Hitler In History

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30568, 10 October 1964, Page 4

Hitler In History

Germany, 1918-1945. Richard Grunberger. Batsford. 208 pp. The justification for this book is explained by the publishers on the dust-cover. “For anyone under the age of 25,” they say, “the events of Hitler’s rule in Germany belong to history. Since those events did so much to decide what is happening now, they are still the subject of constant discussion—all too often on the basis of inadequate or misleading information. Where schools and colleges have included the study of the Nazi era and the Second World War in their curriculum, they have done so in spite of the lack of suitable textbooks on the period. There is, therefore, a real need in schools and elsewhere for a straight-

forward account of Nazi Germany and its dealings with the rest of the world.” This then is the account which Mr Grunberger has set out to provide in this book. About a quarter of the text provides the reader with a historical survey of the First and Second Reichs and then, beginning with the Weimar Republic, the author describes the events leading up to the seizure of power by Hitler and the Nazis, and its disastrous results in the Second World War which cost the world the loss of between 35 and 40 million lives, including those of six million Jews. It is a horrible story objectively told here. The eight illustrations include five maps, and there is a short bibliography at the end.