This volume addresses critical issues concerning 22 prominent figures in the Nazi Party and the NS regime, including their social origins, their experiences in World War I, how they came to join the Nazi Party, the role played by ideology in motivating them, their relationship with Hitler and with other NS leaders, and their historical importance for the NSDAP and the NS regime.
The Third Reich's Elite Schools tells the story of the Napolas, Nazi Germany's most prominent training academies for the future elite. This deeply researched study gives an in-depth account of everyday life at the schools, while also shedding fresh light on the political, social, and cultural history of the Nazi dictatorship.
While the trial of Hitler's fallen elite at Nuremberg has been thoroughly documented, the interval between the Nazis' capture in May and June 1945 and the start of the actual trial in late November has until now remained shrouded in shadow. With Interrogations, acclaimed historian Richard Overy opens a new window into the Third Reich, providing an intimate glimpse of the savage dictatorship in its death throes. More than thirty transcripts of the interrogations are reproduced here for the first time, allowing us to hear the voices of the newly captured "Hitler gang"-including Göring, Speer, and Hess-as they squirmed under the Allies' glare. Interrogations is the stark and disturbing history of defeat; it lays bare as never before the human weaknesses that made the Third Reich possible.
As neo-fascist rumblings are being felt again throughout Europe, it is proper to re-examine the development of the Third Reich and the philosophies of its leaders. The Nazi Elite presents twenty-two biographical sketches of some of the most notorious fascist leaders of the twentieth century: Joseph Goebbels, propagandist extraordinaire; Heinrich Himmler, the director of the infamous SS; Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi foreign minister; Rudolf Hess, considered by many to be deputy Fuehrer; Hermann Goerring, Hitler's right- hand man; Martin Bormann; Alfred Rosenberg; Otto Ohlendorf; Ernst Julius Rohm; and many others of the inner circle, including, of course, Adolf Hitler himself. In a series of highly readable essays, The Nazi Eliteexamines the personalities, histories, and philosophies of these men, dispels common stereotypes, and offers new perspectives. Composed by leading scholars in the U.S. and Europe, many of whom have written definitive full-length biographies on their subjects, these essays shed light on historical controversies, such as the role of modernization during the Third Reich and the basis of Hitler's power as dictator. The Nazi Elite is illuminating reading for every observer of extremist politics and for anyone interested in the history of our century.
This text aims to demonstrate that few of the Nazi leaders could have succeeded on their own, arguing that they owed their privileges and power solely to Hitler's favouritism.
"With military defeat of the Nazis in World War II, many people began to fear the threat of communism. However, what most people don't realize is that the Power Elite (PE) has used both communism and Nazism in a dialectical process to bring about a techno-feudal world socialist government. While much of the world celebrated the Allied defeat of Hitler in 1945, what they didn't know was that the Nazis were winning the war for control of much of the world's economy. By 1943, Hitler's second-in-command, Martin Bormann, had $180 billion in assets (today worth trillions of dollars) that he could use to execute a secret plan to spread national socialism around the world." -- P. [4] of cover.
Hitler's Elite: The SS 1939–45 tells the complete story of the SS at individual, unit and organizational levels. Following an explanation of the SS' complex political and social origins, and its growth within the Nazi empire, it goes on to look at both its war record and its wider role in Heinrich Himmler's implementation of Hitler's vision for the Third Reich. As well as providing a combat history of the Waffen-SS from 1939 to 1945, it also explores themes such as ideology, recruitment, foreign SS personnel, training and equipment. The book's textual history is brought to life with more than 200 photographs and colour artworks from Osprey's series titles. As a companion volume to Hitler's Armies and Hitler's Eagles, this book gives a detailed and highly visual insight into one of Hitler's most powerful instruments of policy.
