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Crossing Hitler: The Man Who Put the Nazis on the Witness Stand

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"Crossing Hitler: The Man Who Put the Nazis on the Witness Stand" is a biography of Hans Litten, a crusading German lawyer whose life ended prematurely at Dachau concentration camp in 1938, seven years after he pressed Adolf Hitler into a fit of rage on the witness stand at the Eden Dance Palace Trial. A recent revival in interest and regard for Litten in Germany has led to some sanitizing of his character and politics, which author Benjamin Carter Hett attempts to dispel. He presents a picture of a complex and radical man, a champion of the downtrodden, intolerant and inflexible, anti-Weimar Republic, anti-Nazi, anti-democratic, sympathetic to Communists but not one of them, who believed in the law, which he used to advance social and political consciousness in the volatile last years of the Weimar Republic.

Hett doesn't dedicate much space to Litten's personal life, if, indeed, he had a personal life. He was an obsessive man for whom everything revolved around the goals he pursued in the courtroom. There is detailed coverage of Litten's role and Hitler's difficulty in the 1931 Eden Dance Palace Trial in which four Nazi stormtroopers were accused of the attempted murder of three people at a Berlin party, a trial that may have sealed Litten's fate years hence. A year later, Litten was expelled from court for politicizing another trial of Nazi stormtroopers, this time for a violent clash with the communist Combat League Against Fascism. The book then follows Litten's movement through a series of prisons and concentration camps as a political prisoner after he was arrested in 1933.

Hans Litten is an interesting, if not likeable, man who had an important career at a pivotal time and place in history. But I found "Crossing Hitler" most illuminating when discussing the legal climate in Germany in the years just before and after the Nazi party came to power. The author goes beyond the idea that the Weimar judicial system was simply soft on the political right to present a broader picture of a varied legal system that was in the throes of upheaval in the early 1930s, yet managing still to function. The tireless efforts of Hans Litten's friends Max and Margot Furst and his mother Irmgard to free him from prison reveal a bureaucracy in the grasp of Nazi power but not yet entirely subdued by it. "Crossing Hitler" is an insightful and sometimes eloquent look at how a legal system behaved in the midst of political turmoil, through he experiences of a revolutionary lawyer.

To be honest, I usually read fiction, especially sci-fi/fantasy and occasionally thrillers with WWII links (Enigma, Black Cross, The Shadowman). Enigma was a work of pure fiction, based on the premise that the Third Reich had expanded, survived and become a permanent fixture on the European landscape.

My apologies for mentioning another book. However, the reason why I do so, is because Crossing Hitler is a biography of Hans Litten, who put Hitler on the witness stand in the Eden Dance Palace trial of 1931. What few realize is that Litten's questions had the potential to cause Hitler to pejure himself (thus throwing him in jail) and fracture the Nazi party. Indeed, it takes little imagination for an "alternative history" sci-fi reader such as I, to wonder what would have happened if such a thing had come to pass? How many lives would have been spared? How much destruction avoided? How different would the world now be?

This is the concept that intrigued me into deviating into the realm of non-fiction.

The book really delves into Hans Litten's personality, beliefs and motivations. It looks closely at his life both from childhood right up to his death in Dachau concentration camp - the ultimate price paid for humiliating Hitler. Likewise, it looks closely at those who surrounded Litten, and the consequences of their association with him. To give him credit, Hett (the author) did a fantastic amount of research for the book, basing the arguments he provides largely on documented historical fact, backing it up with notes at the end citing the exact references.

Likewise, while the author clearly is familiar with other biographies of Hans Litten, he strives to fully understand this brave lawyer and uses historical facts to justify his views.

Personally, I found the book rather heavy, and would have enjoyed it more if more time had been devoted to Hitler's time on the witness stand.

In all, though, I recommend this well researched book.

In 1931 the Nazi party hadn't gained complete control of Germany and Hitler's mad shadow hadn't begun to complete plunge Germany in darkness. Han Litten had the Nazi party on the stand when four of Nazi stormtroopers were accused and tried for attempted murder and assault. Litten did what would in retrospect be unthinkable by many people--he put Hitler on the stand. Hitler desperately sought the support of the German middle class and decided to distance himself from some of the more extreme behavior from the Nazi party. Hitler wanted to be seen as someone who was using the political and legal system properly to deal with issues within his party and outside of it. Litten knew differently. The prosecuting attorney called proceded to grill Hitler on the stand about his association with the Nazi party, what he knew and condoned managing to make the future Furher furious with Litten. Bravery has its cost even when we don't see the outcome of our actions or others.

Litten who esposed left wing political causes and embraced his Jewish heritage found himself in constant conflict with the Nazi party and what they were attempting to do in Germany. The result once Hitler took power was that Litten was thrown into Dachau first as a political prisoner and, later, because of he was a Jew. Hitler had Litten tortured, humiliated and tried to defeat him. All the while Litten held on to the knowledge of that he was on the side of right and that eventually Hitler would get his due.

A fascinating biography, Crossing Hitler is well researched and written by Benjamin Carter Hett. Hett knows his history--he is an Associate Professor of History at Hunter College and also knows the law having practiced as a former trial lawyer. His background gives us unique insight into Germany just as the country was turning the corner from the devestation of the first World War only to be plunged into darkness by the Hitler and the Nazi party. The only flaw with the book is that sometimes Hett lets the pacing lag a bit. Given that this book operates as both biography and history focusing on the trial where Litten put Hitler on the stand, I expected the book to open with that trial and work in details backwards from there. Perhaps it was my expectation but a chronological detailed account of Litten's life while important should have been bookended by the trial and its aftermath. To Hett's credit, he isn't pedantic and his style immediately involves you in the events he describes.

Hett gives us a unique portrait of Litten through interviews and correspondence that reveals a complex man who while a hero could be every bit as human and frail as you or me. Once the moment of bravery has past, it's how you deal with the consequences of that bravery that gives us a sense of the character. This is an extremely well written book that despite some minor flaws should be read particularly by those who felt that all Germans didn't oppose Hitler, the Nazi party and their transformation of Germany from a rising nation to a butcher shop that tore apart the country as it needlessly took human lives.

Hett's very interesting account of the life of Hans Litten focuses on Litten's prosecution of Adolf Hitler and other members of the Nazi party in the years before they came to full power. The aftermath of Hitler's retaliation against Litten is sobering, and as horrifying as any of the multitude of atrocities committed under the direction of the Nazis. To his credit, Hett notes that Litten was no angel, that his egotism and relentlessness in pursuit of his ideals (which could even turn off those closest to him) were both his greatest strengths and weaknesses.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the book is the lengthy (translated) transcription of Litten's cross-examination of Hitler. Fascinating.

The first thing you should know: the actual trial where Hitler was cross-examined is only a tiny part of the book. CH is both a biography of Hans Litten and a book about the general state of the legal system in Germany during the 1930s. the book is well written and thoroughly researched. I find myself wondering, however, if the subject isn't a bit over-rated.

All I know about Hans Litten is what was in this book but he doesn't strike me as a particularly "heroic" figure. If fact, he comes off as being rather neurotic and self-absorbed. He was a radical lawyer who's first concern was his obsessive pursuit of his own private ideological agenda. I don't see how he was this great enemy of Nazism (at least, no more so than the many other brave people who resisted the slide into Fascism). What happened to him was very sad but, again, how many thousands of other Germans found themselves suffering the same fate?

On the one hand, all the victims should be honored and remembered; on the other hand, I don't see how Litten was so special. I suspect his quasi-fame is more about myth-making than about historical fact. But for the fact that Litten happened to cross-examine Hitler in some relatively minor case in the early 1930s, I doubt that anyone would have ever heard of him. He's famous by a happenstance.

Anyway, the book is pretty good and worth reading if you have any interest in the time-period.

Recommended.

This book puts to rest the thought that there was no resistance to the rise of Adolf Hitler. It tells the story of a brave attorney that took Hitler to task in court, and the price he paid for doing it.

This book helps to fill a much-needed niche in 20th century world history, and is highly recommended!

This is the story of Hans Litten, the German (and Jewish) lawyer who brought Hitler to trail for his relationship to the SA (Storm Troopers). Unfortunately, Litten's heroic cross examination of Hitler brought him a life of woes including exclusion as a practicing lawyer and ultimately ended with Litten in a concentration camp where after five years he took his own life. I greatly enjoyed this book because this is truly a story of a profile in courage and what the cost of that courage was. This was the first time I had read or heard about this trial or Hans Litten and I found it to be a hard to put down book. I read it from beginning to end in only three sittings. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to know more about Hitler's rise to power, his personality and about a true hero, Hans Litten, who suffered untold misery (and documented tortue) due to his legal pursuit of Hitler and the SA. This book is the embodiment of what it means to give your life for the common good and for what is right. An intriguing and thought provoking read reminding all of us of that there were those that tried to stop Hitler and what the consequences were.

The source escapes me at the moment, but someone once said that those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. When looking at the Holocaust, one might wonder if there was there anyone who was in a position to try and stand up to those who were instrumental in bringing it about. And if there were, what their fate was? "Crossing Hitler" tells the true story of a lawyer, Hans Litten, who seemed to have done about everything he could to deliberately antagonize Hitler. and the grim aftermath.

Litten grew up in an upwardly mobile Jewish-German middle class. During the 1931 Eden Dance Palace trial, he forced Hitler to testify as a witness against the Nazi storm troopers accused of assault and attempted murder. Post-trial, Hitler who had a long memory, vowed revenge.

L. is not the only hero in this book. Others include Max and Margot Furst, longtime friends and fellow activists who with his mother, Irmgard Litten waged a long, crafty and doomed attempt to have Litten released from the concentration camps.

The book is full of incidents that prove that truth is often stranger than fiction, such as the SS guard who believed that Litten would be able to represent him in court while incarcerated. It's also an absorbing account of an unique historical figure.

Hans Litten is a nearly forgotten name in the rubble left by the Third Reich. Yet in 1931, had he been fully successful in challenging the SA, the Nazis and Hitler himself in the German courts, he might have thwarted Hitler's efforts to look "respectable" to German conservatives, the German Army and thus regarded as a "suitable" option as Chancellor should the eventuality arise, as it did, two years later.

Hans Litten was a tenacious attorney, son of a law dean, assimilated secular jew father and of a German Lutheran mother. He embraced leftist ideology and causes, as well as, perhaps paradoxically, judaism. In 1931 the SA were the primary shock-troops of the Nazi party. Working class thugs, they could just as easily have been militant communists, indeed, politically they were the most "socialist" of the National Socialists. The Eden Dance Palace was a grim and squalid dance hall in a poor section of Berlin. Its clientele was almost exclusively working class leftists and communists who used it not only for socializing but as meeting place. On 22 November 1930, nazi storm troopers were marauding in the neighborhood deliberately looking for trouble, went into the dance hall and created a melée, shots were fired, patrons were wounded, none killed. Sensing easy red meat, this event inaugurated a three month spree of violence by the SA in the Charlottenburg district, which eventually led to the arrest of several perpetrators of the Eden Dance Hall assault. This sets the stage for the central drama of the book, as Hans Litten, prosecutor, attempts to establish guilt, to expand the prosecution, and to establish a nexus between the brute force of the SA, the Nazi leadership and Adolf Hitler personally. Indeed, Litten, in cross examining Hitler (who was summoned as witness), showed how the Nazi party had espoused illegality as a valid means to achieve power. Sadly, as we read, we know this is 1931, and what course history will eventually take.

The book is clearly written, with the complex ideological and political cross-currents (within and between opposing sides) always easy to follow. Prof. Hett shows in his writing that he must have been at least as good a lawyer as he is now a lucid teacher.

Of particular value is the Appendix, a reconstructed transcript of Hitler's testimony in Court, 08 May 1931. German courts did not take stenographic records as American courts did and do, but the dialogue exists in notes taken by the press and others. These as well as all other source material are taken from original documents.

Litten was a man of immense courage and keen legal skills even if in the end his efforts were futile. His end was tragic. His story deserves to be better known. I hope this book helps. The good suffered together with the bad, eventually. Not fair, is it? Life isn't.

It would have been easy enough to have written a biography of Litten which simply painted him as prescient, courageous & heroic. Certainly he was all of these things. How to explain why he made the choices he did is a tad more difficult; in the epilogue, Benjamin Hett discusses the various versions of Litten (Communist warrior or Christian martyr --- take your pick) which have evolved over the decades. Hett concludes that there was no single motivation for why Litten fought these battles, and that perhaps Litten himself could not have satisfactorily explained it, other than to say that it needed to be done.

As it is, we the readers are treated to a gripping slice of history, where one determined lawyer came close to descrediting Hitler and possibly derailing his movement. He very well could have done it (he or other determined lawyers in Germany), except that the legal establishment did its gosh-darndest to make it as easy as possible for the Nazis to take power and then consolidate their grip.

The complicity of the judges, lawyers and police in allowing the thuggish, quasi-legal (at best) Nazis make the move into legal respectability is a central theme in Hett's book. Litten was not just fighting against the Nazis --- he was also fighting against an often reactionary system (the request by Superior Court officials to have Hitler return portraits of Kaiser Wilhelm II to the court rooms is most illuminating) which was equally determined to keep a trouble-maker like Litten in check as it was to assist a movement dedicated (so it said) to law and order. That so many people were willing to overlook the unlawful and disorderly nature of the Nazis made it well nigh impossible for Litten to win.

For those who don't know how the Nazi regime progressed in its early years in power, Hett's book provides good illustrations as to how things evolved. The Third Reich can be broken down into several stages, and Litten experienced them all first-hand through his imprisonment. An initial pummelling at the hands of SA goons then made the transition to a more orderly imprisonment where intellectuals like Litten could enjoy scholarly pursuits during their confinement. Traditional prisons then gave way to the concentration camps, the nature of which was growing ever more ominous when Litten had decided that enough was enough and took his life. He spared himself the horrors which were to follow.

All in all, Hett has presented a wonderfully thorough and well-researched book which examines and incredibly complicated man. Another reviewer commented on the similarities between the personalities of Litten and Hitler, and I too was struck by this as I read it. How can it be that someone we regard as heroic could also remind us in some ways of Hitler himself? There are no easy answers here, and Hett does not try to make it easy. This is very much to his credit.