Gesicht des Dritten Reiches1970

Already hailed as one of the best books on Hitler's Germany, these brief and brilliantly conveived portraits of the leading Nazi figures (Hitler, Goebbels, Goring, Bormann, Hess, etc.) give a fresh insight into the personalities and the manner in which they approached life in the Third Reich. Seen though their relationship to each other and to Hitler, the Party, and the bureaucracy around them, their lives emerge here in high relief, characterized by third-rate minds, petty rivalries, in-fighting, and ambitions. Even the longer portrait of Hitler here shows not a man possessed by a demon, or a fiendish intellect who blitzed his way to the top, but a man tortured with a sense of failure from his lower-class background, a deep disappointment in school, friendship, and other normal accomplishments, plagued continuously with anger, frustration, and dis-satisfaction. Among these leaders some fought to pass by others, some worked to discredit others (for instance, by spreading a rumor that Heydrich had Jewish ancestors): all spent most of their time maintaining their political and social position at the expense of first-rate leadership, although their slavish and mindless support of propaganda is evidence of their vulgar capabilities. In addition to the individual portraits, there are a few "group" portraits of women, youth, etc., which round out this fascinating and absorbing picture of those who led the world into its great holocaust.