Hitler: Downfall, 1939-1945

Adolf Hitler #2

by Volker Ullrich

A major new biography—an extraordinary, penetrating study of the man who has become the personification of evil.

For all the literature about Adolf Hitler there have been just four seminal biographies; this is the fifth, a landmark work that sheds important new light on Hitler himself. Drawing on previously unseen papers and a wealth of recent scholarly research, Volker Ullrich reveals the man behind the public persona, from Hitler's childhood to his failures as a young man in Vienna to his experiences during the First World War to his rise as a far-right party leader. Ullrich deftly captures Hitler's intelligence, instinctive grasp of politics, and gift for oratory as well as his megalomania, deep insecurity, and repulsive worldview.

Many previous biographies have focused on the larger social conditions that explain the rise of the Third Reich. Ullrich gives us a comprehensive portrait of a postwar Germany humiliated by defeat, wracked by political crisis, and starved by an economic depression, but his real gift is to show vividly how Hitler used his ruthlessness and political talent to shape the Nazi party and lead it to power. For decades the world has tried to grasp how Hitler was possible. By focusing on the man at the center of it all, on how he experienced his world, formed his political beliefs, and wielded power, this riveting biography brings us closer than ever to the answer.

Translated from the German by Jefferson Chase.

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

912 pages, Hardcover

First published October 4, 2018

About the author

Volker Ullrich was born in Celle. He studied history, literature, philosophy and education at the University of Hamburg. From 1966 to 1969 he was assistant to the Hamburg’s Egmont Zechlin Chair. He graduated in 1975 after a dissertation on the Hamburg labour movement of the early 20th Century, after which he worked as a Hamburg school teacher. He was, for a time, a lecturer in politics at the Lüneburg University, and in 1988 he became a research fellow at Hamburg’s Foundation for 20th-century Social History. Since 1990 Ullrich has been the head of the political section of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit.
Ullrich has published articles and books on 19th- and 20th-century history. In 1996 he reviewed the thesis postulated in Daniel Goldhagen’s book Hitler's Willing Executioners that provoked fresh debate among historians.
In 1992 he was awarded the Alfred Kerr Prize for literary criticism, and, in 2008, received an honorary doctorate from the University of Jena.

Reviews

[Helga چـو ایـران نباشد تن من مـباد · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second volume of Ullrich’s Hitler books covers the events between the years 1939 and 1945. As in the first volume, the focus of the book is on Hitler, his beliefs, his character and state of mind.

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute masterpiece follow-on to the first volume, Hitler: Downfall is an unflinching account of WWII in all its gore, brutality, and horror. It is also the biography of the 20th century’s most notorious dictator. Without fanning the flames of the current political shift towards the far right, I will just say that the last chapter about Hitler’s legacy should be required reading in high schools across America and Western Europe. Adopting a fact-based assessment of the why behind the abject darkness of the Holocaust and Operation Barbarossa might make people question some of the more ignorant and opportunist revisionist garbage that populists in 2020/2021 continue to spin. If we try to ignore or rewrite the past, we will be forever inevitably bound to repeat its errors.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are so many lessons to be learned from Volker Ullrich's two volume biography of Hitler. Among them? Never underestimate a monster or suppose you can politically control one. Beware of the sycophants who curry favor with monsters and are complicit in their rise and their crimes.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterful finish to the previous volume. The making of the modern world passed through the crucible of the Second World War and Volker Ullrich, through two volumes, details the machinations that led to Hitler’s rise and World War II (the progeny of its prosecutor). Essential reading to anyone interested in the conflict that is, in my opinion, the most consequential collision of force and terror between human beings in history.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although essential reading after the first book and obviously the two need to be read together, I didn't find this one quite as fascinating. There was just too much going on so that it was as much a book about the Second World War (and I have already read many books on that) as about Hitler himself. While it was interesting to read about Hitler's physical and mental decline, I didn't learn as much about the man himself as I did in the first book. Still a solid 4 stars though and the two books together are a 5 star essential read.

[Wulf Krueger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Präzision, Quellenfülle und historische Tiefe – Ullrichs Blick auf den Diktator im Untergang hilft. Geschichte verstehen, Gegenwart erkennen, Zukunft sichern.


Meinen Worten aus meiner Rezension des ersten Bandes dieser herausragenden Hitler-Biographie von Volker Ullrich ist eigentlich nicht mehr viel hinzuzufügen.

Die gleiche klare, präzise und ausnahmslos zielsichere Sprache kommt der inhaltlichen Darstellung zugute. Über 3000 Einzelbelege, die in den Anhängen dokumentiert sind, unterstreichen die Aussagen und Interpretationen Ullrichs.

Nach einer kurzen Einleitung schildert der Autor Kapitel-intrinsisch und insbesondere in späteren Kapiteln auch übergreifend chronologisch von der weiteren Entwicklung Hitlers nach den “Jahren des Aufstiegs”.

Dabei beleuchtet Ullrich insbesondere die von ihm als besonders prägend dargestellten Abschnitte:

1 Die Entfesselung des Zweiten Weltkriegs
2 Polen 1939/40 – Auftakt zum Vernichtungskrieg
3 Entscheidung im Westen?
4 Strategisches Patt
5 Unternehmen »Barbarossa«
6 Kriegswende 1941/42
7 Der Weg in den Holocaust
8 Stalingrad oder Der Kampf ums Öl
9 Totaler Krieg und Volksgemeinschaft
10 In der Defensive
11 Unternehmen »Overlord« und Operation »Bagration«
12 Die Berghof-Gesellschaft im Krieg
13 Der 20. Juli 1944 und seine Folgen
14 Letztes Aufbäumen
15 Der Verfall eines Diktators
16 Die Inszenierung des Untergangs
17 Das Ende im Bunker
18 Hitlers Platz in der Geschichte – eine Bilanz

Die Einordnung Hitlers in die Geschichte am Ende ist insofern noch einmal besonders bemerkenswert, weil Ullrich darin seine eigenen Überlegungen zum Ausdruck bringt, aber auch mit denen anderer Hitler-Biographen wie Kershaw, Bullock und Fest in Beziehung bringt. Ebenso die Übereinstimmungen wie auch die Unterscheidungen zu diesen Autoren - hier wie in der gesamten Biographie - machen deutlich, warum diese Hitler-Biographie wichtig und hilfreich ist, die Vergangenheit besser zu verstehen und für die Zukunft wachsam zu sein.

Fünf von fünf Sternen.

»Der »Fall Hitler« bleibt für alle Zeiten ein warnendes Exempel. Wenn er etwas lehrt, dann dies: Wie rasch eine Demokratie aus den Angeln gehoben werden kann, wenn die politischen Institutionen versagen und die zivilgesellschaftlichen Kräfte zu schwach sind, um der autoritären Versuchung zu begegnen. Und: Wie dünn die Decke ist, welche die Zivilisation von der Barbarei trennt, und wozu Menschen fähig sind, wenn alle rechtsstaatlichen und moralischen Normen außer Kraft gesetzt werden und sie uneingeschränkt über das Leben anderer Menschen verfügen können.«

Ich sorge mich, dass wir genau dies gerade in den USA mit der republikanischen Regierung unter 47 erleben.


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Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam

[Boudewijn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very accessible Hitler biography about Hitler as undisputed leader of the Nazi state and commander-in-chief of the German army

This second part focusses on Hitler's role as Führer and commander of the German forces. At this stage, Hitler managed to position himself as the unchallenged leader of the nazi apparatus and commander in chief of the German armies. In these roles, he daily is working on his creation of the two pillars that should hold the Third Reich: the extermination of the Jews from Europe and the ruthless conquest of Lebensraum.

What struck me was that even in this second part of his life, Hitler remained the actor that he was during his rise to power. His legendary and more frequent outbursts of anger in the years 1939-1945 were not always violent, but he also often used them as a means to intimidate, for example, Wehrmacht generals with a low opinion of his military prowess. As a "skilled actor," he could also "shed tears as at the touch of a button," Ullrich writes.

Hitler also remained the great gambler who always opted for the "all-or-noting" tactic with which he came to power as a politician. After the colossal mistake of the invasion of the Union in 1941, in the summer of 1942 Hitler probably already realized that the war was lost. Yet still, with his acting and oratorial talents he was able to convince many to expect the tide to turn.

In the final chapter, Ullrich takes stock and provides answers to the big questions about Nazi Germany, the most important of which is 'how was it possible'. His conclusion: no, Hitler was not an accident, but neither was it an inevitability. According to him, Hitler's rule fits into the continuity of German history, but at the same time formed a fundamental break with it. And yes, without Hitler no holocaust, but also not without the help of hundreds of thousands of willing employees.

To Ullrich, Hitler was not a mediocre man with limited mental faculties. Hitler was an 'exceptional political talent', he believes, and 'one of the coldest, most cunning and purposeful European professional politicians.' Hitler also had a great organizational talent. Not only did he first manage to forge all kinds of feuding, far-right groups into the NSDAP, but later he also ruled so cleverly according to the 'classic recipe of divide and rule' that his power became unassailable and remained almost to the end.

[Rudi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ich bin froh, zwei Jahre nach Band 1 nun auch den zweiten Band von Volker Ullrichs Hitlerbiographie gelesen zu haben. Ich bin aber auch froh, die Schilderung all der Menschheitsverbrechen der Nazis erst einmal hinter mir zu lassen. Aber wirklich hinter sich lassen kann man das ja gar nicht.

Wieder einmal wurde mir klar, wie glücklich wir Deutschen uns schätzen können, dass die Menschen in den Ländern, über welche die verbrecherischen deutschen Horden hergefallen waren, uns wieder mit Freundlichkeit begegnen.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hitler: Downfall: 1939-1945 is the conclusion to Volker Ullrich’s two-volume biography of Adolf Hitler. In this volume, Ullrich examines the significant military events that reversed the fortunes of the Third Reich during World War II, as well as the physical and mental decline of its Führer, Adolf Hitler. Volker Ullrich utilizes numerous archival documents to chronicle these events in meticulous detail. Hitler: Downfall: 1939-1945 is a captivating and enthralling read.

“We must keep our eyes on the personality of the man, with all his characteristic proclivities and behavioral traits yet without losing sight of the historical circumstances and conditions that allowed for his mercurial rise.”

“If his life and career teaches us anything, it is how quickly democracy can be prised from its hinges when political institutions fail and civilising forces in society are too weak to combat the lure of authoritarianism; how thin the mantle of separating civilisation and barbarism actually is; and what human beings are capable of when the rule of law and ethical norms are suspended and some people are granted unlimited power over the lives of others.”

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 2 of 2

Exceptionally interesting and well-researched account of Hitler's "downfall" years - basically, the years of WWII. Compelling read with excellent analysis and intriguing thoughts about Hitler's place in history.

[Creighton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am glad to have finished Volker Ulrich’s 2 volume series on Adolf Hitler, because it was a concise book, and it covered so many details about the man I wanted to know. Lately, most of the books I have been reading have been concerned with the Third Reich, and Hitler, and that’s because I am gathering sources for a thesis I want to write. This book had snippets in it that will help me out to go back to for reference material. My five-star rating is not based on any admiration for Nazism, Hitler, or what he did to the Jews, but it is because it is a well written book. Adolf Hitler is such an interesting man to study, and I find myself interested in how a man who failed at many things in life was destined to take over so much of Europe? How a man with such intelligence could use it to persecute and exterminate millions of lives. How could this man have such an aura over the German nation, with a cult-like worship? I have learned a lot about this man through the books I have recently read about him and his documented beliefs on things. I do plan on reading the other biographies written on Hitler, other important figures in the Third Reich, and the Holocaust itself.

I started this book a few months back, and I wanted to take a snail’s pace approach to this book, but after reading several other books at a faster pace, I decided to make this my main read, and I am glad I did. I felt I learned so much more about Hitler than I did in all the documentaries I used to watch growing up. I learned why he decided to wear his field grey uniform from 1939 to the end, the exact story of the July 20th attempt on his life, and how his conduct of the war wore him down significantly. I also learned what pushed him to begin the final solution, and how he had no problem bragging and ranting about it. There were things that I did know before hand, but this book had so much detail and for that I recommend it, and have to give it 5 stars.

[Alison]

By the end of this volume, I felt as if I had watched a deterioration akin to the infamous portrait of Dorian Gray, except this time it was a living man whose entire being decomposed due to moral rot.

This is the second volume of Ullrich’s biography of Hitler. It picks up where Hitler: Ascent left off: at Hitler’s 50th birthday in 1939. This volume covers the lead up to the invasion of Poland, which launched the Second World War. It’s a balanced biographical study that takes advantage of many decades of scholarship, including the most recent German-language works. It’s surely not a spoiler to say everything ended very badly.

This book gave a powerful sense of Hitler's physical and mental deterioration. He was always insane in his murderous fixations and moral perversity, of course, but Ullrich really details the slow decay of his mind and body. A terrible end, and one he brought upon himself.

I particularly appreciated the final chapter on Hitler’s role in history, which offered several frameworks for how to think about this figure and his impact. A reminder that between democracy and tyranny lies dictatorship by consent: a terrifying concept.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's difficult for me to read a biography of Hitler and not compare it to Ian Kershaw, but I do very much appreciate Volker Ullrich's originality. The focus on Hitler's personality isn't as prevalent in volume 2 as it was in the first book until towards the end. I somehow knew without reading reviews (I actually read none), that this book would be awesome in the final chapters. It built up to it (you know.. the bunker, the marriage, the gunshot, the burning bodies. The nightmare that is the Führerbunker in 1945)
Some things that Volker Ullrich did a phenomenal job with:
1) The Berghoff(Hitler's vacation resort in the Baravian Alps),Wolf's Lair, Werewolf; underground bunker's (construction, surroundings, underground tunnels).
2) Stauffenberg assassination attempt (and what a name he had: "Lieutenant Colonel Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg")
3) Hitler's physical condition in the final days. The parts of the book describing his physical regression, as everything around him began to collapse. His physical deterioration grew worse in the final days, and those who hadn't seen him in awhile were shocked. Hitler probably had Parkinson's disease (I've of course read that before, but was skeptical), and the effect it had on him truly made him look monstrous.
4) The final chapter "Hitler's Place in History", was fantastic. I found it hard to stop reading at that point.
Definitely worth reading

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a long, hard read, but one worth the trouble. While the star rating on Goodreads offers choices of three stars, "I liked it", or four stars, "I really liked it", those epithets don't really fit with the experience of reading about Hitler's unparalleled career of criminality, murder and destruction.
I've been in Germany for over 20 years and I decided to read this two-volume biography to better understand the place where I live and where my children are growing up.
It's a sobering read, and Ullrich pulls no punches in tracing Hitler's rise through the shady circles of the Nationalist Right to Führer, powered by vested interests in politics and business who thought they could control and use the Munich demagogue to their own ends. The way that Hitler captured and held the imagination of the German public, and how that public was not merely a vassal but an active participant in the monstrously criminal endeavour of the Third Reich, is described in unflinching detail.
Far from being an aberration that pulled German history off course through his unique and bizarre personality, Ullrich argues that Hitler, for all his oddity was a logical continuation of a bellicose and morally stunted strain in German society that marked its imperial phase from the nineteenth century onwards.
Of the two books the first, which traces Hitler's rise, is a more riveting read, and provides a rounded portrait of the stunning absence that is Adolf Hitler. The more you know about the man, the less you understand. But you do come to see how this cipher, this chameleon cut-out, managed to climb his way to the very top of the tree by means of his intelligence, his ruthlessness and his penchant for the all-or-nothing gamble.
The second book is inevitably a more deadening and grim piece, in which the second world war is narrated from the invasion of Poland to Hitler's suicide in a Berlin bunker. Hitler becomes a function of the war he unleashes and the wider picture disappears to be replaced by endless exposition of battles, strategy and other military matters. Which is not to say that Ullrich ignores the monstrous crimes of Hitler, his acolytes and the German military machine. The Holocaust is handled in considerable and harrowing depth, as is the active participation of the Wehrmacht in the murderous and racist attack on the Soviet Union.
These books are a painful testimony to how easily a seemly civilised society can be perverted and transformed into a monstrous killing machine. As such they tell a story that is clearly relevant to our world today, wherever you might be.

[Susan Paxton · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a book I've eagerly awaited since the first volume, I was a bit let down. Volume One is probably the best Hitler biography yet; Ullrich teased out a lot of new information and utilized it ably. This book feels...rushed. Little really new, and it also is spottily translated, although the same translator worked on the first volume. The index is an atrocity; I understand that indexes are done last and in a hurry (I've done indexing; I know), but this one is utterly useless (look at the indexing under "Hitler, Adolf" for a fine example. No, you don't index BY YEAR instead of BY SUBJECT). I might add to Ullrich that you can't make fun of Norman Ohler and then make extensive use of his book Blitzed.

Don't get me wrong; this is still very good. The summing up in the last chapter stands on its own. But were I to recommend, I might aim an interested reader to Ullrich's Volume One - and Sir Ian Kershaw's Volume Two.

[David C Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite as good as the first volume because the war takes over the narrative. The rise of AH is more biographically compelling. The best sections are the summary analytical chapters on topics ranging from life in AH’s circle to the stage managing of the final days as well as the summing up of the whole career. A achievement by Ullrich and having finished it he can now, as he writes in his forward, move on to more pleasant topics.

[Wilf Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me three months.

Unavoidably, much of the subject matter is undoubtedly grim, sickening, and depressing. But it also appears to be thoroughly well-written and researched, and I found it enlightening. The second world war ended 75 years ago, but there continues to be much that we can learn from the time of Hitler's rise and fall.

This is a recent work, which I appreciated while I was reading it. I always felt that the historian-author was writing as dispassionately as possible, from his modern perspective, and was able to make extensive and frequent reference to seemingly all other prior major works on the topic. I felt like it was a portrayal of Hitler and the Third Reich that was as complete and as dispassionate as currently possible.

By the way, having spent 18 months in Germany between reading the first and second volumes meant that I certainly got a lot more of this volume. Perhaps I should go and read the first volume again...

(The number of footnotes was staggering!)

[Marks54 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second volume of Volker Ullrich’s two volume Hitler biography. I read the first volume when it came out in 2013 but had to wait until last year for the second volume. The last few years have been good ones for H bios, with new one volume bios by Longerich and Simms, as well as shorter works on the seizure of power or the end of the Nazi regime after the failed assassination plot of July 20, 1944. While new archives have been opened in recent years, one has to wonder about the demand for new studies on H in the context of current political dynamics. Ullrich certainly recognizes this in tying together his analysis in this volume.

The book is well written, thorough, and thoughtful. The illustrations are nice too. You have to give some credit to the historians, such as Ullrich, who venture into these projects when so much as already been written, especially by first rate historians. It is not as if there are many spoilers to drop on the story line!

So what are the punchlines here?

To start with, Ullrich begins with the intuition that H’s early years are of relatively little value in understanding what came later, after he turned 30, and began his world changing career. So, the key to understanding H’s biography is to focus on how he interacted with other to create his career. This is not an entirely new position, but it is effectively presented here. The result is that the story line becomes long and complex and involves the development of the party, the regime, the diplomacy, and the war that ended in 1945. The good news is that such a focus moves away from longstanding arguments about H’s personality traits who do not strike me as readily resolvable. The bad news is that such a focus leads to a long book and challenges the reader to ask what activities are crucial for an H bio and which take the book more into a broader story of the party, the Nazi state, and the war.

Once the book moves into the story of his behaviors, the issue seems to be how to add something new to the long recognized stories that H was the locus of party activity and that his personal skills in speaking, political infighting, and symbolic posturing. H’s achievements early in his career and as leader up until early 1939 are widely recognized, along with his personal determination, “grit”, and other personal characteristics that allowed him to flex his will.

Ullrich argues that the behaviors and postures that were so successful in times of flux led to downfall and failure after H’s initial successes. The political “divide and conquer” strategy that worked in gaining power did not promote success when physical results mattered and there were needs for real accomplishments rather than symbolic coherence. Battles needed to be won, supplies needed to be delivered, and local problems needed to be addressed and the results mattered. In this context, H was not such a good manager when the chips were down. He often did not like details but at the same time would not delegate to his local commanders who needed to respond effectively and promptly to local demands. This led to dangerous inefficiencies and increasingly poorer results. As the Nazi empire grew, there were too many balls in the air and too much to coordinate for good results to be obtained. In critical situations, while H was a good leader he ended up being a poor manager and the same skills that fueled his initial successes were behind the failures that overcame the regime after the attack on the USSR failed to be wound up before the first winter. Of course the time and context needed to be in sync with H’s actions and when they were not, poor results soon followed.

Ullrich’s key argument is that while there were causes and consequences on many levels, it was H that was critical for what happened. This is especially true for the Holocaust. Depending on how the war, and especially the Eastern War, progressed, the Holocaust could have had different details. Without H, however, there would have been no Holocaust. Ullrich’s ties this to H’s management style as well. While there do not appear to be complete and conclusive “paper trails” to the holocaust, Ullrich argues that H made his preferences known and that his minions engaged in their own focused decision making by moving in directions they believed were intended by H. An implication of this is that as the Eastern War went poorly, the effect was to stimulate the holocaust as it developed as a war to gain results even when battlefield results were not available. Ullrich does a good job developing the internal struggle for power in the regime, as H’s underlings struggled for power and recognition, which led in turn to increasingly fragmented and ineffective policies as the war went badly.

Ullrich, in his concluding chapter, does a good job of placing H into the context of what other historians have written and how Germany has thought about Hitler and the Nazis in the years following 1945.

Overall, this is a fine book. While I am hesitant at picking a “best” H bio, this book is clearly one of the best in a crowded field of books written by first rate historians.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading the first volume over a year ago I knew I'd have to pick this up to finish the series. The first book was huge, but excellent and I had faith the author wouldn't drop the ball in Vol. 2. Still, 600+ page books are always a bit of a chore to get motivated to start let alone finish. To say this went quick would be an understatement. A topic that I'm very familiar with and the author still held my attention 100%. I can't think of one dry spell in this entire book, not one. That's no easy task on a book of this size. At some point you expect some filler or the author obligatorily covering a mundane topic to prove a point. Not so here, it's an amazing read and utterly fascinating. His breakdown on the war years of Hitler's life are compelling in every facet he chooses to cover. His research is top notch, yet he never lets the details become overwhelming. I really hope Ullrich tackles more topics in this vein such as WW2. I'm sure he'll never touch Hitler again (who could blame him), but I'll be on the lookout for whatever that may be.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second of a two volume biography of Adolf Hitler. A fascinating book of an important yet horrific human being. I have read quite a bit about World War II, but I think what struck me the most from this book was how quickly Hitler deteriorated physically in the second half of the War. I didn't realize how bad it was and even now doctors now think he probably had Parkinson's disease. I also learned more about Eva Braun and how she was all in as Hitlers mistress and then wife. Both volumes are top history books in my opinion.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Biography of Hitler

The Downfall covers a much shorter period of time than Ascent did for obvious reasons. What an intense read. Hitler the mass murderer and loyalists scrambling to placate him until his death. A major incident I learned about was his assassination attempt and how much it injured him. And how over 100 people were executed for it. Even wives and.children of conspirators were killed or imprisoned. A good summary of Hitler’s Descent.

[Paul Darcy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8 stars.

A fascinating look behind the curtain of one of histories most notorious rulers.

While extremely well researched, I did find a lot of redundancies in information. I think a good 100 pages or so could have been culled with little detrimental effect.

All in all a good read if you are interested in this kind of historical figure and his downfall.

[Silvey · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I picked up this book I did so because the title was Hitler’s Downfall 1939-1945. I assumed and I am sorry I did that information would encompass the whole of the War. I think this book is more geared towards Hitler’s downfall pertaining to the Russian Front.

I did learn a lot about the Russia side of the War, but if you are looking for the all-encompassing 2 front war that Hitler fought then this is not that book.

I wish I tallied how many times this author discusses Hitler’s routine and who he had tea and/or who he took dinner with in the evening, as I think the number would be shocking, but sadly I will not re-read this book to find that information out. This book could have mentioned more important things in History. Instead it glossed over details that are relevant to understanding Hitler’s decisions and put more emphasis on who he had tea with.

For instance. Operation Mincemeat is not even mentioned in this book and neither is Alexis Von Roenne. “On 9-10 July, American and British forces landed on Sicily. This invasion was no great surprise, although Hitler had expected the target to be Sardinia” That is it that is all the information given on one of the greatest miss-directions in history. We Don’t even get to hear why Hitler thought it was Sardinia or the fact that Von Roenne was Hitler’s most trusted intelligence analyst. I understand that we can’t go into detail about Von Roenne as it is just speculation that he deliberately miss lead Hitler, but isn’t that an important fact to touch on when discussing someone’s decision making which led to the down fall of his career.

Lets talk about Operation Marker Garden. “Operation Market Garden, the airlifting of paratroopers into the Netherlands at Arnhem, proved a disaster, marking the failure of the plan to cross the Rhine, skirt the Sigfried Line to the north and then penetrate the Rhur Valley” I get it. This book can’t have it all, but for a book that is so heavily focused on the Russian side of the war offensive for the Germans you would think that the author would mention that the boon for victory for the Germans was b/c they happened to have a Tank Division on R&R in the Netherlands and that the Allies were not expecting that.

Sticking with that theme many Historians believe that the Allies were only able to accomplish what they did on D-day and beyond because Hitler’s best divisions were fighting the Russians. I just do not understand how an author could focus so much on the Russian front and forget these important details which lead to Hitlers down fall on his Eastern Front. He mentions it in a quick few lines at the very end, but nothing really states that the best individuals are on the Western Front. If I knew nothing about history I thought they would be on the Eastern Front with the Desert Fox.

It’s fine I got over it till we had a whole Paragraph devoted to the authors contempt for Norman Ohler and his book Blitzed. Don’t get me wrong that book is 100% fiction trying to pass for non fiction, but I did not like that this author missed a plethora of historical details, but found room to mock another authors book.

If you want a book that discuss more of the strategic decisions Hitler made and those that influenced him I would stick with the Master Piece By William L. Shirer “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich a History if Nazi Germany” Although that book is strictly military with only a small section devoted to the war atrocity that the German SS committed with their construction of Death Camps. This book Hitler’s Downfall does do a really good Job in Chapter 7, The Road to the Holocaust, of showing how people turned a blind eye to those being deported to camps and how the Nazis effectively took and then redistribute what was left behind. If you are looking for a book that discusses the road to the Holocaust, The Russian Fron and Hitler’s favorite movies, music, his life living in a bunker and who he takes his evening tea with then this is the book for you!

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book for many reasons. But with so many biographies of Hitler floating around out there, it's fair to ask: why read this one? And that leads me to its main failing, which is that I don't think it makes sense to just read this one by itself. Ullrich is so deeply engaged with the Hitler historiography that I'm not sure how you could follow it all without having some familiarity with the other big stars in the area, like Kershaw (indeed, Ullrich's quibbles with the Kershaw thesis might be the raison d'etre for this whole project), Shirer (whose firsthand observations Ullrich values more than his history), Bullock (wrong about many things), Joachim Fest (wrong about everything, probably), and even Norman Ohler (should be barred from so much as writing on napkins, much less publishing books). There are also some strange eccentricities of vocabulary in this volume, which is translated, that I haven't encountered in English-language works. For example, "Volksgemeinschaft" appears instead as "the ethnic-popular community" and "Lebensraum" is "living space," even though (in my experience) the untranslated German words are usually used in English nonfiction. Translations like this could get clunky and a bit awkward. And the use of the words "paladin" and "adjutant" was so conspicuous that I kept wondering if those terms were translations of more recognizable German words, too. The result is that this isn't as zippy and readable as Kershaw's equally bulky two-volume biography. But Ullrich does improve upon Kershaw in certain respects; in this volume, he focuses less on military progress and strategy and more on personal elements, like Hitler's health, Eva Braun, and Hitler's probable expectations for his legacy. In those areas, it seemed to me that he actually had something new to say, which is impressive in itself.

[Lisa Konet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was well written and researched. Probably the best biography I have read about Hitler's demise without reading Volume 1 Hitler's Ascent. Obviously, theses two volumes are to be read in conjunction of each other. I felt this was a decent account of his peak and decline. IT IS NOT AN EASY TO STOMACH READ. All the devastation, torturing and lives lost die to his beliefs is incomprehensible but it happened. This book will definitely make you emotional.

Highly recommended if you are into reading Germany, Third Reich an Nazi hostory during WWII.

Thanks to Netgalley, Volker Ulrich and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 9/1/20

[Larkin Tackett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second of the most recent Hitler biography that basically covers his life during WWII. A few highlights, quotes, and reflections that resonate for me:
- His brutal military action and leadership applied not only to Holocaust victims, but also all other enemies, especially Russian soldiers (millions of whom were left to freeze and starve on the battlefield) and forced laborers
- The Germans were losing the war for a LONG time before the ultimately surrendered
- Hitler fired a lot of military leaders. Despite a different leadership structure for the SS and the Germany military, all were complicit in Hitler's criminal policies
- "In Hitler’s restlessly meandering thoughts, racist dogma and strategic military calculations were by no means incompatible. On the contrary, they were interwoven with one another."
- “Without authority and approval from the Führer, Himmler, Heydrich and their ilk would not have been able to organise, execute and justify the Holocaust as a Europe-wide project of homicide.” We should add that without hundreds of thousands of assistants and accessories who willingly helped the executioners, this epochal crime against humanity would not have happened either.
- "Thus, while it is true that few Germans knew everything about the “final solution,” very few knew nothing about it."
- "While he had by no means turned into an entirely different person, several of his character traits had become even more pronounced: his egocentrism, his inability to self-criticise and his commensurate tendency to overestimate himself, his lack of scruples when choosing means to his ends, his habit of betting everything on a single card, his contempt for others and his lack of empathy."
- He was the epitome of a micromanager
- "The suffering of other human beings did not interest him...”
- "National Socialism disappeared like a ghost, almost overnight. Loyal supporters of the regime swiftly transformed into equally committed opponents of the same."
- "What happened is unthinkable without him, and his life is a particularly vivid example of how a single individual can influence the course of history."
- "He was interested not in the truth of his statements, but in whether they produced the maximum effect. Right from the beginning Hitler was a master of lies and deceit."
- "Hitler profited from being perennially underestimated."
- "Hitler will remain a cautionary example for all time. If his life and career teaches us anything, it is how quickly democracy can be pried from its hinges when political institutions fail and civilising forces in society are too weak to combat the lure of authoritarianism; how thin the mantle separating civilisation and barbarism actually is; and what human beings are capable of when the rule of law and ethical norms are suspended and some people are granted unlimited power over the lives of others."

[Philip Kuhn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good volume 2 of the biography. Some people on this site only gave it two and three stars, saying there was "nothing new" in this book. I see their point, but, Ullrich did his best to add new theories and new conclusions to the time period for Hitler. The author did massive amounts of research for this book and it shows. Ullrich freely quotes other histories, which any good reader will have to go back and check on. Ian Kershaw did plough some of this ground in "The End: Hitler's Germany 1944-45", but, that book was more about Hitler's henchman and how they held the country together, as this book is just a biography of Hitler.

He had a really good conclusion chapter that I thought was original. What Hitler an logical extension of German history, or an "aberration"? Ullrich quotes books for each point of view. My thought, as a historian, is his was both. Spoiler alert: here is where the author comes down on the subject: Hitler was the logical extension of Germany history to that time, BUT, he took everything to extremes. There was a strain of anti-Semitism in Germany, but Hitler took it to the utmost--mass mechanized murder. There was a current of militarism in Germany--try to control other counties--but Hitler took it to the extreme of trying to conquer the entire continent, including European Russia.

I've read other histories of Hitler and the Third Reich where they talk about Hitler always "gambling." They say "Hitler was a compulsive gambler" but they never really define what they mean by that; in this book, Ullrich does at the end, so great job by him. Like with perhaps the dumbest attack in recent history--the Nazi German attack on the Kursk salient in July 1943. The Soviets KNEW the Germans were coming, and the Germans knew the Soviets knew. But Hitler, always "gambling" and "going for broke" just had to risk everything trying to turn the tide of the war, even though the odds were slim. But Hitler could never change, he couldn't quit "while he was ahead" to continue the gambling analogy. (correct word?).

Good Book. Recommended for history buffs and Third Reich historians.

Philip J Kuhn

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ullrich draws on an immense body of source material to not simply assert but to show us the reasons that Hitler has come to be regarded as one of history's most evil men. He deliberately and knowingly unleashed a level of hatred, death, and suffering upon millions in pursuit of racist domination. And Ullrich shows us the receipts. From the knowledge that Hitler never intended to honor the non-aggression pact with the Soviets to the intentional starvation of millions of Russians to the brutality of regime on internal dissenters to the annihilation of Europe's Jews, we are shown the details and the inexorable path that Hitler led the world on. The utter delusion through the spring of 1945 that a miracle in battle could produce Germany's greatest victory and the uncountable thousands of lives on both sides those delusions cost was perhaps the most baffling. People went along with it all and in the process threw away so many lives out of a loyalty - whether coerced or voluntary - to an obviously decrepit man, the very definition of a cult. It is nothing less than a masterful work of history.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought Volker Ullrich's first volume about Adolf Hitler was an incredible read. I learned so much about the infamous tyrant. Ullrich's writing style, despite the dark subject, kept my engaged and he put a lot of work in producing one of the best biographies I have ever read and the best one about Hitler.

The second volume to me was not as informative. It was by no means a terrible book, but I thought as I was reading "I read this before." I knew more about Hitler during World War II than I did before World War II. I also think I wanted, like many people, to understand how this boy from a town in Austria became one of the cruelest and most infamous people in history. The first volume covered a period of the dictator's life that I wanted to learn more about.

I recommend this book for those who want to learn more and have not read much about World War II or history of The Third Reich. Ullrich knows his subject and he makes history come to life. I like that he debunks the myths on Hitler. The only thing that kept me from giving this above a three-star rating, as I stated, was too much material of history that I already knew.

[Tony61 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars.

This is the second of a two-volume biography by German journalist and historian, Volker Ullrich, translated, and rich in original source material. The first volume, Ascent, concerned the rise of a World War 1 private to the pinnacle of power in the Third Reich. Together, this work provides over 1,000 pages of text from the German point-of-view, which is rarely considered since history is written by the winners.

Ullrich researched not only the published memoirs of retired generals and the popular nonfiction of other historians such as Ian Kershaw and William Shirer, among others, but also the primary source material of unpublished diaries that have since been uncovered. We have all been exposed to the war accounts from the American or British side, but Ullrich gives the blow-by-blow details from Hitler's compounds: Wolf’s Lair, Berlin and the Obersalzberg.

Hitler’s rhetoric is well-known: his bluster, stage antics, and demagoguery, but now we have witness accounts of the Fuhrer’s political and military machinations. The book follows more or less chronologically from the 1939 invasion of Poland, the takeover of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, then on to western Europe including France. We learn how Hitler used strategic alliances with Mussolini and local politicians, balanced with intimidation and kinetic war, to pursue his goals.

Germany’s nonaggression pact with Stalin’s Soviet Union allowed Hitler to focus his military might on gaining real estate and natural resources in Europe while rounding up non-Aryan peasants for “removal”, with little pushback. Germany rolled through Belgium, Holland and France in 1940 without much resistance, setting up a Vichy state, and to the chagrin of Britain, taking control of France’s military machinery.

It was deep-seated hatred, based mainly on antisemitism-- hostility toward the “Jewish Bolshevism” of Soviet Communism-- that led Hilter to break the nonaggression pact and institute Operation Barbarossa, an invasion of Russia in 1941. The ill-begotten strategy that began with a surprise attack in June 1941 is arguably the turning point of Hitler’s trajectory, setting in motion the downfall of Nazi Germany. Ullrich describes the atrocities-- rapes, mass killings, planned starvation and slave camps-- suffered by Russian peasants at the hands of German soldiers during the invasion and occupation. These atrocities were paid back a couple years later when the war turned.

Americans know the play-by-play of the Allied movements in World War 2. Every school boy and girl learns about the Battle of Britain, Montgomery’s exploits in North Africa, the Normandy Invasion, Patton’s March across the continent, the Battle of the Bulge, the Allied firebombing of Germany’s industrial underbelly and the final assault on Berlin. Ullrich covers these from Hitler’s perspective, with the Fuhrer dismissing Churchill as “a drunkard and layabout of the first order” and FDR as a “poor lunatic”, while extolling the virtues and abilities of the German soldiers, who possessed “towering superiority” over the enemy.

This book describes Hitler’s moods during key points during the war, the way the Fuhrer played his paladins against each other as they vied for his attention. Ullrich provides accounts of the German generals from their letters, memos and diaries. They were not always in agreement with the Fuhrer’s military strategies, especially Operation Barbarossa, but the generals were always careful never to question these decisions openly.

The brutal winter of 1942-43 was marked by the quagmire of German-Soviet warfare. The Germans were unable to hold two fronts simultaneously and the western Allies marched through Africa, up the boot of Italy, and into Romania, thus cutting off Hitler’s remaining supply of oil.

By 1944, many German generals saw that the war was lost, privately saying that the Third Reich was doomed and Germany’s best prospects lay in a negotiated peace with the Allies, thus avoiding further bloodshed and destruction. After the June 6th Normandy invasion even Hitler’s most loyal followers were preparing for the worst. Ullrich details the physical and emotional denouement of the Fuhrer as he saw all his tactics fail. Hitler developed tremors, tics and tirades.

While Hitler’s adjutants mostly stayed loyal, there were at least three legitimate assassination attempts on the leader. The most famous is Operation Valkyrie, an unsuccessful attempt to kill Hitler with a bomb at his Wolf’s Lair bunker. Several high-ranking officers were in on the plot and the bomb was detonated on July 20, 1944 by a member of Prussian royalty, Colonel Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg. Unfortunately, the device partially malfunctioned and the Fuhrer survived, although a handful of officers were killed and a couple dozen were injured. Perhaps counter-intuitively, the failed assassination attempt gave new life to Hitler’s popularity. He played up his invincibility-- he was “chosen by Providence”-- and for a brief time Hitler gained traction domestically.

But the inevitability of a two-front war ground down the German Wehrmacht and populace. The Allies, with relentless bombing by US and British planes, the steady progress of Soviet tanks across Silesia, Prussia and Poland, eventually reached Berlin. The importance of the Soviet tenacity and ability against a better armed and disciplined Germany is necessary to be mentioned.

The most valuable part of this book is the portrayal of a Fuhrer, growing decrepit and downcast as his dreams evaporate. Also, the retrospective exploration of how and why the German people bought into such a preposterous ideology might give us some insight into political movements and demagoguery.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Getting this perspective from the German viewpoint is worthwhile and new.