The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

Description

The dramatic story of the Third Reich—how Adolf Hitler and a core group of Nazis rose to power and plunged the world into a horrific war, perpetrating the genocidal Holocaust while sacrificing the lives of millions of ordinary Germans. In The Third Reich, Thomas Childers shows how the young Hitler became passionately political and anti-Semitic as he lived on the margins of society. Fueled by outrage at the punitive terms of the Versailles Treaty that ended the Great War, he found his voice and drew a following. As his views developed, Hitler attracted like-minded colleagues who formed the nucleus of the nascent Nazi party. The failed Munich putsch of 1923 and subsequent trial gave Hitler a platform for his views, which he skillfully exploited. Between 1924 and 1929 Hitler and his party languished in obscurity on the radical fringes of German politics, but the onset of the Great Depression provided Hitler the issues he needed to move into the mainstream of German political life. He seized the opportunity to blame Germany’s misery on the victorious allies, the Marxists, the Jews, and big business—and the political parties that represented them. By 1932 the Nazis had become the largest political party in Germany. Although Hitler became chancellor in 1933, his party had never achieved a majority in free elections. Within six months the Nazis transformed a dysfunctional democracy into a totalitarian state and began the inexorable march to World War II and the Holocaust. It is these fraught times that Childers brings to life: the Nazis’ rise to power and their use and abuse of power once they achieved it. Based in part on German documents seldom used by previous historians, The Third Reich charts the dramatic, improbable rise of the Nazis; the suffering of ordinary Germans under Nazi rule; and the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust. This is the most comprehensive and readable one-volume history of Nazi Germany since the classic Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Dedication......Page 6 Maps of Germany......Page 7 The German Party System......Page 10 Glossary of German Terms......Page 11 1. The Serpent’s Egg......Page 12 2. Hitler and the Chaos of Postwar Germany......Page 33 3. On the Fringe, 1925–28......Page 70 4. Into the Mainstream......Page 101 5. Making Germany Great Again......Page 134 6. The Nazis Hit a Wall......Page 164 7. The Impossible Happens......Page 189 8. Seizing Power......Page 211 9. Consolidation of Power......Page 243 10. The People’s Community......Page 266 11. A Racial Revolution......Page 303 12. Courting Disaster......Page 336 13. Early Success......Page 380 14. Hitler Turns West......Page 408 15. The Crusade Against Judeo-Bolshevism......Page 424 16. Holocaust and Total War......Page 454 17. Apocalypse......Page 477 Photographs......Page 512 Acknowledgments......Page 534 About the Author......Page 535 Notes......Page 537 Bibliography......Page 574 Index......Page 584 Copyright......Page 3