Product Description

During the past 16 years, acclaimed author and documentary-maker, Laurence Rees has met and interviewed a large number of former Nazis, and his unique insights into the Nazi psyche and the Second World War have received enormous praise. Following the success of Rees's bestselling "Auschwitz", this substantially revised and updated edition of "The Nazis - A Warning from History" tells the powerfully gripping story of the rise and fall of the Third Reich. At the heart of the book lie compelling eyewitness accounts of life under Adolf Hitler, spoken through the words of those who experienced the Nazi regime at every level of society. An extensive new section on the Nazi/Soviet war (previously published in Rees's "War of the Century") provides a chilling insight into Nazi mentality during the most bloody conflict in history. Described as 'one of the greatest documentary series of all times', "The Nazis - A Warning from History" won a host of awards, including a Bafta and an International Documentary Award. The accompanying book broke new ground in our understanding of the Nazi regime and was praised for 'getting to the heart of the most troubling and elusive questions of Germany before and during World War Two'. The dramatic and incredible story that unfolds in these pages, once read, is not easily forgotten. '...scholars across the world owe a considerable debt of gratitude to Laurence Rees for his immense and unique contribution to historical understanding.' - From the citation awarding Laurence Rees Honorary Doctorate from the University of Sheffield in July 2005.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15139 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Customer Reviews

Fantastic book
I would strongly recommend this book to anyone that is interested in the Subject having watched the documentary that the book accompanies it has alot of information on the role that the Nazis played in the Second World War and it also shows the ideologies of Hitler and his men.

It is written in a such a way that it is accessible to anyone, whether you are a historian or just interested in the subject

As if we'd listen anyway
I have high praise for Laurence Rees' excellent books on Auschwitz and his analysis of how war and the individual interact in "Their Darkest Hour". "The Nazis" meets the same standard, compressing the vast amount of available information into an accessible length, without sacrificing important detail. It is a fascinating read, which both demonstrates how easy it can be for totalitarians to establish themselves, if the time is ripe and also blows away some of the myths about how the Nazis operated. The idea that the Nazi state was fanatically well ordered and planned is false for example: there was no "top down" system of bureaucracy, instead Hitler would issue edicts along the lines of "I want Germany to be a racially pure state" and then let everyone else work out what that meant. There was tremendous waste and duplicated effort as the Fuhrer liked to assign tasks to several departments and then let them fight it out to see whose system would come out on top. Bit like the NHS then. But saddest of all is Rees' discovery that the Gestapo, long depicted as having agents and spies on every street corner, were in fact seriously undermanned and depended on the denouncements of ordinary Germans to do their "job". In that way, the Nazi system seems to have exactly mirrored Stalin's Russia, where you could easily find yourself freezing in Siberia if your neighbour took a fancy to your slightly bigger apartment.

So what warning should we take from this intelligent and balanced analysis? I think we all have to draw our own conclusions, but for the record the message I took is that while the unfairness of the Versailles Treaty, the depression of the thirties might have made the rise of the Nazis inevitable, what sustained it and made the unthinkable possible was the mundane human desire to conform, to go along with the prevailing opinion, and that this is often the biggest enemy we face.

An insightful read
I couldn't disagree more strongly with the previous reviewer. It's only by challenging the interviewees that Rees gains the insights this book is full of. The series this book is based on won a BAFTA - and that gives an idea of the quality of the research. I really enjoyed it.