Finally finished Rise and Fall of the Third Reich today. What a book! Not without its biases and faults, but worthy of consideration. And what a shattering conclusion to the saga, the drama in the bunker, Hitlers horrifying decisions that the rest of Germany should die with him.
There are still instructive lessons about Hitler's downfall: stay grounded in reality, keep your attention on the main objective don't make everything revolve around you, realize your limitations, and fall back when you need to.
It is difficult not to play what-if games looking back at the history of the Nazi Germany. Had Hitler made some different strategic decisions like a stronger alliance with Russia which would have bought him the materials and time to get his jets in the air, then it would have been a bloody fight for the UK with easy air superiority. The combined forces of Stalin and Hitler would probably have been too strong for a decisive American victory, and at any rate, the Japanese generals were out for war anyway, further weakening the ability of the Americans to fight on two fronts. If the UK fell, then it seems likely to me that under occupation, the leadership of the UK would have had to consent to Nazi rule of most of Europe in exchange for peace, and that the US would have also to respect this position.
All the while, the pogrom to annihilate the Jews would have continued and intensified, the Slavs and Poles would have been enslaved and the countries turned to massive feudal estates. With the advanced technology such as jet fighters, early ICBMs, and early development towards the atomic bomb, Hitler, having satisfied himself with Europe, would be impossible to attack. The only real chance of regime change would then have to be internal- rebellion from the enslaved peoples.
But in the end, Hitler made several astoundingly bad strategic choices. He elected to start a war with the Soviet Union, and he also chose to declare war on the United States, and both of these decisions were within a few months of each other. He was a terrible military strategist, but a brilliant political strategist in the realm of continental Europe. He didn't really understand the British, and he completely failed to understand the Americans either.
Anyway, watched Downfall tonight which is apropo as it re-enacts with high accuracy the morbid and macabre last few days in Hitler's bunker in Berlin. A good movie, but predictably gloomy with some particularly hard to watch scenes.
I'm happy to be done with this book. Time to download something a bit more light-hearted.
There are still instructive lessons about Hitler's downfall: stay grounded in reality, keep your attention on the main objective don't make everything revolve around you, realize your limitations, and fall back when you need to.
It is difficult not to play what-if games looking back at the history of the Nazi Germany. Had Hitler made some different strategic decisions like a stronger alliance with Russia which would have bought him the materials and time to get his jets in the air, then it would have been a bloody fight for the UK with easy air superiority. The combined forces of Stalin and Hitler would probably have been too strong for a decisive American victory, and at any rate, the Japanese generals were out for war anyway, further weakening the ability of the Americans to fight on two fronts. If the UK fell, then it seems likely to me that under occupation, the leadership of the UK would have had to consent to Nazi rule of most of Europe in exchange for peace, and that the US would have also to respect this position.
All the while, the pogrom to annihilate the Jews would have continued and intensified, the Slavs and Poles would have been enslaved and the countries turned to massive feudal estates. With the advanced technology such as jet fighters, early ICBMs, and early development towards the atomic bomb, Hitler, having satisfied himself with Europe, would be impossible to attack. The only real chance of regime change would then have to be internal- rebellion from the enslaved peoples.
But in the end, Hitler made several astoundingly bad strategic choices. He elected to start a war with the Soviet Union, and he also chose to declare war on the United States, and both of these decisions were within a few months of each other. He was a terrible military strategist, but a brilliant political strategist in the realm of continental Europe. He didn't really understand the British, and he completely failed to understand the Americans either.
Anyway, watched Downfall tonight which is apropo as it re-enacts with high accuracy the morbid and macabre last few days in Hitler's bunker in Berlin. A good movie, but predictably gloomy with some particularly hard to watch scenes.
I'm happy to be done with this book. Time to download something a bit more light-hearted.
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