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THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH: A HISTORY OF NAZI GERMANY PDF, EPUB, EBOOK William L Shirer,Ron Rosenbaum | 1249 pages | 10 Nov 2011 | SIMON & SCHUSTER | 9781451651683 | English | New York, United States The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany PDF Book These events, regardless of which author you prefer to tell them, are the scariest of Hallowe'en fodder. And although his experiences in Vienna might have deepened this feeling, they certainly did not give birth to it. Johann von Nepomuk was the national saint of the Czech people and some historians have seen in a Hitler's being given this name an indication of Czech blood in the family. Since its publication in , William L. We all know the story- a misanthropic, racist, vegetarian, megalomaniac failed artist writes a book that taps into age-old German prejudices, seizes power, and embarks on a quest for European domination. The cardinal error of the Germans who opposed Nazism was their failure to unite against it. Viewed in this light, my Vienna period was especially fertile and valuable. My father was drafted the day after he finished his medical residency at Boston General and spent four years in France, sometimes under fire. From a window in the Kaiserhof, Goebbels, Roehm and other Nazi chiefs kept an anxious watch on the door of the Chancellery, where the Fuehrer would shortly be coming out. All the free time my work left me was employed in my studies. Shirer had a remarkable eye for the singular, revealing detail. Klaus Epstein listed what he contended were "four major failings": a crude understanding of German history ; a lack of balance, leaving important gaps; no understanding of a modern totalitarian regime; and ignorance of current scholarship of the Nazi period. For while in the ranks of their supporters the victory achieved seems a triumph of the justice of their own cause, the defeated adversary in most cases despairs of the success of any further resistance. Karl Lueger, the burgomaster of Vienna and leader of the Christian Social Party, who more than any other became Hitler's political mentor, though the two never met. This is a classic. The majority of them were somewhat mentally deranged, and quite a few ended their days as honest-to-God lunatics! A multi-faceted approach to the negotiated handover of Czechoslovakia in is of particular interest, in that it serves as the green light that Hitler needed to begin his march into Poland. In Shirer one can see an evolution: If in Berlin Diary his emphasis on the Germanic character is visceral, in The Rise and Fall his critique is ideological. The UN designated this tragedy the first genocide of the 20th century. Add to Wishlist. By then he had developed a violent hatred for the Hapsburg monarchy and all the non-German races in the multinational Austro-Hungarian Empire over which it ruled, and an equally violent love for everything German. That's the thing that really grabs you when you read this book. A boyhood friend later remembered him as a pale, sickly, lanky youth who, though usually shy and reticent, was capable of sudden bursts of hysterical anger against those who disagreed with him. I estimated that it contained about a thousand people. Open Preview See a Problem? Wiesenthal's historical manhunt, Eichmann's trial, the rumors about Doktor Mengele's experiments in his Brazilian hideout, and W. The broad masses of the people can be moved only by the power of speech. It doesn't work for me, I think mainly because through high school and college we learned so much about WWII and in particular Hitler, the Nazis, the Holocaust, and the European side of the war. What, then, had he learned in the school of those hard knocks which Vienna had so generously provided? From the September Sudetenland grab and the failings of Neville Chamberlain, to the horrid crimes that went on behind the lines, to the final days that saw a once proud Europe reduced to rubble, Shirer also details World War II from the Nazi perspective. Indeed a general strike had finally brought universal manhood suffrage and with this the end of political dominance by the Austrian Germans, who numbered but a third of the population of the Austrian half of the empire. This is where Mr. The next two or three years Hitler often described as the happiest days of his life. I understood the infamous spiritual terror which this movement exerts, particularly on the bourgeoisie, which is neither morally nor mentally equal to such attacks; at a given sign it unleashes a veritable barrage of lies and slanders against whatever adversary seems most dangerous, until the nerves of the attacked persons break down Not so here. Only this kind of reading has meaning and purpose I have the most unpleasant recollections of the teachers who taught me. I don't know enough about history to have an opinion on this. View all 8 comments. Equally the great weakness of this b The great strength of this book is that it was written by a journalist. Now we have this abomination Shirer argues that the Third Reich and Nazi Party's rise to power came not from an iron-fisted power grab by a dictatorial leader, but through the democratic processes of the German legislature. If England and France had upheld their treaties and defended their territories and their allies, Hitler could not have amassed so much power at a time when the German military was still small. On the mother's side there was a certain stability. His own stated reasons for leaving Austria are quite grandiose. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany Writer Neither Shirer nor I condone what was done, but I feel that his inclusion of these tests in the tome goes to illuminate how thorough the army might have been for possible scenarios it was likely to face. Conversation Starters from ReadingGroupChoices. It was only during the s that enterprising journalists in Vienna, delving into the parish archives, discovered the facts about Hitler's ancestry and, disregarding old Johann Georg Hiedler's belated attempt to do right by a bastard son, tried to fasten on the Nazi leader the name of Adolf Schicklgruber. Leopold Poetsch of the high school in Linz, this requirement was fulfilled in a truly ideal manner. Shirer lays out his controversial thesis that The Third Reich grew out of something inherent in the German people rather than Germany merely getting caught up in the fascist vibe that was going around Europe in the '20s and '30s. Gavriel Rosenfeld asserted in that Rise and Fall was unanimously condemned by German historians in the s, and considered dangerous to relations between America and West Germany , as it might inflame anti-German sentiments in the United States. About The Book. It remains an awe-inspiring achievement that he could capture that terrain of horror in a mere 1, pages. Last Name. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. He also had access to the remarkably candid interviews with German generals conducted after the surrender by B. The idea of earning even his own living by any kind of regular employment was repulsive to him and was to remain so throughout his life. World War II has long fascinated and disturbed me. I did not want to become a civil servant. Like I said, the detail is mind-blowing - the story of this The detail with which this book deals with the Third Reich and the unspeakable evil that was Hitler's Germany is almost too much to take. Some were lifting their arms and turning their heads to show that they were still alive. Shirer makes no excuses for these and puts the blame squarely on Hitler and the German people. It might not be the most rewarding book for readers interested in deep historical analysis, but it provides a very interesting, vivid account of this period. I thought that Evans speculated too much and also focused more on Germany itself rather than giving a more expanded view of the entire world stage during this time. Feb 17, Kate rated it really liked it Shelves: cannonball-read. Stefan Zweig, the eminent Austrian Jewish writer, who was growing up in Vienna at this time, has testified that Lueger never allowed his official anti-Semitism to stop him from being helpful and friendly to the Jews. Shirer reveals Hitler as intelligent and deterministic, but pathologically, sociopathically twisted to evil. Verdict: Library this one. The Innovative Spirit. Shirer presents that Hitler and Reich officials likely posited that America would focus its attention on the strong Japanese in the Pacific, which would allow the European campaign to run smoothly through to its completion. The UN designated this tragedy the first genocide of the 20th century. The edition contained an afterword whereby Shirer gave a brief discourse on how his book was received when it was initially published and the future for Germany during German reunification in the atomic age. Quotes from The Rise and Fall Thank you! And so it went, batch after batch. View 2 comments. And thus all Germany was awaiting the savior who would arise to restore, with a Third Reich, the destiny that was theirs. Archaeology U. Particularly, the part where the girl points to herself and says her age - probably because I was around that age when I read it. Had the eighty-four-year-old wandering miller not made his unexpected reappearance to recognize the paternity of his thirty-nine-year-old son nearly thirty years after the death of the mother, Adolf Hitler would have been born Adolf Schicklgruber.