Adolf Hitler : The Definitive Biography

Amazon.com: Adolf Hitler : The Definitive Biography: Books: John Toland
p. 1150 "Genius is a will o' the wisp, unless it is founded on perserverance and fanatical determination. That's the most important thing in human existance."
A. Hitler

p. 1180 "To the average German, the Fuehrer was more than a man, he was a supernatural phenomenom. They held positive believe in his invulnerability."
J. Toland

p. 1204 "The greater area of responsibility of the individual, the greater necessity for obedience."
A. Hitler

Toland does a superlative job of describing Hitler. He details the fanatical determination of a brilliant and deliberately evil man. Toldand writes of a man who studied and learned to manipulate crowds in person, who demanded complete and unquestioning obedience, yet was beset by doubt & flagging self-confidence. Toland reveals an asectic vegetarian and pitiful farter that was capable of ordering the deaths of millions: Jews, Russians, Germans, to meet his own megalomanaical and patriotic beliefs.

While Toland paints a painstakingly detailed portrait of Hitler, he scarely mentions the critical interconnections that allowed Hitler to be so successful, such as his party henchmen, Goebbels, Bormann, Goering, Heydrich; or the German capitalists and industrial leaders who funded and enabled his massive spending on public works and re-armament. Toland does describe well all of the people with whom Hitler dealt with, including intimates, direct reports, and foreign diplomats.

Toland however leaves ambiguous how Hitler was able to motivate so many to action. Very little of Hitler's actual speeches are quoted, although Toland does describe their effect on the German populace as being positive and profound. Toland describes how Hitler was able to lie to himself as well as the public. Toland describes how Hitler was able to craft a speech in a speech: to those who knew about the Final Solution, there were plenty of references to what was happening and encouragement to continue; to those who did not know the Final Solution meant extermination of people despised by Hitler (mainly Jews, Russians and Eastern Europeans in general) they only heard vague promises which justified, vindicated and satiated their prejudices.

Toland does an excellent job of describing Hitler's manipulation and domination of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi), including the thugs and gangsters which came along with the party members. During his rise to power, Hitler's brownshirts were used to silence any opposition or debate. Hitler would not tolerate being questioned by others.

Toland does not however describe how an Army corporal, a self-educated artist & historian, a self-doubting, woman fearing weakling was able to manipulate politicians, diplomats, military professionals, capitalists, heads of state as well as a huge percentage of the German population to wage an evil and hate-filled war against so their neighbors. That is to say, Toland does not completely describe the context that enabled a man like Hitler to wield power so deftly. Toland does however describe the process of that manipulation, inspiring wonder and awe (& profound disappointment) in the large mass of people that followed and practically worshipped him.

While we have no parallels with Hitler in the 21st century, the glimpses of the Nazi party provide frightening parallels with Republican party's actions in this century. The willingness to bend & break the law to imprison those who would dare disagree with the party; the tendency to spy on anyone for the welfare of the state; the complete disregard and disdain held for the "enemy"; all of these things have parallels between the 1930's and the 21st century, but orders of magnitude in difference of effect, so far.

I think the most frightening parallel between then & now is the willingness of a populace to believe a leader based on that leader's image and vague generalizations about an "enemy of the state" which allowed the willing minded to apply their own prejudices and thereby support an immoral and illegal war.

Well, it was a rough 1200+ pages, especially since I knew how it ended! I was never so glad to see someone put a pistol to their temple & pull the trigger! Next, I'm onto Toland's book The Rising Sun, The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire. I have every expectation it shall be just an frighteningly illuminating as Hitler's biography was. Who says things are less scary with the lights on!