Title: Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis
Author: Ian Kershaw
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393049949
Pro:
• Uses recently available material from Russian archives and Hitler’s earliest speeches
• Solid introduction to the social and political milieu that made Hitler possible
Con:
• Very, very long
Description:
• Biography of Adolf Hitler from his last real political successes in 1936 to his death
• Written to explain how Hitler and the social structures of the time interacted
Book Review
It is difficult to write a biography of a man like Adolf Hitler — understanding his life is necessary, but any serious effort to understand him risks also coming to sympathize with him. Some modicum of empathy and sympathy on our part is probably important because Hitler himself appears to have felt none towards others and we don’t want to be like him; at the same time, though, sympathy for a person can translate into excusing them and that must be avoided in Hitler’s case.
Ian Kershaw avoids such problems in his book Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis, the second installment of his two-volume biography of Adolf Hitler. The first volume was large, but it’s dwarfed by the second: over 850 pages of text and over 200 pages of notes. This is not a book for casual readers and the merely curious — it’s a detailed study of Hitler and his actions from the height of his successes in 1936 through his suicide in 1945.
Another problem with any biography with Hitler, one not so readily avoided, is the fact that there doesn’t seem to have been much of any “person” behind the public facade he created for himself. Without hobbies, interests, or real personal relationships, what is there to say about him? This isn’t such a huge problem for Kershaw because as a historian, he typically looks to more structural explanations for historical events rather than relying on the idea that history is driven by the will and actions of “great men” (which was ultimately Hitler’s perspective, ironically enough).
The focus of Kershaw’s biography is not and cannot be the “person” of Hitler, but is instead the nature of Hitler’s power over Germany: how did it develop, why did it exist, and why did it persist long past the point when everyone realized that all was lost? According to Kershaw, Hitler’s power was a social product of people’s expectations of him and his ability to create a mythic image of himself.
Thus Kershaw spends a great deal of time on how the Germany people reacted to Hitler’s actions (early on they were more supportive, later on less so; but always they wished simply for peace and a return to normalcy) and the extensive efforts of Nazi leaders to “work towards the Führer.” What this means is a bit complex. There was no rational organization of the state under Hitler — as time passed, more and more power was placed in his hands and thus decisions could only be made according to his whim.
As a consequence, people sought to please him in order to expand the scope of what little personal power they could obtain. This meant doing what they thought Hitler would want. He himself seems to have rarely made any firm decisions; instead, he would outline general principles and goals in rants that lasted for hours on end, then his subordinates would “translate” this into general policies.
This has created the debate over the degree to which Hitler is personally responsible for the Holocaust: did he order the mass murder of all Jews, or did he simply insist that they be eliminated and then later accept the “solutions” others developed? He certainly knew about it after it started and knew the consequences if it became general knowledge either in Germany or the rest of the world. The question is, did he specifically order things like mass executions or gassing followed by cremation? Did he even have them in mind when giving vague directives about eliminating Jews from Europe?
There may never be any final answers to these questions and others, but Kershaw’s biography of Hitler provides a wealth of information and history which are vital for even beginning to approach the issues.
