Hitler: Downfall: 1939-1945

 

Hitler: Downfall:  1939-1945 by Volker Ullrich

Part 2 of a 2-book series. I didn’t read the first. This one was a Kindle special, so I thought “Why not?”  That ended up being a great decision. This was an excellent biography of one of the evilest men in history. This book was very “thick” and detailed, yet for the most part I was never weighted down with banality.  In many ways, this book was very similar to William Shirer’s “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”.  It’s impossible to tell the story of Hitler during this time period without giving somewhat a synopsis of World War II in the European Theatre.  To be honest, I didn’t really learn a lot, but in a somewhat sick way – it’s an enjoyable way to revisit history; even when history is at its worst.

The subtitle of the book: “Downfall” is one of the things that I guess I could say that I “learned”. The author alleges that even before the outbreak of the second world war, Hitler was already declining mentally. Although history shows us plenty of Hitler rallies in the mid-1930s as he riles up the faithful natives, we learn that most citizens of Germany weren’t necessarily eager to enter another world war.  Himmler and his Gestapo, however, have big ears and a large reach, so most learn to keep their thoughts private.

This book starts with the planning of the invasion of Poland, yet the author (as he states in the introduction) takes plenty of detours from a straightforward war narrative. There are chapters dedicated to the Holocaust, Hitler’s Bavarian retreat at Obersalzberg, the Valkyrie assassination attempt, and the final days in his secluded bunker. Most of these chapters succeed.  The “bunker” chapter was a bit too detailed, although it might have felt that way due to the fact that the chapter was near the end of a very long book.

Some aspects of the war are dealt with in much more detail than others.  The conquering of Poland and the disastrous Barbarossa operation get an awful lot of page space. Yet the invasion of France and the London bombings seem to be quite skimpy. Again, though, this isn’t a book about the war, and the author does an outstanding job keeping his twisted subject in front of the frame at all times, regardless of the war around us.

Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels gets an awful lot of page space. It’s quite sickening seeing Hitler’s loyal lapdog figuratively slobber all over his master throughout the war, yet one could argue that Hitler could never quite have accomplished what he did without Goebbels doing his job.  There are an awful lot of military names here, and the consensus of all of them is pretty unified. They all agree that Hitler is quite nuts, and they feel they could have done much better in the war had Hitler not insisted on playing Army Leader. However, one does not bite the hand that can send you to a concentration camp. So the generals learn to always be obedient to their diabolical Fuhrer.

In Hitler’s eyes, he’s the only one who’s right about anything, and all of the failures of the German military are their own, regardless of how far he pushes them off the deadly plank. When things badly fall apart on the Russian Front, our failed Bavarian water colorist really loses it. In his mind, his military should gladly sacrifice their lives for the German Fatherland, regardless of how perilous the situation is. He can’t fathom why his army keeps wanting to retreat and/or surrender, and frequently goes off on pout ridden tirades.  Again, maybe hindsight tells us we were all lucky that Hitler basically aided in his own defeat with his maniacal arrogance.

The casual reader of history might also not be aware that Hitler was basically invisible when things really started going sour around 1943.  Much of the author’s description of the man during this time portrays him as a borderline invalid who shakes, stammers, and drools in between his belligerent screaming at everyone around him. You get the feeling Hitler knows deep down that he’s failed and his days are numbered, yet his ego can’t admit this.

It's always somewhat difficult when one highly enjoys a book about such a brutal human being, but with lunatics like Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin running loose 80 years later, we must remind ourselves that history can repeat itself if not studied.  On that point, one can argue that this is a book his highly necessary despite the unpleasantness.