Hitlers mensen: De gezichten van het Derde Rijk

by Richard J. Evans

Na het voltooien van zijn veelgeprezen trilogie over het Derde Rijk was er één vraag die historicus Richard J. Evans maar niet losliet: hoe heeft het zover kunnen komen dat een samenleving zo massaal de wil van het kwaad tot uitvoering bracht? Om de opkomst en invloed van het nationaalsocialisme te kunnen doorgronden neemt hij ons mee naar de oorsprong: de levens van de belangrijkste leden van de nazibeweging.

In Hitlers mensen schetst Evans biografische portretten van Hitler en zijn trouwste volgelingen. Met oog voor detail en op basis van recent geopenbaard archiefmateriaal ontleedt hij het Derde Rijk aan de hand van de persoonlijke en professionele levens van de mensen die het vormgaven. Van zijn meest beruchte beleidsmakers zoals propagandist Goebbels en SS-leider Himmler tot degenen die het nazibeleid uitvoerden, maar daarna grotendeels vergeten zijn, zoals schoolmeester Julius Streicher en actrice Leni Riefenstahl. En door de mensen achter het nazibewind centraal te stellen toont Evans de complexiteit van medeplichtigheid en laat hij zien dat de grenzen tussen individuele en collectieve verantwoordelijkheid – en zelfs tussen het kwaad en rationaliteit – vaak moeilijk te ontwaren zijn.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Germany, World War II, Politics, Audiobook

664 pages, Hardcover

First published August 13, 2024

About the author

Richard J. Evans is one of the world's leading historians of modern Germany. He was born in London in 1947. From 2008 to 2014 he was Regius Professor of History at Cambridge University, and from 2020 to 2017 President of Wolfson College, Cambridge. He served as Provost of Gresham College in the City of London from 2014 to 2020. In 1994 he was awarded the Hamburg Medal for Art and Science for cultural services to the city, and in 2015 received the British Academy Leverhulme Medal, awarded every three years for a significant contribution to the Humanities or Social Sciences. In 2000 he was the principal expert witness in the David Irving Holocaust Denial libel trial at the High Court in London, subsequently the subject of the film Denial. His books include Death in Hamburg (winner of the Wolfson History Prize), In Defence of History, The Coming of the Third Reich, The Third Reich in Power, and The Third Reich at War. His book The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914, volume 7 of the Penguin History of Europe, was published in 2016. His most recent books are Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History (2019) and The Hitler Conspiracies: The Third Reich and the Paranoid Imagination (2020). In 2012 he was knighted for services to scholarship.

Reviews

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Evans tells us not to think of the perpetrators of the most horrendous crimes ever committed as psychopaths. Neither were the leading Nazis gangsters or hoodlums primarily seeking to enrich themselves. They were not insane, either, because the insane do not understand what they are doing. In contrast, nearly all Nazi war criminals were completely aware, remorseless, and proud that they had murdered millions of Jews and others whose mere existence “threatened” their imaginary Aryan race.

“Apart from flying in the face of the evidence, thinking of them as depraved, deviant or degenerate puts them outside the bounds of normal humanity and so serves as a form of exculpation for the rest of us, past, present and future,” concludes Mr. Evans in his superb biographical study, “Hitler’s People.” If we look to the past to understand the popular appeal of today’s strongmen and wannabe dictators, we must view even cruel tyrants as humans rather than monsters or raving imbeciles. In the right context and conditions, any of us may be capable of contravening societal norms of decency and restraint when sanctioned from above – “to commit acts that would have been unimaginable in other circumstances.”

Please read my review:

https://martindicaro.substack.com/p/h...

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard J. Evans' Hitler's People collects biographical profiles of the Third Reich's leaders, from the Fuhrer down to his small-time henchmen and hangers-on. It's not a novel approach (Evans admits a debt to Joachim Fest's The Face of the Third Reich) but Evans executes it with aplomb: colorful profiles of Eminent Nazis are laced with deflating anecdotes and wry humor that bring them down to earth without diminishing their evil. Hitler is viewed as an angry, petit bourgeois malcontent who shared the passions and prejudices of many of his background - tied with his oratorical skill and political savvy, it goes a long way towards explaining his success in seducing German voters to his side. Evans' portraiture of Goebbels, Himmler, Goering and other Hitler intimates offers fewer surprises, if only because this rogue's gallery has been profiled many times before (though I enjoyed the story of Goebbels being grabbed bodily off a train platform by a bodyguard, his legs kicking feebly in the air as the train left the station). Later chapters chronicle lesser-known, but still important figures like Robert Ley, the head of the German Labor Front who mated quasi-socialist ideas about land collectivization with a psychotic "Back to Nature" fascist agrarianism; the lawyer-bureaucrat Hans Frank, who grew fat off of his corrupt, brutal rule of occupied Poland; the vile propagandist Julius Streicher and the feckless conservative Franz von Papen, who became Hitler's Vice Chancellor expecting to manipulate him, only to be quickly outmaneuvered and put in his place. A final section discusses more marginal figures, from concentration camp guards (notably, an interesting dissection of the myth around Ilse Koch) to military officers to filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, using them to examine specific aspects of Nazi rule and culture more closely, while also deconstructing common narratives like the "Clean Wehrmacht" myth or Riefenstahl's insistence that she knew nothing about Nazi crimes. Evans' book makes a good companion to his Third Reich Trilogy, showing the kinds of people drawn to National Socialism and how they used the regime to advance their own, often conflicting, frequently idiosyncratic agendas - or how, finding success and comfort under the fascist umbrella, they didn't bother to challenge its precepts. A worthy addition to popular literature on Nazi Germany.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Richard J. Evans wrote an entire trilogy about the Third Reich, and they were critically acclaimed. I read the last two of the trilogy, and I found them to be informative. When I saw Evans was going to write this book, I was looking forward to reading it. I got it and started to read it. There were figures in Third Reich mentioned in this book that I had not heard of before. However, I found this book to be disappointing. There was no great insight, as one reviewer has already stated, it felt like Wikipedia. I am serious about that. Save yourself the money and just read about Heinrich Himmler on Wikipedia. I heard Evans state he is tired of writing about the Nazis and is planning to write about pandemics. His fatigue shows in this one.

[Myles · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I wasn't initially excited about reading a new book about the Nazi era, I found myself quickly engaged in an exercise to compare the rise of Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump.

What I discovered in Richard Evans’ "Hitler's People" is the perfect opportunity to do it.

I know this sounds a little extreme, but Trump is indeed turning America into a dictatorship. Moderate Americans seem to bide their time excusing every little (even not so little) gesture Trump makes towards this end.

Like Trump Republicans the Nazis were never a political party per se. They were a movement outside of the regular channels of party politics.

Hitler wooed voters with the force of personality. He encouraged extreme violence and justified it in his own mind as the necessary means toward the ultimate regeneration of the German people.

Hitler's Brown Shirts were ungovernable right from the beginning. They chased Communists and Social Democrats out of government and -- when Hitler had his Enabling Act (giving him and his puppet Cabinet sole authority to pass laws) passed -- herded them into the first of the concentration camps: Dachau. There they were beaten and brutalized, humiliated, and frequently killed. Other extreme measures included humiliation of the Jews, destruction of their property, and herding them into ghettos. But Hitler's goons didn't stop there. They fought and murdered anybody who disagreed with Hitler. It began long before Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, and it never stopped.

Hitler placed judges on the bench who would be sympathetic to Hitler's acolytes in the hundreds of cases of violence against Hitler's opponents. Charges were dropped. Prisoners were released. The offenders were given new positions of influence and power. Hans Frank defended many of those people. His courtroom technique was highly controversial at the time: he complained that the charges were political, the state was against them. He shouted in the courtroom. He belittled the prosecutors. He never faced charges head on.

Hitler wouldn’t respect any laws he hadn’t made and tore up international treaties he had made only months before. Likewise, Donald Trump.

Donald Trump pardoned all who participated in the attack on Congress. And he continues to pardon many terrible felons. Then elevates them to office...like Charles Kushner.

The propaganda czar, Joseph Goebbels, this was his strategy as well in public meetings. This was Hitler's strategy. This is Donald Trump's strategy. If the facts don't bear you out, lie, lie, and lie again. He learned this at the feet of Roy Cohn.

Hitler had no experience of government until very shortly before he became Chancellor. he had no relevant education. He knew nothing of business or health or finance. Almost none of his acolytes did. They were complete and utter amateurs at government. They were, however, experts at intimidation. And they became experts at corruption, self-dealing, and avoiding any accountability for their actions.

Throughout many readings of the Nazi outrages, and for that matter the outrages of the Stalinists, I wondered how large was the component of corruption. Did Nazis murder Jews to cleanse the German race, or to steal their possessions? Did Stalin and his descendants purge the Russian aristocracy to steal their property, or to level society for the benefit of the Proletariat?

Stalin purged his colleagues. Donald Trump threatens unbending Republicans with primary challenges. Stalin engineered the murder of millions of peasants. He signed the death warrants of thousands who even might have opposed him.

Donald Trump uses popular appeal to invade the workplace with his masked ICE squads. He sanctions airplanes loaded with undesirables and sends to prisons in foreign lands. He says America doesn't want these people. That they're violent offenders. That they broke the law. All of them. And his lieutenants tell the courts to F-Off.

Donald Trump has willfully attacked anybody standing in his way including Democrat law firms, liberal colleges, television giants, and Silicon Valley. As President he launches defamation law suits and holds up regulatory rulings until he is paid his millions. He fights DEI measures. They're all line-jumpers according Donald Trump. Get them out.

Listen, folks. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck...then it's a duck!

Reading this book was just so eery.

[David C Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Evans’ three volume history of the 3rd Reich is one of the best. He spun off this linked series of biographical essays at least in part because of increased concern about the revival of authoritarian and neofascist leadership and its appeal to ordinary people. The book itself is a useful survey of Hitler himself, the leadership, major figures, and ordinary people. There is a fair bit of repetition both in historical events (the “stab in the back” theory doesn’t need to be explained every time it occurs) and in the trajectory of the people discussed: normal German upbringing/shock of defeat/fall in status during depression/nationalism plus antisemitism/appeal of a forceful leader…. There are some surprises: Rohm was a cultured, piano playing aesthete as well as the wilding leader of the SA.

[Gerry Connolly · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Hitler’s People Richard Evans profiles key members of the Nazi era in Germany. It is a polyglot lot. From Goebbels to Himmler. But lesser men and women also play key parts in enabling the systematic murder machine that was the Third Reich. Hitler and his thugs took complete control over a cultured, integrated society and held sway for 13 years. The leadership was not the easy caricature of bloodthirsty sociopaths. Most in fact hailed from the educated bourgeoisie classes and some from the noble, upper crust families. They were mostly from Northern Protestant German families but a sprinkle of Catholics were also seduced. All had in common a deep resentment of the Versailles Treaty and the ensuing chaos of the Weimar Republic. And all virtually worshipped Hitler. Disturbing but essential retelling of history.

[Donna Bahry Bartlett · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Hitler's People" does a superb job of tracing the rise of Nazism through biographies of its leading players from Hitler on down. Evans gives us an inside view of each leader's early life, entry into the Nazi movement, and career trajectory up through WWII, Nuremburg, and even beyond. He also provides insights into their (often contentious) relationships with each other. And he notes how new evidence on them has emerged over time, changing historians' views of their roles in the Nazi regime. Very readable (and horrifying) history.

[Mike Hartnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the book is relatively short biographical depictions of nazis, from leadership down to relatively “everyday” people. It wasn’t entirely clear to me how these people were chosen, apart from the desire to show that perpetrators of terrible acts weren’t individually insane or inhuman. But selecting only people who actually participated in violence or racism cherry picks a certain type of person, and the author spends most of the book explaining what individual nazis were not, rather than attempting to explain what they were.

The bios had as much insight as a Wikipedia article, and when the conclusion came I hoped I’d get some kind of original thought. Instead, the author ended with an anecdote about a woman who had chosen to leave Germany when the nazis came to power, which forced him to question (seemingly for the first time) why some people didn’t go along for the ride.

[Sharon Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been reading a bunch of World War II books lately and this one was interesting on a couple of levels.

1. It's meticulously researched -- the notes and bibliography and index literally take up half the book, and many of them are German sources.
2. It talks about a number of the people involved in the Third Reich (with some odd omissions, like Martin Bormann, although his omission is at least explained, and Josef Mengele).
3. It's written post-2016, and it's difficult to read parts of it without thinking of its relevance to current and recent past events.

[Terence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hitler’s People: The Face of the Third Reich is a collection of biographical essays about the people who surrounded Adolf Hitler and made possible the atrocities of the Third Reich. Evans divides the book into four parts. “The Leader” is an extended treatment of Hitler himself, summarizing the latest interpretations of the dictator (a wealth of new data emerged when Soviet archives were opened in the wake of the USSR’s collapse). He dispenses with myths about Hitler’s sanity (though it was admittedly shaky toward the end) or his sexual perversions (though the relationship between him, Goebbels and Magda, his wife, was odd), to focus on how a nondescript, petty bourgeois became der Führer.

“The Paladins” looks at the top ranks of the Nazi regime. The usual suspects are there: Göring, Goebbels, Himmler. And Evans provides new insights for all three, but he also looks at lesser known “lights.” Like Ernst Röhm, the SA leader brutally murdered in the purges of 1934 when Hitler solidified his positions vis-à-vis the Wehrmacht generals and other conservatives. Or Ribbentrop, who’s usually portrayed as an incompetent dunderhead. Evans rehabilitates him to the extent that the reader understands why he acted as he did and, while no genius, was not quite as moronic as assumed.

“The Enforcers” looks at the second tier of Nazi leadership. The men who had little input in policy but were more than willing to carry it out. Again, there are the familiar faces: Heydrich, Hess, Eichmann. But again, Evans spotlights lesser known figures like Franz von Papen. “Papen,” a name that appears in most general histories of the era as the key figure in facilitating Hitler’s rise to power but rarely gets much attention. Though never a Nazi, Papen ardently supported Hitler to the very end even though he was relegated to minor, out-of-the-way sinecures as soon as his usefulness ended.

The most interesting section of the book (though all the essays here offer fascinating insights) is “The Instruments.” The only name I had any familiarity with was Leni Riefenstahl’s. The brilliant filmmaker whose talents were wasted glorifying the Nazis. The other names – Paul Zapp, Gertrude Scholtz-Klink, Ilse Koch, etc. – were revelations. [I did know of Ilse Koch indirectly – she inspired the character of “Ilse – She-Wolf of the SS” in several Nazisploitation films.] Luise Solmitz is perhaps the most tragic figure. She was never a Nazi, but she was typical of the conservative, right-leaning petty bourgeois who made up the base of Nazi support (much like the MAGA base in the U.S., if I may make a topical aside). [The working class tended to throw their support behind the Social Democrat and Communist parties before they were suppressed, and free elections became a thing of the past after 1933.] She supported Hitler because he promised to “Make Germany great again.” She downplayed the virulent antisemitism, misogyny and xenophobia, and only began to entertain doubts about the regime when its actions affected her life. In the insane racial categorizations of Nazi “science” (broadly similar to equally delusional classifications among U.S. racists) her husband, a decorated veteran of the Great War and as staunchly pro-Nazi as Luise, was a Jew because his parents were converts to Christianity. As the Nazi’s placed greater and greater restrictions on Jews, Herr Solmitz only avoided a concentration camp through military connections. He did, however, lose his job – like so many others – and was ostracized by his former peers. And their daughter, Gisela, suffered similar indignities because she was half-Jewish. Despite all of this, both remained faithful to Hitler. The final straw – the thing that caused her to write “[n]ever has a people supported such a bad cause with such enthusiasm” – was the threat a collapsing Germany posed to her daughter and grandchild. Gisela had escaped the worst of the anti-Jewish measures by marrying a Belgian and escaping from Germany proper but advancing Allied armies had prompted her return to her parents, and the increasingly precarious situation on the home front.

Evans neatly sums up the point of the preceding essays in his “Conclusion”:

As individuals, the perpetrators whose lives are recounted I this book were not psychopaths; nor were they deranged, or perverted, or insane, despite the portrayal of many of them as such in the media and the historical literature. They were not gangsters or hoodlums who took over the German state purely or even principally in order to enrich themselves or gain fame and power, though when opportunity knocked many of them did not hesitate to take advantage of it. Apart from flying in the face of the evidence, thinking of them as depraved, deviant or degenerate puts them outside the bounds of normal humanity and so serves as a form of exculpation for the rest of us, past, present and future. Nor were they people who existed on the margins of society, or grew up beyond the social mainstream. In most of their life, they were completely normal by the standards of the day. They came overwhelmingly from a middle-class background; there was not a single manual labourer among them. Many of them shared the conventional cultural attributes of the German bourgeoisie, were well-read, or played a musical instrument with some proficiency, or painted, or wrote fiction or poetry. But they all had in common the shattering emotional experience of a sharp and shocking loss of status and self-worth at any early point of their lives. For a number of them, Germany’s sudden and unexpected defeat in World War I was a traumatic event, bringing a promising career to an end and mocking the sacrifice that they and their families had offered, sometimes in blood. In some instances, an economic disaster – the hyperinflation, or the Great Depression – had a comparable effect.

Hitler offered them a way out of their feelings of inferiority, l inking their fate – and his own – to what he depicted as the modern historical trajectory of German as a whole, from defeat and humiliation to regeneration and resurgence, above all through overcoming seemingly unbridgeable political , economic and social divisions and antagonisms by creating a genuine, unitary people’s community such as supposedly had brought the nation together at the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 and shattered under the impact of defeat just over four years later. Most of them grew up socialized into a bourgeois milieu of strong German nationalism and conservatism; converts from Socialism or Communism or even conventional liberalism were rare in the extreme. The step from here to the more radical form of nationalism represented by the Nazis was only a short one. (pp. 461-2)

Highly recommended . One of the best books I’ve read so far in 2025.

[Eloise Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fascinating read. I’m not usually one for World War Two non-fiction and was looking for something that would challenge me a bit. I think this book is good for beginners like myself - I understand the criticisms that it feels like reading a Wikipedia about each of the subjects of the book, however, as a jumping off point, I think that’s what I needed. I’d like my next book on the topic to delve a little deeper though.

[Martin, I stand with ISRAEL · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book. Mr Evans, who I e-mailed a question to, has gone into the German mind and what he saw was not pretty. This is a must read to find out what CAUSED THE HOLOCAUST. He talks about Hitler, Goering, Goebbels, and so many more, but also the German people. They knew what was happening to the Jews and did nothing about it. Thus the title is called HITLER’S PEOPLE. (ALL GERMANS)

[Arthur Harris · Rating 1 out of 5]

The guy actually compares Goebbels Nazi propaganda machine to Trumps campaign. I guess the dumb ass brit never heard of ABC NBC CBS NPR PBS or the New York times or most other newspapers in this country. Stick to history. You are the one blinded by propaganda. Also your editor should be fired.

[Kristi Ahlers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a chilling break down of the people behind Hitler. Why, was he able to do what he did? This book helps to explain that. Very detailed.

[Lenni Justen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fuck these guys

[Sharon Row · Rating 1 out of 5]

WWII has always been a deep interest to me and I was excited to read this book. However, Evans provides superfluous writing in his narrative. Think of summarizing a book in a single sentence and then read his thousands of sentences just like this, one after the other with little regard to focusing on the subject. It was not impressive. The repetition (especially with the dates) also is designed as a school classroom tactic of rote to make sure you memorize these days specifically, whether you want to remember them or not. But the clincher was that he interjected his own unwarranted personal bias into this book equating Donald Trump to Joseph Goebbels, accusing both of using propaganda tactics. See page 147. In what possible context could Donald Trump be relevant in the 1930s? Evan's "wokeness" completely destroyed the integrity of the entire book and rendered mute his exhaustive research. I wonder if this is enough context to prove defamation in a lawsuit. This is supposed to be historical biography. It isn't. It's fiction.

[Alex Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Character studies of individuals playing roles of various levels of importance during the Nazi era.

The author, who has written extensively on the history of Nazi Germany has stated his boredom with the topic and intention to leave this subject and move on to other projects of history. This leaves the book with a rather disappointing “potential unachieved” rating.

Nothing astounding. No novel excursions outside the straitjacketed banality of evil narrative. No new insights into the mystery of mechanisms that were intrinsic to a system of government that validated atrocity and engendered persecution as the average mindset. No real explication of the details and mechanisms through which otherwise normal, law abiding, decent citizens were encouraged to tolerate and allow horror and death.

Nevertheless an Interesting, if not particularly enlightening read.

[tamaino · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like how this book is organized, in which the author introduces Nazi figures using a pyramid structure from the leader (Hitler) to the "paladins" (Himmler, Goebbels…), the "enforcers" (Heydrich, Eichmann…), and finally the "instruments" (von Leeb, SS members and their wives, a film star, etc.). This structure offers a landscape of how the Third Reich was operated by individuals from the Führer to ordinary people--who came up with theories and ideologies, who gave orders based on those ideas, who carried them out in their own ways, and who supported them in everyday lives.

It falls a bit short of my expectations because I was hoping for something more analytical and insightful instead of a set of biographical essays that, although they sketch these figures' lives well, don't really dive into their personalities, mindsets, or what was going on in their heads. The first part on Hitler is more like a succinct summary of how the Nazis came to power--the unit of analysis seems to be the organization rather than Hitler himself. The second and third parts are also quite Wikipedia-like, borrowing the words from another reviewer. The final part on the "instruments" is more insightful: here we get to know film stars, "apolitical" generals, physicians, female collaborators, and housewives. I can see the author chose them because they are representative of the groups they belong to.

In sum, I would say if you're not completely unfamiliar with Third Reich history and the top-level leaders, then just read the fourth part on “"instruments."

[JMarryott23 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read a lot about WW2 and inevitably Hitler is the most popular subject. This book starts with a long chapter about Hitler, but I wasn’t going to learn much new information when I’ve already read the much more thorough Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. With that said, reading about the supporting parts of the Nazi regime was an interesting read, as they are almost always bit players who don’t have their whole story told.

The book goes into each of their upbringings to help explain why they joined the Nazi party, an overview of their role in the party, and then how their story ended. One of the craziest things to me is how hardly anyone denounced the party or Hitler, even in many cases where Hitler demoted or turned on them. Hardly any of them ever showed remorse after the war, or even admitted they made immoral decisions. I think they knew their actions were wrong, and denial kicks in so that they can live with themselves. I also think in far too many cases the punishment fell woefully short of the crime. In that age it could be hard to prove crimes that would later be revealed in diaries and such, but too often people went free after committing heinous crimes over many years.

I should mention that in the Goebbel’s chapter, Evans ends by saying Donald Trump is basically Goebbel’s and using his playbook to exert power. To be the one modern day reference in the entire book, and not mention a Kim Jong Un or even someone like Putin, felt unnecessary and “prisoner of the moment”. I find the constant comparisons to Nazi’s in modern times really disgusting.

[Tim Armstrong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really quite an interesting and unique book. Looking at the people who made Nazi Germany what it was in short biographical essays. Starting with Hitler and working its way down, from his various inner and outer circles until it gets to a biographical essay on a regular working German, Evans show just how pervasive Nazism was in everyday German life and how people could be so willing to along with such an outwardly evil regime.

Lots of lessons to be taken from books like this. They are more important than ever.

[Bethany Crisp · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is packed with information and offers a deep dive into some of the lesser-known aspects of/faces behind the Holocaust. It explores many ways ordinary people enabled and justified Hitler’s actions, perspectives that are often overlooked. The book is fascinating and heavy. I would highly recommend it.

[Conner · Rating 5 out of 5]

The lebron of the field of historical studies of the third reich, Richard j evans caps off his career with probably the most poignant and important way to understand the subject which is through the people involved and the less formal ways they shaped each other and the system

[David Corleto-Bales]

Richard Evans does a concise biography of many of the main members of Hitler's regime, including the old paper hanger himself in this book. Instead of knuckle-dragging brutes, most were well-educated, with quite a few having doctorates in various subjects. All were generally right of center and most were veterans of the Great War, insulted and shocked by the armistice and looking for easy answers for the debacle. By the time the twenties rolled around, most of Hitler's inner circle had gradually moved towards more radical solutions to Germany's problems. All hated each other vehemently and fell over each other trying to gain Hitler's favor and competing for whom could be the most fervent groveler. Evans very easily dismisses Albert Speer's myth in a very detailed put down. Hitler's horribles remind me a lot of Trump's lickspittles, and hopefully we won't end up in the same predicament.

[Jeffrey (Akiva) Savett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read one part of Richard J. Evans’s epic trilogy on the rise and fall of the Nazi regime. Given how readable and well researched that was, this seemed like a chance to forgo some of the details I don’t really need to learn about the personalities who surrounded and carried out Hitler’s plans.

I was not disappointed in Evans. I did, however, come away disappointed IN HUMANITY. I suppose I should have been ready for such a possibility, but alas.

There were two reasons I felt this way the further I read.

1. The lyric “Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right,” from “Stuck In The Middle With You,” kept playing through my head as I read chapter after chapter describing aggressively average sycophants rising to positions of power and cruelty and sociopaths given free range to unfurl their colorful tails.

2. Surely, Evans wrote this at this moment for a reason. I’m sure it took him years, but we’ve had a pretty long spell for some of these analogies to develop. Are we living in mid 30s Nazi Germany? No, of course not. Not yet. Because I’m also reminded of Tolstoy’s wonderful and oft quoted line about happy families: “Happy families are all alike; each u happy family is unhappy in its own way.” In this case, there can never be a 1:1 historical correspondence to anything, let alone a Stalin, Hitler, Putin, Tito, Pol Pot.

Yes, they’re all unhappy in their own ways. Still our inability to see the rhythms and echoes of history repeating is off putting to say the least.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A series of short biographies of Nazis holding positions from top to bottom turns out to be an effective way of describing the Third Reich. The author starts with Hitler then covers the big names: Goering, Himmler, et al and works his way down to Nazis we’ve never heard of like the spouse of a camp Commandant and prison guards. We get Leni Riefenstahl the actress and film maker and even a Mary Chestnut type diarist to describe how the German public lost their enthusiasm for the Reich. Generally speaking, this was a very nasty bunch of people corrupted by power and racism and illustrates why calling Trump supporters Nazis is defamatory and libelous. There will no doubt never be an end to books about Hitler’s Germany. This is a good one that ought to hold up well.

[Leonie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful, personal, terrifying.

[Jarrett Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Hitler’s People” is organized as a series of biographies from Hitler, Himmler, and Goring down to Speer, Eichmann, Riefenstahl, among others. Through this biographical approach, Evans undercuts the theory that Nazi leaders were psychologically distinct from ordinary Germans, that all Nazi leaders were depraved gangsters or mentally ill and so far outside the German mainstream as to absolve ordinary Germans from guilt. Rather, Evans’s biographical sketches show that most Nazi leaders grew up in the German middle class, grew up in nationalist circles, were often highly educated—and embraced a hateful, murderous ideology. And as Evans shows, there were no “good” Nazi leaders; all to one extent or another supported and facilitated war and the Holocaust (even Speer, who used slave labor in his war efforts and on at least one occasion visited a concentration camp). If ordinary Germans knew about the Holocaust, as much research now suggests they did, Hitler’s People certainly did, too.

Why? A few trends stand out. First, almost all the leaders were infatuated with Hitler’s charisma and believed wholeheartedly in his cult of personality. They were eager to follow him to restore German greatness. Second, most grew up in nationalist circles that were antisemitic and so even those who would not have called themselves antisemites before meeting Hitler were susceptible to the rhetoric, not disturbed by it, and ultimately willing to advance it. Third, many were scarred by Germany’s defeat in WWI and embraced the stab in the back myth, that the Jews and the communists had prevented Germany from achieving victory. Their world had been turned upside down by Germany’s defeat and so they were ready and willing to commit violence to overthrow democracy and restore German greatness , as they saw it. Hitler, to many, was exactly the savior they were looking for. Fourth, many were downwardly mobile economically, much like Germany after WWI and the Great Depression, and so felt immense anger towards those they blamed for their economic struggles.

As we grapple with a wave of illiberalism globally, “Hitler’s People” is a timely examination of what kinds of people can embrace and promote totalitarianism and in what circumstances.

[Nick Guerin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok now everyone can stop sarcastically texting me “How are all of Hitler’s People?” But actually a fantastic and eye opening read, the right cross section of history and what we should pull from it. The existential dread we’re all feeling and experiencing right now can be fought, we just need to know its details.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beware GROUPTHINK!!!! Richard Evans searches for explanations. How can humans be so inhumane? Simple: There is EVIL in the world! Hate, Anger, Pride, Greed, War, Murder, Racism…

Hitler was nothing until he discovered his talent for rabble rousing. He was better at it than anyone else of the times. He became the focal point for EVIL. The other focal point was Anti-Semitism.

I’ve lived in a kind of a Goldilocks period of human history. But beware, what has happened before can happen again!

[Conor Tuohy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good précis of the main characters of the regime and a series of other archetypical representatives of types of German collaborators.

Obviously as a biographical anthology it doesn't have the depth of a full study of each of them but thats not a fair criticism here.