A Different Sightline

There may be no greater villain in political history than Adolf Hitler, and possibly none has been the subject of so many historical volumes as he and his Nazis. Perhaps the record is so thorough because the atrocities of his and his sycophants were so extreme and so recent. World War II, with its living record, ended only about 80 years ago. Only 80 years gone by, and seemingly out of memory despite all those books, and now there is a new scholarly book of merit published in 2024 with a different sightline.

I have written before about many of the must-read, pre-2024 books, notable of which are: (1) William L. Shirer, “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” (1960); (2) translated from the German, Volker Ulrich, “Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939,” vol. I (2016) and “Hitler: Downfall 1939-1945,” vol. II (2020); (3) Albert Speer, “Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs” (1970). The first two are scholarly works. The last named is authored by one of Hitler’s people, writing from Spandau Prison where he was incarcerated for 20 years after the Nuremburg Trials.

The newest published work is Richard J. Evans, “Hitler’s People: the Faces of the Third Reich” (2024), of which Speer was just one, and perhaps the one who best used his reprieve from the gallows to reflect on what he did and why. Not that he was particularly honest with himself. Other Hitler facilitators have left Evans to do this work, chapter by chapter for each, including such well known names as Hermann Gõring and Joseph Goebbels, and also Albert Speer himself. A big cast, because what Adolf Hitler did is not done alone.

The book is sectioned into: (Section I) “The Leader,” if you have not already read the two scholarly works named above; (II) “The Paladins; (III) “The Enforcers”; and (IV) “The Instruments.” “The Paladins” includes names that you may already know, including Gõring, Goebbels, Ernst Rõhm, Heinrich Himmler, Joachim von Ribbontrop, Alfred Rosenberg, and Speer. Paladins are champions or outstanding protagonists of a cause, and so they were, each in his own twisted way. As Evans points out, and not because they were necessarily ignorant, or of only one generation.

Nazi activists were largely men; Evans’ paladins were all men, as were Evans’ enforcers. “The Enforcers” includes Rudolf Hess, Franz von Papen, Reinhard Heydrich, and Adolf Eichmann, all of whose names have been prominent in the continuing conversation about the period.

The only women to be given place in “Hitler’s People” do not show up until Section IV. What shall we make of that? And only Leni Riefenstahl is likely to be a familiar name. Evans, as he gives each of the “People” a descriptive title, dubs her “The Star.” She was the Nazi’s star film-maker.

This book is an important contribution to the genre, but if the reader is seeking a single underlying trait that motivated all these people, that is overly simple. A number of traits are ruled out, including insanity. Not ruled out is the grievance born of losing World War I and the perceived strictures imposed in the Treaty of Versailles that followed, especially ceding of territories. Groups of people seen as injurious to Germany’s cause then became nationalistic and racist targets in the period that followed. Whatever the thesis, however, this is a book that adds insight to a terrible time, including loss of democracy. It provides significant insight into why our Founding Fathers (helped no little by later Constitution amenders) were so considered in their writings and arguments.