Customer Reviews

Hitler's Elite

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If one is looking for a quick book on the top villians of the Nazi regime, and does not care for anything more than a few facts and figures here and there, than this book is fine. Snyder does indeed tell us about the lives and times of Hitler's henchman. Sadly, though, the characters never come alive and one is likely to finish the book feeling dissapointed. Avid readers should look to other sources. In one area I also took issue with Snyder. Again and again he argues that these Nazis were guided by blind obedience to Hitler. Whatever Hitler wanted, so did they. But is this accurate? Was Goering blindly obedient when he leaked information about Barbarosa to the world? Was Himmler in negotiating with the allies in 1945? Certainly not Hess, who humiliated Hitler by flying to Britain in May of 1941. In the end I believe only Goebbles could be said to have been blindly obedient.

A biased, poorly written book, Louis L. Snyder should have left this book on the back burner. Often attempting to sensationalize his work, the author's one word statements of shock and indignation seem to indicate a poor attempt at a newspaper article as opposed to a piece of historical work. A below average piece of material, certainly not crowded with historical fact, this book is better left on the shelf to collect dust.

If you are looking for a quick general reference about Hitler's inner-circle, here it is. This is the first book I read, when studying the motley collection of villains that occupied the highest offices in the National Socialist party.

This is not a particularly serious work, being somewhat sensational in its content, and far from objective. However, the subjects of these commentaries are certainly not in any way respectable characters. A study of the National Socialist party reveals that its members were not at all a cohesive group, each seeking their own particular advantages.

-Some of the highest ranking Nazis were merely political gangsters out to amass as much wealth and power as possible (Goering).
-Some were psychopathic genocidal criminals bent on extermination of specified ethnicities (Heydrich).
-Some were merely quixotic occult-worshipping buffoons (Rosenberg).
-Some were depraved sexual perverts (Streicher).
-Some of them fit into all of these categories (Hitler).

Not all the subjects of this book are major party leaders. The "least abominable" and one of the most interesting, is Otto Skorzeny, who was Hitler's most favored special-operations man. Skorzeny, an Austrian engineer, had never aspired to a military career. However, he enlisted in the Waffen S.S. while in his 30's, and soon saw action on both the Western and Eastern Fronts. Skorzeny was not particularly interested in Nazi party politics, but like many, he joined the party in power for its advantages. Upon promotion to the commissioned ranks, Skorzeny's curcumstances led him to become the most audacious commando in the S.S. His reckless exploits prompted the Allies to designate him as "the most dangerous man in Europe".

Because he was merely a soldier, Skorzeny was spared the noose at Nuremberg. However, he continued to aid the Nazi cause after the war by assisting several Nazi war-criminals in escaping to South America. Did he do it merely for the money? Nevertheless, a number of sordid individuals escaped justice by his efforts.

There are some interesting moments and information presented in this book, such as most of the Nazi inner circle had high IQ's. However, the overall tone of the book is not historical, rather it is biased towards the author's viewpoints and sensationalized. Any good historical work should present just the facts, no matter how notorious the subject(s) happen to be without any spin to grab book sales. Snyder should have read John Toland's "Hitler" before undertaking this work.

An interesting biographical preview into the Nazi Party's inner circle. In sight into the people running the Nazi war machine that will leave you stunned. And while Adolf Hitler and Germany's Psyche may not be the subject of the book you will undoubtedly discover shocking truths about Hitler and the German public in the back ground. -Eric Hastings

While you can tell that this is a mass-market paperback (the type found in the 'true crime' section rather than the 'history' section) by its unapologetically emotional tone, there are still good reasons to use it as a quick reference.

The motivations, thoughts and attitudes attributed to the characters here should generally be checked before accepting as fact, but the basic events they were involved in are mostly accurate enough. A particular gem is the inclusion of the sentencing statement of the Israeli judge who sent Eichmann to the gallows, which I have since quoted a number of times for its eloquence and reason. Recommended with the above caveats.