Today's post is on The Devil's Diary: Hitler's High Priest and the Hunt for the Lost Papers of the Third Reich by Robert K. Wittman and David Kinney. It is 416 pages long and including notes; it is published by HarperCollins. The cover has a picture of Alfred Rosenberg with this dairy in front of his face. The intended reader is someone who is interested in history, World War 2 and understanding how things happen. There is some foul language, no sex, and violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the back of the book- This exploration of the private wartime diary of Alfred Rosenberg—Hitler’s “chief philosopher” and architect of Nazi ideology—interweaves the story of its recent discovery with the revelation of its never-before-published contents, which are contextualized by the authors: The result is a unprecedented, page-turning narrative of the Nazi rise to power, the Holocaust, and Hitler’s post-invasion plans for Russia
A groundbreaking historical contribution, The Devil’s Diary is a chilling window into the mind of Adolf Hitler’s “chief social philosopher,” Alfred Rosenberg, who formulated some of the guiding principles behind the Third Reich’s genocidal crusade. It also chronicles the thrilling detective hunt for the diary, which disappeared after the Nuremburg Trials and remained lost for almost three quarters of a century, until Robert Wittman, a former FBI special agent who founded the Bureau’s Art Crimes Team, traced its strange journey.
The authors expertly and deftly contextualize more than 400 pages of entries stretching from 1936 through 1944, in which the loyal Hitler advisor recounts internal meetings with the Fürher and his close associates Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler; describes the post-invasion occupation of the Soviet Union; considers the “solution” to the “Jewish question;” and discusses his overseeing of the mass seizure and cataloguing of books and artwork from homes, libraries, and museums across occupied Europe. An eyewitness to events, this narrative of Rosenberg’s diary offers provocative and intimate insights into pivotal moments in the war and the notorious Nazi who laid the philosophical foundations of the Third Reich.
Review- This book is not just about Rosenberg but about the lawyer who helped try him. The lawyer was a Jewish man named Kempler and at the end of the Nuremburg trails, he walked away with thousands of documents about Rosenberg and the Nazi crimes. He was going to write a book about it but that just never happened. So many papers and documents were thought to be lost to time when they were found by Kempler's sons after he died. But some of the book is about Rosenburg and the excellent written documents he left behind about himself, the Fürher, and the Nazi plans in general. It is very chilling to read the words yourself about what Rosenburg and others high up in the Nazi party thought about anyone who was Jewish or just not pure 'Aryan'. With the recovery of this diary we can again examine how the Nazis happened and what we can do to stop it from happening again.
I give this books Five out Five stars. I was given a copy of this book by HarperCollins in exchange for an honest review.
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