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Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: rectitude argument, displaced revenge, perversion story, Geli Raubal, Adolf Hitler, Hans Frank (more...)
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Debates concerning the historical and moral significance of Adolf Hitler have gone on since the beginning of his rise to power in Germany. In the decades after his bunker suicide, those debates elevated to arguments over the very nature and existence of evil. An integral part of the arguments has been the ongoing attempt to understand the why of Hitler. In this engaging work of literary journalism, Ron Rosenbaum travels the world to converse with some of the historians, philosophers, filmmakers, and others who have attempted to make sense of Hitler's actions, to find a root cause for the Holocaust.

Rosenbaum methodically examines the evidence for and against all the major hypotheses concerning the origin of Hitler's character. He sifts through all the rumors--including his alleged Jewish ancestry and what biographer Alan Bullock refers to as "the one-ball business"--and the attempts to derive some psychological cause from them. Various Hitlers emerge: Hitler as con man and brutal gangster, Hitler the unspeakable pervert, Hitler the ladies' man, Hitler as modernist artist working in the medium of evil....

But Rosenbaum's portrayals of those who would define Hitler are as fascinating as the shifting perspectives on the führer. Here we see the brave journalists of the Munich Post who attempted to reveal Hitler's evil to the world as early as the 1920s. We witness Shoah director Claude Lanzmann's imperious attempts to stifle analysis of Hitler and the Holocaust, branding such historical inquiries as "obscene." We see the effects, on a frazzled Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, of the controversy surrounding the publication of his Hitler's Willing Executioners. We see the interior crises of Hitler apologist David Irving and philosopher-novelist George Steiner, among others, as they struggle with the ramifications of their work and thought. And, best of all, we have Rosenbaum to serve as an informed, intimate, and on occasion witty guide. In White Noise, Don DeLillo depicted the satirical academic discipline of "Hitler studies;" Ron Rosenbaum breathes a life into the field that no fiction can match. --Ron Hogan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Seeking explanations for Hitler's monumental evil and the Holocaust, Rosenbaum traveled from Vienna and Munich to London, Paris and Jerusalem, interviewing leading historians, biographers, philosophers, psychologists and theologians. While this convoluted, selective survey of Hitler scholarship will frustrate readers looking for hard answers, it offers groundbreaking insights into the enigma of Hitler's psyche. Essayist Rosenbaum (Travels with Dr. Death), a frequent contributor to the New York Times Magazine, gives voice to a diversity of opinion, from Hugh Trevor-Roper, whose best-selling The Last Days of Hitler presents the F?hrer as a self-deluded demigod, sincere in his demonic hatreds, to Oxford historian Alan Bullock, for whom Hitler is a shrewdly calculating, knowingly evil politician. Rosenbaum also interviewed critic/novelist George Steiner, who has interpreted Hitler as an "evil genius"Athe culmination of dark forces within European civilization; British historian of religion Hyam Maccoby, who argues that Christianity must bear responsibility for the Holocaust; documentary filmmaker Claude Lanzmann; and best-selling Harvard scholar Daniel Goldhagen (Hitler's Willing Executioners). Rosenbaum effectively re-creates the hitherto largely untold story of the heroic anti-Hitler Munich journalists who courageously took on the Nazis from 1920 to 1933. And he provides compelling testimony refuting the oft-repeated claim that Hitler had one undescended testicle. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 496 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Perennial (June 9, 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 006095339X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060953393
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (96 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #64,313 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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First Sentence:
I was ready to give up and turn back. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
rectitude argument, displaced revenge, perversion story, abstract historical forces, primitive hatred, absent testicle, ist kein warum, missing testicle, survival myth, iodoform gauze, blackmail plot, stone cleaning, strange bond, own rectitude, interview with author, posthumous victory, posthumous victories, blackmail letter, missing night, conscious evil
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Geli Raubal, Adolf Hitler, Hans Frank, Munich Post, Hitler Party, Maria Schicklgruber, William Patrick, Yehuda Bauer, Table Talk, New York, Shadow Hitler, Poison Kitchen, Emil Fackenheim, Alan Bullock, Claude Lanzmann, George Steiner, David Irving, Mein Kampf, Fritz Gerlich, Genghis Khan, Therese Neumann, Mimi Reiter, Berel Lang, Lucy Dawidowicz, Robert Waite
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110 of 121 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The mystery of evil, January 18, 2004
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This review is from: Explaining Hitler the Search for the Ori (Hardcover)
Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil by Ron Rosenbaum. Highly recommended.

Explaining Hitler is a misleading title, for the focus is primarily on the Jewish academic community's attempts to explain Hitler-to put it in grossly oversimplified terms, this is somewhat like the prey explaining the motivations of the predator. The result is that, while Hitler remains a mystery, the academic and personal biases of the explainers are revealed. To each person's theories and comments Rosenbaum adds his own analysis, finding the flaws with precision.

Hitler explanation ranges from the deeply personal (abusive father, infection by a Jewish prostitute, mother's painful death under the care of a Jewish physician) to the inevitable influence of historical forces (post-war inflation, depression). Rosenbaum discusses the personal in depth, including Hitler's rumored Jewish ancestor and bizarre relationship with his half-niece Geli Raubal, the convolutions each theory takes, and the lack of facts or reliable information to support any of them. For example, Rosenbaum astutely points out the only real "proof" of the abusive father is Hitler's own assertion and sarcastically suggests that there is reason not to trust Hitler's word. One argument that immediately comes to mind that Rosenbaum only briefly alludes to later is that millions of people have abusive fathers, bad experiences with individual members of ethnic and other groups, and so forth, yet do not turn into war criminals responsible for the deaths of millions. In short, these theories might explain Hitler's anti-Semitism, but not the results.

What is disturbing about so many of these explanations (some of which are advocated by such noted people as Simon Wiesenthal, who favors the Jewish prostitute theory), and more sophisticated ones that appear later in the book, such as George Steiner's, is their insistence that a Jew or a group of Jews is responsible. In these theories, a Jewish ancestor, a Jewish prostitute, an Eastern Jew with a different appearance, or the Jewish "blackmail of transcendence" and "addiction to the ideal" is responsible for Hitler-implying Hitler is not responsible at all. Although the egotistical and monomaniacal Claude Lanzmann, maker of the documentary Shoah, is too self-centered and angry to clearly articulate the basis for his belief that Hitler explanation is inherently "obscene," it could be because so much "explanation" has found a way to point a finger at the Jews, directly or indirectly, while minimizing Hitler. Perhaps for that reason, Lanzmann is interested only in how the Holocaust was accomplished, not with the motivations of Hitler or his followers. The major flaw is that Lanzmann has missed the point by dictating that his rule of "There is no why" must apply to all other individuals-and the irony of that.

As Rosenbaum repeatedly points out, no explanations for Hitler are acceptable that excuse him-that look to a bad experience with a Jew rather than to, for example, the influence of anti-Semitism surrounding him in Austria and Germany. Again, however, it can be said that anti-Semitic influence has surrounded many people (as Rosenbaum notes, pre-war France was more anti-Semitic than either Austria or Germany) who have not killed, let alone killed millions.

Rosenbaum's approach is excellent, pairing individuals with complementary or opposing viewpoints, e.g., Lanzmann and Dr. Micheels, the theologian Emil Fackenheim and the atheist historian Yehuda Bauer in "The Temptation to Blame God." Even revisionist David Irving is given a chapter. Rosenbaum saves what seems to be his preference for the last chapter-Lucy Dawidowicz's belief that Hitler decided on The Final Solution as early as 1918, based on what he said and did not say over time, and on the "laughter" that is transferred from the Jewish victims to the Nazi victors. While this does not explain the origins of Hitler's evil, it pinpoints the time frame and removes the notion that he was ambivalent or experienced a sense of moral ambiguity. Dawidowicz's Hitler knows early on what he wants to do and lets insiders in on the "joke" he finds it to be. Presented in this way, Dawidowicz does seem to have come closest to the truth about Hitler. After all, how can one capable of ambivalence ultimately kill millions?

To me, one critical question is not why or how any one man became evil or chose an evil course of action, for the explanation could simply be that the capacity for evil in an individual may be higher than most of us are capable of realising or accepting. That is, everyday evil like John Wayne Gacy's is accomplished in isolation and is therefore limited in scope. The intent and the desired scope given opportunity remain unknowns. The more frightening question is why and how so many chose to follow Hitler. I do not necessarily mean the German people, per se, but the thousands of bureaucrats, managers, and soldiers who physically carried out The Final Solution, knowing exactly what this entailed and what it signified. Hitler seized the opportunity offered by the political and social situation to institutionalize his personal evil. A single man may envision and desire genocide, but it takes followers and believers to carry it out. Explaining Hitler (or Stalin or Genghis Khan) is not enough to explain the scope of this particular human evil. Without followers, there are no leaders. And without followers, millions of Jews (and Cambodians and Indians and so forth) could not have died. The evil that is so hard to face goes well beyond Hitler to a place that no one could truly wish to discover.

Diane L. Schirf, 18 January 2004.
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34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Survey, May 30, 2004
This book examines the various schools of thought regarding Hitler and the Holocaust and the author did a wonderful job of researching and interviewing many of the scholars on the topic who have in turn influenced our understanding and perceptions of what happened and why. The questions may ultimately not have definitive answers but reading this and having Rosenbaum guide us through the various viewpoints is a worthwhile exercise in intellectual and philosophical investigation. The question of whether Hitler was essential to the Holocaust or if in his absence someone else would have set the same events into motion is one example of an unanswerable question that gets considered.

The questions surrounding the origins of Hitler's anti-semitism are also explored in detail.

There are scholars quoted who adamantly believe that any attempt to understand is misguided because understanding Hitler's motivations is considered by them to be the first step toward rationalization and diminishing the horror of the Holocaust to just a human crime on a larger scale.

This is not a biography of Hitler although many critical episodes in his life are referenced. Instead this is a fascinating look at how different perspectives on the nature of Hitler's evil have developed and how in the end there is no comprehensive answer as to the how and why of the suffering he unleashed. THere is a quote used from Primo Levi's book Survival in Auschwitz. Levi suffering from thirst reaches for an icycle. An SS guard knocks it away and Levi asks "why ?' The response.."there is no why here". I think that story captures some of the spirit of Rosenbaum's book.

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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding those who try to understand Hitler, December 31, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil (Hardcover)
ALthough not the most tightly written book around, Ron Rosenbaum has nonetheless produced one of the best books ever written about Hilter and about those who try to understand Hitler. I admire Rosenbaum for making it clear at several points that he has a point of view that he is not trying to hide, and yet I found him overall to be quite objective in his discussions about what other's think. He is a little harder than necessary on poor Hugh Trevor-Roper, but perhaps not without reason. Overall, this remains a marvelous cultural history, with the added bonus of a great detail of interesting information about Hitler.

I found Rosenbaum's portraits of those pursuing an explanation for Hitler, and those who say that there should be no attempt to try to undestand or explain the man, to have been uniformly intersting. Particularly disturbing were the chapters on the pitiful Hitler-as-a-nice-guy David Irving, and the awesomely awful, supremely arrogant and fascist Claude Lanzmann (can this man have any credibility left?). Perhaps most disturbing are the Steiner and Hyam Maccoby sections. Rosenbaum's section on Steiner led me to read his controversial The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. I came away from that satisfied that Steiner is not a self-hating Jew who was trying to blame the Shoah on Jews. Rather, he wrote a thought-provoking book that has been used in ways that he naively did not (and does not) recognize could be done. Maccoby I find even more despicable than David Irving; what a hateful, narrow-minded, terribly sad person. Finally, the section of Goldhagen was quite illuminating, not only for its dissection of the weaknesses of Goldhagen's book, but, more imporantly, for the incredible hyprocisy displayed by some in the academic community--the font of freedom of ideas--who savaged Goldhagen.

No one need agree with the above characterizations. One of the wonderful things about Rosenbaum's book is that the author does two things--he gives plenty of information to let one reach one's own conclusions and also inspires one to seek out the works of those he writes about. (In addition to the Steiner book, I ordered Trevor-Roper's The Last Ten Days, Primo Levi's book on Auschwitz, and Berel Lang's Act and Idea in the Nazi Genocide.) The reader will also come away from the book with a much better understanding of Hitler, and what the central questions are about Hitler that seem to beg answering.

This is a thought-provoking, richly detailed book, that will profit all who read it. Rosenbaum is to be commended for his courage in tackling this subject, and for the relentlessly objective eye that he brings to the subject. This book, along with Ian Kershaw's first volume of his Hitler biography, are the absolute best places to start if the reader wants to learn about Hitler and his impact on the latter half of the last century.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast and good
I received my order in just a few days after I placed it and this was during the Christmas season. Remarkable. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Kenny Komodo

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book On Hitler Ever
A friend gave me this book several years ago; and it's difficult, sometimes, for me to convey to people why this is the one book to read when it comes to the most evil human being... Read more
Published 7 months ago by W. Ravenel

1.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining but Useless Cop Out
The idea behind the book is great, a meta-analysis of Hitler. Unfortunately, Rosenbaum guiding principles are twofold. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Fritz Gerlich

5.0 out of 5 stars Spot on
Very good book. Could not put it down. However, one might have to re-evaluate in light of the atrocious slate columns of the author. What on earth?
Published 13 months ago by Neurofox

4.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent and provocative
This is a book quite different to any other book I have read before. It is probing, controversial and, speculative. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Harmonious

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but not for beginners.
When I picked up this book, I did not know very much about the life of Adolph Hitler; after reading it, I'm not sure that I know very much more than bare facts. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Deborah Akers

4.0 out of 5 stars Understainding evil
This book does not really explain Hilter. Rather it highlights what the various explanations for Hilter reveal about the people or societies attempting the explanations... Read more
Published on January 9, 2007 by Angela M. Mogin

1.0 out of 5 stars Rosenbaum thinks only in terms of halocaust evil
I'm not going to gripe, as many others have, about the spurious nature of Rosenbaum's arguments, which mostly involve asking fellow Jewish authors why they think Hitler didn't... Read more
Published on December 17, 2006 by K. Beuchert

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Information, Egghead Writing
The information in this book is excellent. That being said, the prose is at times absolutely outlandish. Read more
Published on June 16, 2006 by Lee C. Carpenter

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most in-depth and thought-provoking historiographies of Hitler
Written about the history of Hitler studies, Rosenbaum gives a well-written and thoughtful insight into Hitler historians (be they primarily focused on Hitler or some other aspect... Read more
Published on April 15, 2006 by M. Frank

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