Peter Longerich is a German professor of history, whose work centers on the research of the Holocaust and 20th-century history. His scholarship delves deeply into the darker chapters of the past, seeking to understand their roots and repercussions. Longerich's analytical approach and meticulous examination of historical events provide readers with a penetrating insight into complex and often troubling subjects. His academic output is crucial for contemporary understanding of pivotal historical moments.
"On 20 January 1942, fifteen high-ranking Nazi Party, government, and SS officials arrived for a meeting in a luxurious villa on the shores of the Wannsee, a lake on the western outskirts of Berlin. The elegance and grandeur of the villa, with its exquisite lakeside position and opulent interiors, stood in stark contrast, however, to the purpose of that meeting: to discuss the implementation of the 'final solution to the Jewish question'." -- Inside front book jacket flap.
From one of the most prominent biographers of the Nazi period, a new and provocative portrait of the figure behind the century's worst crimes Acclaimed historian Peter Longerich, author of Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler now turns his attention to Adolf Hitler in this new biography. While many previous portraits have speculated about Hitler's formative years, Longerich focuses on his central role as the driving force of Nazism itself. You cannot separate the man from the monstrous movement he came to embody. From his ascendance through the party's ranks to his final hours as Führer in April 1945, Longerich shows just how ruthless Hitler was in his path to power. He emphasizes Hitler's political skills as Germany gained prominence on the world's stage. Hitler's rise to, and ultimate hold on, power was more than merely a matter of charisma; rather, it was due to his ability to control the structure he created. His was an image constructed by his regime - an essential piece self-created of propaganda. This comprehensive biography is the culmination of Longerich's life-long pursuit to understand the man behind the century's worst crimes.
Focusing on Adolf Hitler's significant involvement in the Holocaust's planning and execution, this study provides an in-depth analysis by a prominent German expert on the subject. It explores the historical context and the mechanisms of the genocide, shedding light on Hitler's influence and decision-making processes that led to one of history's darkest chapters.
From renowned German Holocaust historian Peter Longerich comes the definitive one-volume biography of Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's malevolent minister of propaganda
The first-ever comprehensive biography of Heinrich Himmler, SS-Reichsfuhrer,
Nazi Interior Minister, and Chief of Police, whose name has become a byword
for the terror, persecution, and destruction that characterized the Third
Reich.
A comprehensive history of the Nazi persecution and murder of European Jews,
demonstrating just how central anti-semitism was to Nazi ideology and what a
driving force it was in the development of Nazi decision-making, from their
earliest days in power through to the invasion of the Soviet Union and the
implementation of the Final Solution.
In 1998, Longerich published "Politik der Vernichtung" ("Politics of Destruction"), a stunning reexamination of the Holocaust. Now finally available in English, this masterful history uses an unrivaled range of sources to lay out in clear detail the steps taken by the Nazis that would lead ultimately to the Final Solution.
"The Holocaust differs from other genocides in recent history for one main reason: there is no other example in which a minority was annihilated systematically and as completely as possible on the orders of a head of state and through the apparatus of government." "The fact that the murder of the European Jews was the result of conscious decisions made at the highest levels of the Third Reich has been under-emphasized in the research on the Holocaust. Through the discovery of new documents, the central role that Hitler played in the persecution and murder of the European Jews can be proved much more conclusively than was possible just a few years ago. Although it would be a mistake to put the murder of the Jews down to Hitler's will alone (especially as numerous studies have brought out the shared responsibility and active involvement of a large number of accomplices), it is time to make clear once again that Hitler was the driving force behind the radicalisation of the National Socialist policy of extermination. To put it simply: without Hitler there would have been no Holocaust." "The aim of the book is to offer documentary proof of Hitler's central role in the murder of the European Jews. In order to achieve this aim, various documents and fragments of documents have been pieced together and the codified language of the dictator deciphered."-- Book jacket
