Peter Fritzsche reviewed Volkmer Ullrich’s book, Hitler: Downfall 1939-1945 in a New York Times review titled No Hitler, No Holocaust. A few quotes from the outstanding review, and book, especially stood out, see them here in bold:
“NEVER AGAIN,” Adolf Hitler repeated that slogan over and over.… “Never Again“ identified specifically domestic enemies, so-called “November criminals,“ Marxists, Jews and others, would never be allowed to sabotage Germany as they allegedly had at the end of World War I or to reroute German history into white Hitler regarded as parliamentary chaos and moral degeneration. The recovery of German fortunes depended on crushing left-wing forces as soon as he had seized power, Hitler promised heads “rolling in the sand.”
“Never Again” also embellish the fantasy that the Allies, act in concert with the “November criminals,“ and very nearly succeeded in eradicating the German nation in 1918-19. Figures of Germans rounded up, deported or exterminated and reduced to ashes littered Nazi propaganda. With this embattled worldview, Hitler led the revitalized Third Reich with a clear aim to preemptively and repeatedly strike at declared enemies in what he considered to be a remorseless struggle for existence. As he explained to the Nazi elite in April 1944, “Exterminate, so that you yourself will not be exterminated!“ “Never Again“ prepared the horrific scale of German violence in the years 1939-45.
Hitler‘s commitment to expand Germany’s living space and his resolve to destroy rather than defeat Germany’s enemies so that they “will never again rise up“ show how his ideas about 1918 directly influence the conduct of World War II.
Ullrich concludes this accomplished biography with lessons about “how quickly democracy can be prised from its hinges when political institutions fail“ and “how thin the mantle separating civilization and barbarism actually is.“ The history of the Third Reich teaches us about “what human beings are capable of when the rule of law and ethical norms are suspended.“ The inhumane enlarged the idea of the human. To these lessons we can add that it is precisely the allure of national and racial uplift and the temptation to constitute “us” by excluding “them” that diminish law and morality. Readers and writers persistently return to the rise and fall of Hitler – Ullrich’s biography is the latest on a long shelf. There is the force of Hitler’s personality and the consequence of the will of a single individual, of course. But we also return because the Third Reich reveals the power of public fantasies. The liberal mindset is not the default.
See the full review in the New York Times