Hugh Trevor-RoperBesprekingen

In 1945, Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton (1914 - 2003) was asked by British Intelligence to find out what happened to Adolph Hitler. Hitler’s bunker under the Reich Chancellory in Berlin was overrun by the Soviets, and probably owing to Stalin’s peculiarities, various misleading accounts of the whereabouts and nature of Hitler’s remains had been promulgated as Soviet propaganda. Trevor-Roper, a professor of History at Oxford and an officer in the Radio Security Service during the war, interviewed every significant witness to Hitler’s final weeks that he could find and created a report for the Intelligence Service. Shortly afterward, he states in his Introduction, he was asked to publish a version of the report for the general public - this book. The author had various addenda in the subsequent decade as information became available, e.g. concerning the death of Martin Borman, but those have been consolidated in this edition into the Introduction.
Trevor-Roper was quite controversial, strongly opinionated, and cultivated arguments with other historians of WWII especially concerning Hitler’s ideology and motivations. He encouraged the use of the historian’s imagination in the interpretation of historical events and was a supporter of Fernand Braudel and the Annales School.
Although the various peculiarities and faults of this work that have been pointed out by HTR’s critics seemed clear to me, I nevertheless found the book to be quite brilliant overall. The author’s sarcasm and his wild dislike for various characters were very entertaining. The extraordinary interrelationships among the assorted screwballs in Hitler’s entourage are analyzed with great insight into their motivations and include comments from the various witnesses, e.g. Albert Speer’s comment that Himmler seemed a combination of a school teacher and a crank. HTR did a fine job of mentioning the cross-correlations among his recorded testimonies to verify the veracity of his opinions. I am, of course, not able to have a personal opinion of any substance concerning the accuracy of his analysis of Hitler’s nature.
I was struck by the almost complete absence of mention of the Holocaust (the words Jew or Jewish appear twice), and the author seems to have thought that Hitler’s antisemitism was just a political expediency. Whether this reflects a British aristocratic antisemitism, as suggested by Lucy Dawidowicz, is a speculation that I find ultimately only slightly interesting.

Hugh’s introductions are excessively boring to read, although they are important, and were even more important at the time they were actually written: He’s really dead…. “Man, Hitler is gone!” (Labyrinth of Lies).

It’s still boring. (Yes, this tooth was really Adolf Hitler’s tooth! Ah, the science!)

The main body of the text is much better to read, if you like to read about dark scary men and the dark scary things that happen to them at the end of their bloody lives, you know. ‘Hitler and his court’, as he calls it. Hugh states that the Nazis around Hitler weren’t as idealistic as they said they were, that each ruled a competing little fiefdom that competed with its theoretically fellow-German rivals, in a supposedly one-headed state…. The Russians were afraid of Hugh’s book—I guess somehow they were still afraid of Hitler—and Hugh believes that they were nervous about people reading about Hitler’s final days thinking that it really was the operatic finale it was meant to be—burn the bodies in a circle of fire, etc etc—but I think I agree with the British guy that the myth doesn’t bear too close a scrutiny….

Aside from their practical problems in terms of spending on luxuries/status/internal competition, the personal-moral content of their lives doesn’t bear the weight of examination, either. Obviously the Nazis are a very unwholesome group, and form the abstraction of evil in many peoples’ minds, based on their behavior. But personally, they were also very base: cutting their food into very small portions and chewing thoroughly, and not having sexual peccadilloes (Himmler), and thinking that this earned them the right to liquidate a race or two; or being dissipated and weird and thinking that prominence in the State and the military entitled them to this (Goering)….

It’s true that Hitler shot himself in the end—I guess he wasn’t afraid to die, and spent a lot of time figuring out how to die in this theatrical way, with panache, so to speak…. But it remains that there’s a lot more to a good life than an operatic exit, especially in terms which they considered that sort of thing: blood, politics, and false-glory, you know.

…. Aside from the obviously formidable demon-actor-killer, it seems that Germany in this period of her history also produced a number of more German and less Wagnerian grey-bureaucrat/racist-mystic characters, who seem, I guess, to have been both terribly stupid and disorganized in political/organizational/ideological tasks, and incapable of healthy relationships with other power players on the personal level. In my experience, as a male one wants these criminal villains who are the destroyers of the world, these real-life movie characters, to have a certain amount of glory and panache in the play before they go to hell. It seems they did not really have it at all, really. It is disappointing that they are all so stupid. We sometimes think, in my opinion, that the Nazis are somehow more ‘important’, somehow better, for all our thespian hatred of them, than the Black African tinpot paramilitary dictator freaks who hand grenades and AK-47s to thirteen-year-olds, and tell them to liquidate random villages and do random drugs, and keep on grooving: these later we merely ignore; they do not quite have the same panache. But I wonder—is there any difference?

(…. I know it sounds crazy, because, obviously for liberals and even for conservatives, if there’s a white person you don’t like, you point and shout, Hitler!, but it is part of white history being visible, more visible, the only visible thing, almost, and frankly there are a lot of people who study the Hitler people just to go, They weren’t really right-wing, they weren’t really European pagan, they weren’t really European Christian—they weren’t the white race at all, really! Think of the good white people, and the white peoples who suffered! The whole world is Europe and white people! You just have to assign merit and faults to Germans, Italians, French, and British, that’s all!…. Whereas African wars aren’t ‘seen’ in the same way; ie they’re not seen at all. This isn’t to say that a catastrophic blow up like the Hitler episode shouldn’t be studied and studied well, but in addition to evaluating and knowing the history and the historian, you have to evaluate and know the history reader, and her or, probably, his intentions, motivations, and reasons-for-seeing.)

…. Incidentally, Hugh was certainly a Man of the Forties—the Nazis were vaguely Oriental; Hitler was a Prince of Persia, you know. (Bad boy!) And the Germans certainly weren’t part of Europe and the West; they were only Germans after all! I mean, if I don’t like someone, it’s like, Bang bang! Maxwell’s silver hammer comes down upon his head; Maxwell’s silver hammer made sure that he was dead: ie I never met him before; I Know Nothing; I Vote Know Nothing; I Know Nothing….

I mean, it’s like if we talked about Ted Bundy, and it’s like, somebody’s all, Ted Bundy an American? Ted Bundy killed people in Florida and Colorado and so on, but I never heard (I Know Nothing!) that he was an American…. Maybe he was part of a rogue state, a nation of one…. Bundystadt, right…. If I don’t like somebody, that’s it! I’ve never met them!

But, of course, the book was published in 1947. And if you read old books, you find out what the world was like…. 👻

…. In a way he was brave I guess, but still he was strange and stupid, and now, of course, he’s really dead.

…. Hugh’s books has its flaws, at least for me: a little stiff and ‘correct’, emoting ‘correctly’, or not at all…. But obviously it’s not the inspiring record of a heroic Wagnerian death that the Russians were semi-consciously afraid of, you know. So this is how a failed dictator ends—by chewing out his co-conspirators, and then shooting himself in the mouth.

Too wordy and hard to get through. It didnt pull you in. But as far as I can tell the facts of the book checks out.

This book made the list of "100 best Non-fiction Books of all Time" prepared by The Guardian newspaper. After reading what The Guardian had to say about it, I had to read it
"The Last Days of Hitler" describes in vivid detail the last weeks of Hitler and those who were with him in the bunker in Berlin at the conclusion of the war.
As a work of history, it is brilliant! Trevor-Roper includes nothing that he has not thoroughly and completely researched, verified, double checked and cross referenced. He portrays the characteristics and personalities of those who were with Hitler in detail, describing their strengths and weaknesses based on numerous accounts he researched about each subject. Zealots and opportunists, dreamers and realists, loyalists and doubters, preceptive minds and vacuous one all had a place in Hitler's government, but the overriding personality of Hitler himself created the tragedies of WW II and of the destruction it laid to humanity.
As a chronicle of a dark era of history, the book is a masterpiece because it not only tells the story of the last days in the bunker, but it puts those stories into context, describing backgrounds and earlier histories that brought each of the participants to this tragic place. Thus, were this book to be read a hundred years from now when the horrible history of Nazism and Hitler has become blurred and forgotten through the fog of time, this book will still provide a vivid explanation of this particular era of human history.
I see why The Guardian placed it on its "100 Bests" list and I would have to put it ion mine, too.

In a series of historical essays, the author speaks of the impact of not only the continuing ripple effects of the Reformation but also the power of religious propaganda resulting in several wars & persecutions of those who had the temerity of choosing the wrong side. It is to be noted that the author begins by questioning whether historians asked the correct questions or understood the societal changes to look at things in a different light as well as how propaganda manipulated the fears, underlying petty grievances, & local prejudices to achieve ruthless goals. This book goes much deeper to answer very basic questions of the hows & whys instead of the whats & wheres. Most impressive.

Título original, The Last Days of Hitler.
Traducción Eduardo de Guzman.

Backhouse, Sir Edmund (Subject)

This book made the list of "100 best Non-fiction Books of all Time" prepared by The Guardian newspaper. After reading what The Guardian had to say about it, I had to read it
"The Last Days of Hitler" describes in vivid detail the last weeks of Hitler and those who were with him in the bunker in Berlin at the conclusion of the war.
As a work of history, it is brilliant! Trevor-Roper includes nothing that he has not thoroughly and completely researched, verified, double checked and cross referenced. He portrays the characteristics and personalities of those who were with Hitler in detail, describing their strengths and weaknesses based on numerous accounts he researched about each subject. Zealots and opportunists, dreamers and realists, loyalists and doubters, preceptive minds and vacuous one all had a place in Hitler's government, but the overriding personality of Hitler himself created the tragedies of WW II and of the destruction it laid to humanity.
As a chronicle of a dark era of history, the book is a masterpiece because it not only tells the story of the last days in the bunker, but it puts those stories into context, describing backgrounds and earlier histories that brought each of the participants to this tragic place. Thus, were this book to be read a hundred years from now when the horrible history of Nazism and Hitler has become blurred and forgotten through the fog of time, this book will still provide a vivid explanation of this particular era of human history.
I see why The Guardian placed it on its "100 Bests" list and I would have to put it ion mine, too.

Many years after purchasing this volume, I finally read it. It's an interesting read, but not easy to empathise with Laud.

To him the Church was a great social institution, designed to praise God with its voice, but with its hand to regulate the anti-social appetites of individuals by the imposition of external justice.

Trevor-Roper provides a sober analysis of William Laud (1573–1645), such a divisive figure in the England before the Civil War, when the sectarian baggage of the(Counter) reformation blazed on the continent in the 30 Year War. The portrait provided of the ill-fated (and hated) Archbishop of Canterbury is a of a humorless man who wanted to achieve the greatest good, one free of heresy. These ambitions and practices have consequences, grave mortal consequences. The author doesn't flinch from revealing this but ultimately hopes for a balanced all-too-human visage to emerge from the mists of history. Trevor-Roper aims for this elucidation without distraction. Well, almost. The one exception is a chapter on the plight of the theatre during Charles I. Odd, that.

This book was absorbed exclusively in airports and on planes. The locale did contribute to its placid perusal and contemplation. I remain grateful for that opportunity. Somewhere along the way I thought of Arendt's verdict on the dearth of thinking in Adolph Eichmann. There are important distinctions with that case but a numb fatigue restrains.

Such a fascinating research! Trevor-Roper teems with erudition and wit and wraps the matter conclusively, punctuating that ultimately Sir Edmund Backhouse despite his mendacity and frauds was but Our Man in Havana: simply drawing vacuum cleaners, pathetic and harmless.

Trevor-Roper explores the curious relationship between Hapsburg sovereigns and artists. Alongside such, a more general historic trend is revealed. Charles V courts various artists cultivating a renaissance humanism, then suddenly abdicates and takes it all home, just as the climate is changing, the Counter-Reformation soon staunching such exuberance. The section on Philip II and Titian was interesting, especially given my recent time with Parker's lengthy treatment of the "cold bigot."

The lesson of El Greco and others was to ignore Philip's requests and stay away from the long reach of the Inquisition whenever possible. The antipode of such severe austerity was Rudolf II and Prague, the monarch moving the capital from Vienna to Bohemia, Rudolf appeared driven by human inquiry.

The exercise concludes in Antwerp, the 30 Year War underway and the seismic fissures in the Hapsburg house beyond repair.

This is a well written affair, though a thin one. The plates proved effective, especially Durer's engraving of Erasmus, which I admit to being unfamiliar.

Tyskland, Berlin, 1945
Indeholder "Forord - af marskal i Royal Air Force, Lord Tedder", "Hitler og hans hof", " Naziregerings og nazismens sande natur - Østpolitikken - Partiet og hæren - Hoffets vækst - Kampen om successionen - Hess' flugt - Bormann - Göring - Goebbels - Himmler - Himmlers karriere - Schellenberg og hans ambitioner - Tysk efterretningstjeneste - Attentatet 20. juli 1944 og dets eftervirkninger - Himmlers magt aftager og Bormanns vokser - Bormann og Goebbels - Hitler ubetinget herre over alle", "Hitler under nederlaget", " Gennembruddet ved Avranches - Nazisternes politik over for nederlaget - Organisation og disciplin bryder sammen - 'Modstandsbevægelse' - 'Varulvene' - Goebbels' mellemkomst - ideologisk nihilisme - Hitler efter attentatet - Hitlers 'dagbog' - Forandring i Hitlers vaner: Han bliver neurotisk eneboer - Hitlers læger - Professer Morell og hans gifte - Hitlers helbred forværres - Krise mellem lægerne - Afskedigelse af Morells rivaler - Udnævnelse af dr. Stumpfegger - Hitlers hypnotisme og blodtørst", "Hoffet under nederlaget", " Albert Speer og nihilismen - Den teknokratiske filosofi og dens begrænsning - Speer fjerner sig fra Hitler - Himmler og Schellenberg - Schellenberg undergraver Himmlers loyalitet over for Hitler - Schellenberg foreslår at likvidere Hitler - Himmlers ubeslutsomhed - Hitler opgiver at tænke på arvefølgen - Hitler i Berlin - Eva Braun - Grev Schwerin von Krosigk og hans dagbog - Carlyle og astrologi i bunkeren - Roosevelts død - Nazismens narreparadis - Ribbentrop - Schellenberg, Schwerin von Krosigk og Himmler - Schellenbergs selvbedrag", "Krise og afgørelse (20. - 24. april)", " Hitlers 56-års fødselsdag - Fødselsdagsreceptioner og konferencer - Hitler bliver i Berlin - Göring rejser sydpå - Speers planer og hans tale - Himmler og grev Bernadotte - Steinerangrebet mislykkes - Konference den 22. april - Hitlers nervøse sammenbrud - Hitler og Goebbels lægger planer om selvmord - 'Overlad det til Göring' - Forgæves overtalelser - Jodl og Kessel rejser - Himmler får nyhederne - Himmler lægger planer om at træffe Fegelein - Gebhardts besøg i bunkeren - Almindelig udvandring fra Berlin sydpå - Koller bringer nyhederne til Göring - Göring sammenkalder en konference - Himmlers sidste sammenkomst med Bernadotte - Schellenbergs forkerte fortolkninger - Speers sidste besøg i bunkeren - Hitler vil stadig ikke drage bort - Görings afskedigelse og arrestation - Forklaringen på Göring-tilfældet - Speer og Ribbentrop drager bort - Videre forgæves forsøg på at overtale Hitler - Berlin omringes", "Belejringen af bunkeren (25. - 28. april)", " De, der er blevet tilbage i rigskancelliet - Bunkeren isoleres - Ritter von Greim og Koller kaldes til bunkeren - Greims rejse - Hanna Reitsch - Greim og Reitsch i bunkeren - Greim udnævnes til Görings efterfølger - Rigskancelliet bombarderes - Kollers rejse til Fürstenburg - Mærkelige virkninger af livet i bunkeren - Fegelein forsvinder og fanges igen: han degraderes - Selvmordsrådet - Hitler stoler på Wencks hær - Mistanke om forræderi - Første efterretning om Himmlers møde med Bernadotte", "'Også du, Brutus' (28. - 29. april)", " Schellenberg i Danmark - Bernadottes forhandlinger mislykkes - Astrologisk diplomati - Himmler betragtes endnu som Hitlers arvtager - Virkningen i bunkeren af Himmlers forhandlinger - Hemmelige forhandlinger - Hemmelige rådslagninger i bunkeren - Fegeleins henrettelse - Greim og Reitsch sendes bort fra bunkeren - Hitlers og Eva Brauns vielse - Hitlers to testamenter - Bormann og Goebbels - Goebbels klausul til Hitlers politiske testamente - Testamenterne sendes bort fra Berlin - De tre budbringere og deres rejse - Freytag von Loringhoven, Weiss og Boldt forlader bunkeren - Oberst von Below - Von Belows mission og rejse", "Hitlers død (30. april - 1. maj)", " Hitler hører om Mussolinis død - Hundene dræbes - Hitlers farvel til staben - Almindelig lettelse i staben - Bormann giver ordre til flere henrettelser - 30. april - Forberedelser til begravelsen - Hitlers farvel til hoffet - Hitlers og Eva Brauns selvmord - Axmann og Kempka - Ligene bæres ud i haven - Ligene brænder - Mansfeld og Karnan - Hemmelig fjernelse af resterne - Lettelse og cigaretrygning i bunkeren - Bormann meddeler Dönitz om udnævnelsen, men fortier Hitlers død - Bormanns motiver og planer - Bormann forsøger forhandling med russerne - Krebs sendes til Marskal Zuchow - Krebs' udsendelse mislykkes - Goebbels meddeler Dönitz Hitlers død - Dönitz offentliggør Hitlers død - Familien Goebbels' selvmord - Masseflugten og hvordan den mislykkes - Bormanns skæbne - Resten af hoffets skæbne - Himmler og Dönitz - Himmlers ubeslutsomhed - Himmlers sidste forhandlinger - Dönitz afskediger nazisterne - Himmlers selvmord - Slut", "Efterskrift", "Tillæg", "Kildeangivelse".

Forfatteren Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper (senere lord Dacre of Glanton) var Oxford uddannet historiker og arbejdede for britisk efterretningstjeneste MI6 under anden verdenskrig.

Bogen skildrer forbryderhoffet omkring Hitler og deres forblændede opfattelse af verden udenfor. Fx regnede de med at russerne og de vestallierede ville blive uenige og derfor holde op med at bekæmpe tyskerne. Hvis man har set filmen "Der Untergang" eller på engelsk "Downfall" har man et godt billede af denne bog (eller omvendt). Albert Speer får en særlig bebrejdelse, fordi han var med i det selvom han intellektuelt set var langt over både Hitler og forbryderhoffet.

A classic bit of investigation, which had its origin when the author worked for British Intelligence in the closing months, and immediate aftermath, of the Second World War. Trevor-Roper explains how confusion over whether Hitler was truly dead (some of the confusion being engendered by the Russians) prompted the British government to launch an investigation. Trevor-Roper filed a report in November of 1945, which was expanded into a book in 1946; I read the 3rd edition, which came out in 1962. The book is admirably laid out. The first part explains how Trevor-Roper came to write the book, and some of the limitations he faced in writing it. The second part gives the background to the final days of Hitler's life, going through the whole machinations of the "oriental court" surrounding Hitler. Finally, the third part itself details what was known and verifiable (based on substantive cross-checking of witnesses) about Hitler's last days, death, and burial. Some additional facts have emerged regarding the Russian treatment of Hitler's body since that time, and in addition, Martin Bormann's remains were conclusively located. Other than these new facts, Trevor-Roper's book still holds up very well. Highly recommended for World War II readers, but also recommended as a model of investigative research.

Trevor-Roper demolishes any remnant reputation that "master forger" Sir Edmund Backhouse might have retained. The author worked tirelessly to investigate the fantastic historical creations and the fraudulent business transactions that Backhouse perpetrated in China during his hermetic life in Peking.
What ensues is an eviscerating exposure of an aesthetic exile from late Victorian England who brilliantly defrauded and confused others in a manic-depressive quest for respectability.

Very pointed examination of the serial frauds of a master fabulist. Some parts of the book are hard to believe, in that you see pointless squabbling by adults. But in an age of much scientific and academic fraud, worth reading.

In 1973, a distinguished Swiss physician handed to the British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper an enameled Chinese case containing two previously unknown memoirs by Edmund Backhouse, to be delivered to the Bodleian Library at Oxford, which already housed thousands of Chinese books and manuscripts donated by Backhouse. Trevor-Roper knew of Backhouse as a former member of the British Secret Service and the co-author of books on the Empress Dowager and the imperial court of old Peking. Upon reading the newly discovered works, Trevor-Roper realized, to his surprise and dismay, that the memoirs ‘were of no ordinary obscenity.’ (They were published in 2011 as Decadence Mandchoue). Like A.J.A. Symons, whose discovery of the pornographic Venetian letters of Frederick Rolfe drove him on his Quest for Corvo, Trevor-Roper set out ‘to pursue the elusive and preposterous personality’ of Backhouse.

The story he tells in Hermit of Peking is stranger than fiction. Sinologist, secret agent, arms broker, envoy of the American Bank Note Company and the shipbuilder John Brown & Company, and by his own account confidant of court eunuchs and erotic playmate of the Empress Dowager—Backhouse lived a life scarcely to be believed. But the truth is not really the object here, by my lights. Trevor-Roper paints Backhouse as a master fabulist, and himself as the authoritative debunker, but any man who like Backhouse makes of his very flesh a great poem (and of his life a randy memoir) is to be commended.

Non-fiction writing at its best. This apparently started life as an official report of the interrogation of Nazis and other German officials immediately after World War II. The story telling is great, and truly gives the impression that Germany was being led by a fractious group of individuals, all looking after their own interests, with some kooky interactions with medical quacks and mystics. That Germany got so far in the war was testament to the army only, not the bunch of crazies surrounding Hitler (including AH himself) nor the air force and navy.
I read the updated 1956 edition which comes with an excellent introduction and summary; it can be read alone - the rest of the book just provides the details.

Just the right length - but now I am ready for 100 more. A fine mix of erudition, current events, views on other historians, humour, and lessons for life. A true gentleman. Great counterpoint to the excellent Sisman biography.

Settembre 1945. Berlino porta ancora su di sé le ferite infertele da una rovinosa guerra perduta; nella città si scava alla febbrile ricerca di spiegazioni e di verità ancora celate tra le macerie. Il mistero più fitto è quello che avvolge le circostanze della scomparsa di Hitler: una serie di testimonianze palesemente false e contraddittorie, il calcolo, l'ignoranza e il pregiudizio concorrono ad alimentare il mito di un Fùhrer ancora vivo. A far luce sugli ultimi drammatici giorni del Terzo Reich è chiamato Hugh Trevor-Roper, giovane e brillante funzionario dei servizi segreti alleati, futuro grande storico. E proprio con gli strumenti e le finalità di uno storico Trevor-Roper conduce una brillante inchiesta, raccogliendo in prima persona deposizioni e memorie dei protagonisti e dei testimoni
sopravvissuti, per arrivare alla conclusione inoppugnabile che Adolf Hitler si è ucciso nel Bunker della Cancelleria di Berlino. Ma quello che leggiamo ancora oggi con passione non è semplicemente il verbale di un'inchiesta: è anche un grande affresco. Perché in quel Bunker Himmler, Goring, Goebbels, Speer e Bormann hanno consumato
gli ultimi desideri di potere, atti di rivalsa, tradimenti, in un crescendo di follia e di irrealtà; in quel Bunker la piccola corte raccolta intorno al sovrano assoluto del nazismo ha atteso il suo fato.

The epilogue is especially valuable discussion of Germany and politics: industry and warfare well executed by the Germans, but politics not. T-R attributes this the the German tradition of failed politics, especially failed liberal politics.

Settembre 1945. Berlino porta ancora su di sé le ferite infertele da una rovinosa guerra perduta, nella città si scava alla febbrile ricerca di spiegazioni e di verità ancora celate tra le macerie. Il mistero più fitto è quello che avvolge le circostanze della scomparsa di Hitler: una serie di testimonianze palesemente false e contraddittorie, il calcolo, l'ignoranza e il pregiudizio concorrono ad alimentare il mito di un Fuhrer ancora vivo. A far luce sugli ultimi drammatici giorni del Terzo Reich è chiamato Hugh Trevor-Roper, giovane e brillante funzionario dei servizi segreti alleati, futuro grande storico. E proprio con gli strumenti e le finalità di uno storico Trevor-Roper conduce una brillante inchiesta, raccogliendo in prima persona deposizioni e memorie dei protagonisti e dei testimoni sopravvissuti, per arrivare alla conclusione inoppugnabile che Adolf Hitler si è ucciso nel Bunker della Cancelleria di Berlino. Ma quello che leggiamo ancora oggi con passione non è semplicemente il verbale di un'inchiesta. è anche un grande affresco. Perché in quel Bunker Himmler, Goring, Goebbels, Speer e Bormann hanno consumato gli ultimi desideri di potere, atti di rivalsa, tradimenti, in un crescendo di follia e di irrealtà, in quel Bunker la piccola corte raccolta intorno al sovrano assoluto del nazismo ha atteso il suo fato. «Supremazia mondiale o rovina» aveva tuonato nei giorni della sua passata gloria il Fiìhrer, e quando la sconfitta del Terzo Reich fu segnata e il popolo tedesco si rivelò indegno della sua guida non gli rimase che inscenare la fine spettacolare di cui "Gli ultimi giorni di Hitler" sono il resoconto straordinariamente vivido.

766. The Last Days of Hitler, by H. R. Trevor-Roper (read 19 Jan 1964) I was absorbed by this book, which is a kind of classic on its topic.

History as investigative journalism, piecing together the end of the Third Reich. Trevor-Roper dispels the idea that the Nazi regime was a totalitarian machine: in his account, it's a bunch of scheming clowns and courtiers.