Helmut Heiber (1924–2003)

The translated verbatim transcripts of the daily German High Command meetings. The book is massive in size and length. It is over 1100 pages in length. The main portion is 738 pages in length, with most of the remaining pages take up by very copious notes (over 2000 footnotes). The footnotes are so numerous and lengthy in size, they become a distraction from the main text. That being said, the main text is fascinating, as one gets to actually feel like you were there at the daily meetings, show more and you get to listen in on what was being discussed. What is fascinating is Hitler comes across as a lot less hands on then what we had been led to believe, or so it seems in these translated pages. The vast majority of the transcripts were burned up at the end of the war, and are gone forever, so it is possible that withing those pages Hitler was a lot more hands on in terms of moving divisions around etc., but in these pages, he asks lots of questions, but does not seem to be moving units around very much. That seems to be done outside of the scope of these meetings. All in all, this is truly one of the best historical documents to come out of WWII, and I would highly recommend it to anyone with an interest on the Germans in WWII. show less

To paraphrase the blurb, you can watch Goebbels' intellect fall from him in big flakes as the war progresses. Superseded by the 28-volume diary, this biography remains nevertheless remains astutely, and sadly, chillingly contemporary: The man knew how mass media worked.

Para Heiber, llegar a un acuerdo sobre los auténticos perfiles de la vida y circunstancia histórica de un personaje tan polémico y que tantas pasiones ha suscitado como Adolf Hitler viene resultando una tarea particularmente difícil.

Buch Rückseite: Diese Sammlung von Kuriositäten, Banalem, Grotesken und Skandalösem offenbart die ganze Verlogenheit und Spießigkeit des NS-Regimes.