Germany Books

This is another "must read" for those truly interested in the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Banking and "Money" and how it all works or doesn't work is another one of my projects. This book is a good example of some of the negative aspects of banking. There are many more such examples. After reading this book I doubt if you will feel any compassion for the "injustice" of reparation payments to those "nasty" Jews.
Whatever these banks and the European communities are paying to Jewish descendents is merely a trifle - a drop in a big bucket of blood, human ashes, hate, cruelty, slaughter, and abuse.
But have no fear it was not just the Swiss - the Americans, the British the French and the Rockefellers should be hearing a big knock on their vault doors in the not too distant future. Of course, they may have already settled "out of court" - that would be the wise choice.

Lebor's analytical look at the long forgotten links between Switzerland's bankers and the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler is a must read for anyone interested in understanding the Third Reich's rise to power. Lebor carefully maps out the strategic ties between the two that allowed Germany to rearm after WWI, to launch war against Europe and the Soviet Union and to successfully plan and finance genocide. In a word, this book is a must for any student of history, and for all those interested in understanding how the seeds for the darkest period of the 20th century were planted and germinated.

This book is an excellent analysis of the Holocaust and how the Second World War incorporated into it. The authors premise that a significant amount of literature devotes itself solely to the war or the Holocaust without infusing one with the other is true and this book tries to correct that. How many men in the SS and in general how many workers were needed to keep the massive genocidal machine going throughout the war are presented as well as how much material was used up transporting Jews to slave labor and their deaths. A good amount of room is also given to how much money the Germans made by simply stealing from or blackmailing Jews and how much monetary value the goods taken from Jews after they arrived in concentration/death camps amounted to as well. It is a wonder that compensation wasn't forthcoming sooner from some of the countries that benefited from Jewish slave labor and harbored stolen goods (including art, furniture, etc). The book is also a good analysis of some of the recent literature that has come out about the Holocaust, form the idea that it was a unique event in the history of this world to allied noncompliance when asked to bomb Auschwitz or to inform the world about what was going on within German occupied territory. A lot of room is also given to understanding how Jews left Germany and how many even returned for one reason or another. Another point is Jewish resistance and how underrated it is in Holocaust literature, literally around 100 ghettos had some form of a resistance organization and even concentration/death camps such as Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Sobibor had some kind of rebellion or revolt. All in all this book is an excellent investment with a lot of excellent information and analysis.

This is an excellent introduction to this most depressing and distressing topic. Prof. McKale makes his case rather well that Hitler did indeed order the Holocaust. (It's hard to believe that there are those who still maintain his innocence, but they are out there.) His final chapters reviewing current controversies surrounding the Holocaust are very good. For one seeking a broad overview, this is an excellent choice. He provides sufficient detail and analysis about the various stages and components of this most dreadful enterprise to allow the reader to understand the whole picture, but does not overwhelm the reader with a myriad of details more appropriate to a specialized study. His bibliography and endnotes provide a wealth of more specialized works for anyone who discovers a particular interest in some aspect of this wretched business. Mercifully, Prof. McKale spares the reader much of the more grisly details of the murders' methods such as may be found in works such as Richard Rhodes, "Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocast", for example, an excellent work that requires a very strong constitution from the reader. Prof. McKale is not the least bit balanced in his approach: the perpetrators of this murder and their accomplices, whether direct or indirect, are completely guilty and utterly without excuse; the victims -- those actually murdered in the camps or in the field by the SS, the German Army, or the local population -- the victims are totally innocent, ruthlessly murdered simply because they existed. I do not recall one instance where Prof. McKale gave the slightest credence to any proffered rationalization or justification for the murderers' dismal deeds. There were none.

Germany learned to overcome one of the worst eras of history. Mr. Goldhagen gives an excellent perspective into how human beings can become monsters when they allow hate to rule their lives and subsequently take out that hate on an innocent group of people. Today's America could stand to relearn these lessons and not repeat the same mistakes that they fought against in the past. Our appointed president has shown that there are too many similarities between the United States today and the Nazi Regime to ignore. Just because the victims aren't Jews, doesn't mean what's happening is not fascism. Let's hope that Americans don't become Bush's Willing Executioners. Many countries considered Germany to be liberators as well, but they soon found out otherwise.

In the past year, European sympathy with the Arab cause and resentment of Israeli incursions against the Palestinians in general and against Yassir Arafat in particular have demonstrated that the derogatory and supposedly discredited views of Jews and Judaism held by the Nazis still lie just beneath the surface of political correctness. In order to combat such persistent bigotry, it is useful if appalling to keep in mind Professor Goldhagen's succinct account of such prejudices. The Nazis, he reminds us, viewed Jews as parasitic work shirkers who lived off others' labor, and who, like Shylock, lent money at usurious rates; as hypermaterialistic, dishonest, and thievish amassers of wealth stolen from the Volk (Michael Milken is believed by many present-day Germans to exemplify this characteristic); and as scheming evildoers who stirred up trouble and internecine strife within otherwise harmonious communities. Even the forged libel entitled "The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion" retains currency in certain European and middle-eastern circles. The prevalence of such views in Nazi Germany made willing collaborators of ordinary Germans, and Professor Goldhagen has performed a valuable service in providing painstaking scholarly documentation of this inarguable historical phenomenon.

Though Maser's treatment of Hitler is not as readable, fluid or as definitive as American John Toland's 1977 biography, this is the second-best biography written about Hitler.

Maser's historical credibility was compromised in 1977 by his announcement that he had discovered Hitler's "son," Jean Lorret, the result, supposedly, of Hitler's relationship with a Belgian peasant girl in World War I. The original German-language edition of this book carries that story, with photos of Hitler's alleged paramour.

This book is not good for novices, and it would help if there was a backlog of knowledge about Hitler prior to tackling Maser's prose. But for those who are well-versed in Hitler, this is an excellent book.

This book's only shortcoming is that it isn't as clearly mapped out as the others, but what it lacks in organization of facts it more than makes up for in detail. I praise this author above all of Hitler's other biographers, because he was the LEAST-BIASED. He also digs deeper than most others were willing or able to. His statements were based on fact.
1.) Maser gives a thorough list of the key dates in Hitler's life, including the battles he took part in.
2.) He compares Hitler with Napoleon (very insightful!)
3.) He is one of the few to admit Hitler's enormous talent both as an artist and as a human being.
4.) Maser doesn't tend to demonize Hitler as readily as other authors did and still do.
5.) Maser reaveals some fascinating facts surrounding "Hitler's son"

The list goes on...
It is such a shame that this book is so hard to find in the States. A tip for all literate in German, try to get ahold of the updated German version of this book. You won't be disappointed.

Holocaust: The Fire That Raged
By: Seymour Rossell

Holocaust: The Fire That Raged is pretty much a book full of "cut and dry" facts. It gives a lot of specific information about the revolts in the various ghettos. In the Warsaw ghetto it even tells what kind of weapons the Jews had smuggled in. It tells of some of the weapons were machine guns that were smuggled in piece by piece, molotov cocktails, and pistols that were used against the Nazis in revolts. It tells about the lives of people in the ghettos and camps, and how they were treated. There is information about how the Jews were treated in great detail. The book also tells about where and when Adolf Hitler and his Nazi political party attacked Jewish neighborhoods and other countries to "round up" the Jews. It includes information about Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass). Holocaust: The Fire That Raged gives information of about how many Jews were killed in the Holocaust. There are also many actual photographs taken during the time period. There are pictures of Hitler, the ghettos, concentration camps, death camps, and even Jewish people in them. The pictures also have very descriptive captions with them to tell you what the picture is all about. It says that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis conquered most of Europe and a small part of Russia. There is information about the Nazi secret police and how they handled the Jewish people, and how some people ended up secretly helping Jews escape from the horrid places. It says that they were hidden in underground tunnels and in other places.
I think this book is great at giving you information because it tells you forward.
I would recommend this book to a person of any age because it taught me things that I didn't even learn in school.

I think this book was very good. If people enjoy history I would recomend this book to people that enjoy history. In the book the author follows the actions of Adolf Hitler, the Nazi party,and the Jewish people. The book goes into to detail such as how old Adolf Hitler was, what his father looked like, and details in Jewish ghettos. I heared that other people really enjoyed this book like I did. When Adolf Hitler came into power the book gave me some interesting facts that i did not know. Also when Adolf Hitler was in power I did not know that he captured most of Europe and a little bit of Asia. As I said before I would recomend this book to people that enjoy reading history.

This eye-opening book pulls together more fascinating and sobering information than many others two or three times its size. It's written in accessible, understandable language, devoid of jargon. Two thumbs way, way up.

An excellent resource for anyone interested in the Gay Rights movement of early 1900s Germany up to WWII. I found this book to be my most valuable resource while writing a report on this topic. The book also treats Nazi persecution of homosexuals, and for this topic I would additionally recommend Plant's The Pink Triangle and Heger's Men with the Pink Triangle.

Diana Belucci's newest reference title isn't just a another dictionary of pronunciation as might be anticipated: rather, How To Pronounce French, German And Italian Wine Names creates and presents a complete method of learning pronunciation to provide keys to the phonetic pronunciation of over 15,000 wine terms, regions, and grape varieties in five different languages. How To Pronounce French, German And Italian Wine Names could've appeared in our 'Literary' or 'Languages' section but deserves mention here for its in-depth interest to wine buffs.

It helped me to pronounce the French wine names like a Frenchmen & Spanish wine like a Spaniard and so on. I am no longer worried about someone in the audience trying to correct my pronunciations. Further it has very comprehensive coverage, I found almost all names that I wanted to pronounce in this book." It real is great value

"Weg! -get the hell out of the way! -he said to me in a rasping voice. I shrugged it off ... but I still existed, and I shrugged it off ... the insults of these people are no more able to reach us than they are able to get their hands on the nightmare we have become in their brains: for all their denying of us we are still there." (p. 51)

These victimizers could live next to you, could walk by you any given day on the streets, they are not German, they are human of any nationality, in this case Spanish: "Sometimes the SS man laughs and jokes with the doctor. And yet, before he was given the job, the SS used to beat him. But now he wears a white coat; he sleeps in a small heated room; he doesn't have to go to roll call; and he eats, and he's pink ... the Spanish doctor rapidly turned into a particularly good example of the kommando's aristocracy." It makes one ashamed to be Spanish, human. And there's no such thing as sin, they say.

It's a hard read because of its sadness, hellish misery, absence of what well-intentioned people call humanity but is nothing but sin and evil. The author cries his soul out, pours his deepest self in words of sorrow, in pages that seek comprehension, but from whom? The author does not say. If its from his readers no help can be given him now.

This is the best account of the experiences of a man in a nazi prison camp during the European Holocaust. Buch better than the popular Primo Levi book. This is a deep, slow-paced, intellectual, thinking-man's guide to survival in Holocaust Europe. There are detailed descriptions of ways of feeling, of sentiments and relationships that are tacit, hard to describe, but which the author in his characteristic French style achieves perfectly.

I strongly recommend to read this book, with a little patience. It takes its time to get into it fully, to grasp the implications and all the meaning of what's going on physically -but specially- psychologically. The book is not spiritual, because there's no spiritual faith. But if humanity is not enough to account for the gravity of the things told here, then who or what to appeal to? If we trust in man alone, and man does these things, then who are we to appeal to? It would be an useless exercise of intellect.

This is the best and most moving account I've ever read of life in a concentration camp, better by far than Primo Levi, better even than Viktor Frankl, and better even than One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, all of which are saying a lot. The book pulled me into the daily life in a way I've not encountered so strongly before. Antelme has a gift for providing details that immerse the reader in the experience, and he has a novelist's skill with characterization. This is a powerful, meaningful work.

I found this book to be a very interesting look at the inside pollitics of the third reich. Fritz tells us why he broke with the third Reich and fled Nazi Germany. Although he doesn't give much if any detail about the amounts of his donations or really any information concerning them. He mainly just tells why he became disinfranchised and finally decided to flee.

This is a fascinating first-person account from a German industrialist, covering the critical period between WWI and WWII, published in 1941 after Thyssen left Germany.

Despite its limitations, this material is very illuminating and gives Thyssen's version of his motives for giving substantial financial support, early, to the NSDAP (Nazi Party). After Thyssen's description of the episode of what happened to him and his father during the WWI-era, it is not so surprising. Thyssen's money was probably critical to the early successes of the NSDAP.

Thyssen describes his meetings with Hitler -- where and when -- and how the money was handed over (which Hitler would not take in person himself, directly).

Includes "the only known photo" of Thyssen with Hitler.

This is a valuable personal account for every student, researcher, or author of WWII history.

Highly recommended.

I do not mean the models walking on the podium in Milano. These are architectural models build by von Gerkan or his team. It was a delight to read the book, go through well build models, seems like just came out of a machine shop, indicating how much care is given to the architecture they represent. It makes me feel I want to build them too.

The approach to architecture taken by von Gerkan Marg und Partner is exceptional, as the models pictured here testify. (Not only have I read the book, but I've visited their offices and the models on display.) Allow this book to impress and inspire you to appreciate an architecture that is modern, yet extremely humane, simple, yet rich.