Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis
by Ian Kershaw
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ian KershawEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-11
ISBN: 0393049949
Number of pages: 832
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Book Reviews of Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis
Book Review: "Working towards the Fuehrer" and the "Final Solution"
Summary: 5 Stars
I found the book as one of the most significant works on National Socialism that has appeared in the last decade. I also regard it as one of the most important studies of the developments towards and the realisation of the "Final Solution", in which all social and political aspects are interwoven and its centrality in the National Socialist ideology and politics is clearly revealed in its destructive world historical significance. Within his innovating thesis on "Working towards the Fuehrer" Kershaw has succeeded in integrating both his primary most detailed research and his most important recently published monographs on the subject. Within the limited scope of these notes I would like to dwell at least on a few principal points. The first is the exposition of the whole subject, Kershaw's thesis and methodology in the introductory chapter, "1936: Hitler Triumphant". It is a masterly presentation of a historiographical concept and a methodological approach which is characteristic for the entire book. Although the point of departure is Hitler's person and the political dimension, foreign and internal, all the main areas and subjects that shaped the Third Reich form the background for this presentation: Politics, society, economy, the elites, the resistance from below, the question of opposition from within the regime, the churches and the "Kirchenkampf", the broad plebiscitary support of the Fuehrer, and last but not least, Hitler's radical antisemitism, which was widely shared in its various forms by different sections of society. In all these descriptions of the general euphoria the signs of imminent and, indeed, inevitable radicalisation are clearly marked in Hitler's concepts.
I wish to concentrate particularly on the subject of ...[the policy for] the "Final Solution". In this respect, I would like to point out the way in which Kershaw explores the "Marks of a Genocidal Mentality" in chapter 3 on the eve of the "Reichskristallnacht" and after. The detailed investigation of the manifold signs of radicalisation in the attitude towards the Jews and the mounting expressions for "annihilation" in the various sources is wisely summarised in the conclusion: "This was not a preview of Auschwitz and Treblinka. But without such a mentality Auschwitz and Treblinka would not have been possible." (p. 152). This sentence and the analysis of Hilter's abstract intentions, "how the war would bring about the destruction of the Jews", might be regarded as a final answer and a way out of the tiring and sterile historiographical dispute on intentionalist, structuralist, etc., explanations.
I see a similar methodological achievement in his analysis in chapter 8, "Designing a 'War of Annihilation'", of the intertwined genocidal intentions with the preparations for and launching of the war against the "Jewish Bolshevik menace" of the Soviet Union and its broad acceptance in this intertwined sense by all the elites and the masses of the future German participants in the war. ...The war in the East, which would decide the future of the Continent of Europe, was indeed Hitler's war. But it was more than that. It was not inflicted by a tyrannical dictator on an unwilling country. It was acceded to, even welcomed (if in different measure and for different reasons), by all sections of the German elite, non-Nazi as well as Nazi. Large sections of the ordinary German population, too, including the millions who would fight in lowly ranks in the army, would - once they had got over their initial shock - go along with the meaning Nazi propaganda imparted to the conflict, that of a 'crusade against Bolshevism'. The more ideologically committed pro-Nazis would entirely swallow the interpretation of the war as a preventive one to avoid the destruction of western culture by the Bolshevik hordes. They fervently believed that Europe would never be liberated before 'Jewish-Bolshevism' was utterly and completely rooted out. The path to the Holocaust, intertwined with the showdown with Bolshevism, was prefigured in such notions. The legacy of over two decades of deeply rooted, often fanatically held, feelings of hatred towards Bolshevism, fully interlaced with antisemitism, was about to be revealed in its full ferocity."
The central, most tragic chapter, on "Fulfilling the 'Prophecy'" of the Final Solution (chap. 10) is a consequent continuation of the methodology in the two chapters that I mentioned above. Here, the figure of Hitler looms behind the dramatic developments more than previously, but again it is clearly demonstrated that there was no need for a special order for the Final Solution. It was "worked out" towards the Fuehrer in many ways by almost everyone involved. This methodology and these motives are present in all the following chapters of the dreadful drama up to the "Extinction" (chap. 17) and the "Epilogue".
Another most remarkable achievement of Kershaw's book I found in the combination of its scientific character and literary style. Almost every sentence or passage in it is based on direct quotation of, or reference to, the relevant source, or specific research literature. The attached scientific apparatus itself extends to the size of almost a third of the book. And yet, the impressive, thoughtful, and dramatic literary style of the whole narration makes the reading of the book - if I may say so, regarding its subject - an exciting literary experience. Last but not least, it is the personal humanistic approach, which is always present in Kershaw's narrative and assessments, somewhere between personal moral engagement and strict scientific detachment.
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