vertrauten 1929–1932, ed. Henry A. Turner, 2nd edn, Kiel, 1987.

  Warlimont, Walter, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 1939–45, orig. publ. 1964, Presidio paperback edn, Novato, n.d.

  ‘ “… warum dann überhaupt noch leben!” Hitlers Lagebesprechungen am 23., 25. und 27. April 1945’, Der Spiegel, 10 January 1966, pp.32–46.

  Weinberg, Gerhard L. (ed.), Hitlers Zweites Buch. Ein Dokument aus dem Jahr 1928, Stuttgart, 1961 (Hitler’s Second Book, New York, 2003).

  Weizsäcker, Ernst von, Erinnerungen, Munich, 1950 (Memoirs, London, 1951).

  Wiedemann, Fritz, Der Mann, der Feldherr werden wollte, Velbert/Kettwig, 1964.

  Zoller, Albert, Hitler privat. Erlebnisbericht seiner Geheimsekretärin, Düsseldorf, 1949.

  INDEX

  1st Belorussian Front 888

  1st Panzer Army 796

  1st Ukrainian Front 888

  1st US Army 879, 893

  2nd Army 661–2, 665, 818

  2nd Belorussian Front 888

  2nd Panzer Army 665

  3rd Belorussian Front 888

  3rd Panzer Army 656, 811

  3rd US Army 884, 914

  3rd White Russian Front 879

  4th Army 662, 811, 890

  4th Panzer Army 656, 734, 735, 920

  5th Army (Soviet) 641

  5th Panzer Army 881, 883

  6th Army 672, 723, 729, 733–5, 737–9

  6th Panzer Army 881, 883, 888, 889, 913

  7th Army 804

  7th Army (French) 732

  8th Army 411

  8th Army (British) 717, 727, 730, 772

  8th Army (Italian) 736

  9th Army 724, 756, 811, 914–15, 920, 927–8, 930, 934, 935, 939–40, 941, 953

  10th Panzer Division 826

  11th Army 673, 710, 724

  12th Army 608, 927, 930, 931, 934, 946

  17th Army 672

  18th Army 602

  18th Artillery Division 826

  18th Infantry Division 429

  39th Mountain Corps 724

  48th Panzer Corps 733

  56th Panzer Corps 934

  57th Panzer Corps 735

  Aachen 879, 882
<
br />   Abruzzi 774

  Abwehr (military intelligence): Canaris heads 418, 520, 825

  Department II 433

  opposition to H 535–6, 541–2, 544, 820, 821, 825, 846

  Abyssinia 338–9, 349, 350–51, 352, 368–9, 370, 402

  Adam, Wilhelm 425, 431

  ADGB (Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund) 288

  Adlerhorst (‘Eagle’s Eyrie’; Führer Headquarters) 882, 888, 894

  Admiral Scheer (cruiser) 384

  Aegean Sea 585, 604–5

  Africa 714, 716

  Afrika Corps 736, 762

  ‘Aktion Reinhard’ 688, 775

  Alamein, El 727, 730

  Alarich, Operation 768

  Albrecht, Alwin-Broder 922

  Alexandra, Princess 117

  Alexandria 718

  Algeria 562, 580

  Algiers 730

  Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (ADGB) 288

  Almería 384

  Alsace 58, 578, 884

  Altenberg, Jacob 34

  Altmark incident 552

  Alvensleben, Ludolf von 519

  Amann, Max: denounces Kurt Lüdecke 114

  and H’s refounding of NSDAP 163

  and H’s ‘Second Book’ 183

  imprisoned 140

  in Munich in early 1920s 98

  nominates H for promotion in First World War 54

  and north German NSDAP 167

  and party finances 187

  and publication of Mein Kampf 147

  and putsch attempt (1923) 131, 132

  and Röhm’s murder 311

  tours occupied France 561

  Amerika (H’s special train) 327, 434, 478, 515–16, 544, 556, 607, 730

  Amsterdam 765

  Anglo-German Naval Agreement (1935) 337–8, 368–9, 486

  Angriff, Der (newspaper) 217

  Anhalt 227–8

  Anschluß 385, 386, 401–16, 420, 518

  anti-Bolshevism 72, 73, 77, 92–3, 118, 148, 150–53, 369–70, 403, 566, 598, 602–3, 714

  anti-capitalism 82, 92, 150, 189, 200, 223–4

  anti-clericalism 161, 382, 661

  Anti-Comintern Pact (1936) 369, 370–71

  anti-Communism 231, 274, 599

  anti-Marxism 118, 150–51, 178–9, 274