The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich - by William Shirer

One of the most well known historical pieces of work from the latter half of the twentieth century, and for good reason.  I confess I’ve always been intimidated by this book.  Simply the shear size of this volume (over 1200 pages) was always scary - and no pictures to boot!  Well, for those who know how owning an Amazon Kindle works, you know that from time to time, you can find great bargains to add to your library.  So when this one was advertised at $1.99 for a period of time time, who could pass that up?  Certainly not me.  It always helps when Amazon has a large number of positive customer reviews as well of a particular piece.  Of course, I wasn’t sure how much I would enjoy the volume, nor if I would even have the tenacity to finish such a formidable body of work.

One of the ways I can tell when I have thoroughly enjoyed a historical piece, is when, upon finishing the book, I want more.  Such was the case here.  For starters, the most appealing factor of this book, is it was written by journalist William Shirer, who was actually there in Germany, covering the stories, as they happened.  The book is so well written, that it was very easy for me to forget that the book was written and released back in 1961.  Having a first-hand witness to so much of the pomp and ceremony in Germany during the volatile 1930s is a huge asset for the reader.

There are so many aspects and side tales of this time in history, that it’s very easy for any author to go off on a rabbit trail, and lose focus of the topic at hand.  Although this might actually be desirable, the author does a great job of keeping the main thing (The Third Reich) the main thing.  Example: As World War II starts, some of the events are told in thorough detail, yet other events seemed to be glossed over (i.e. Japan’s involvement) and you almost feel cheated.  Then, of course, you have to remind yourself that this is not a retrospective of the War, yet only Germany’s involvement as it pertains to Hitler and his band of devout goons.

Speaking of Hitler, he’s obviously the main character in this tale.  And again, there are times when we want more.  I’ve never read a book that detailed Hitler’s early years as much as this one (although I’m sure they exist), so it’s commendable when Shirer shows discipline within the narrative.  Then, when we get to the “Fall” of the Third Reich, it isn’t told in as much detail as I would have liked.  It happened very quickly, as history tells us, yet I would have loved to have much more details around the Nuremberg trials.  Again, though, I’m sure that episode warrants a book by itself.

You could make the argument that, more than 50 years after this book was first released, that there really isn’t anything new within these pages for the modern reader, and that’s true.  In fact, I’m sure there have been many revelations around the atrocities of the parties since then that were unknown barely 15 years after the walls of the 1,000 year Reich came crashing down.  The detail, however, is incredibly impressive.  The only part that seemed to be a bit dry was during the 1920s when the Nazi party was coming into power.   The Nazis were battling all of the other, existing political entities at the time to try to bring Germany out of its embarrassment and ruin after its defeat during the first World War.

Also worth mentioning is that the hatred of minorities, German arrogance, and the desire for a “pure” race through Darwinian methods were not Adolph Hitler’s original ideas.  Sadly, such behavior was very commonplace for centuries amongst many.  Hitler was just the only one who could pull off such a thing.  Yes, the man was a lunatic.  But sadly, he was a very smart lunatic.  So we witness Germany becoming a “great nation” once again under Hitler’s direction, while most citizens simply look the other way when Jews, Gypsies and Communists are brutally humiliated, ostracized, and eventually killed in brutal form and fashion that was hard for many to believe shortly after the events were revealed.

And, yes, a detailed account of The Third Reich simply cannot be told without details of the Holocaust.  For me, anyway, I was a bit relieved that Shirer only spent one chapter on the details of such monstrosities.  I accept that it’s an important part of the story, but it sickens and saddens me to read the details of such events.  When you read about the sadistic behaviors of many of the “doctors” and the bizarre experiments done to human beings, you simply can’t only fault a maniac such as Hitler.  Sadly, evil is much more widespread.

Speaking of evil, it must be said, that there were several of Hitler’s top generals that realized the man had an elevator that didn’t quite go to the top floor.  There was a lot of talk and planning of assassinating the former Bavarian Corporal, yet for the most part, these plans never came to fruition (to be blunt - the plotters chickened out), and when there was a serious attempt by Von Stauffenberg and company (the Tom Cruise character in the movie Valkyrie), it, sadly, failed, and the perpetrators were brutally tortured and killed for their actions.

So as the war progresses, things which were at first rosy for Hitler, start to falter.  Hitler, being the megalomaniac he was, simply refused to acknowledge that his superior race could ever be defeated, so he pressed on, ignoring his leaders, and letting his empire slowly fall to ruin.  We see his cronies (Goehring, Himmler, Goebells, et. al) feverishly holding on to some sort of twisted ideology that the Reich will prevail, whereas cooler heads seemed to know the terrible destiny that awaits (I was not aware that General Rommel aka “The Desert Fox” was not a supporter of Hitler, and was part of the talks to have him eliminated).  There are a lot of characters here, yet careful reading allows the uneducated reader enough detail to separate the wheat from the chaff in determining who the true crackpots are amongst the major players of the evil Axis.

A great piece of work, yet a sad reminder of the evil that exists in the hearts of many people, and the result of when such behaviors are unchecked.