This book is a diary that an American radio news reporter (William Shirer) kept while he was stationed in Germany. The diary covers from Jan 1934 to Dec 1940. Most of the first third of the book covers Hitler’s rise to power and pre-war Germany’s territorial gains (mostly through the threat of military force rather than the actual act of military conflict). The final two thirds of the book then covers the first 16 months of the WW II – definitely the most interesting part of the book to me.
Per the copyright, the book was originally published in 1941. So the book was the author’s very fresh and timely impressions of a country with which America was not yet at war. Many books on WW II have been written given the benefit of known history and hindsight. What makes this book interesting is to see what the author was thinking about the world situation without his having any sure knowledge of how subsequent historical events would unfold.
The problem with his diary was that the author could only write about what he saw, what he heard or what he surmised. But once the war started, his ability to travel was controlled by the Germans, so he saw only what the German’s wanted him to see. For example, after the British reported a “highly destructive” over-night bombing raid of Germany, the Germans might take foreign reporters to the location of those raids so the reporters could see for themselves that there was actually little or no damage (certainly a situation much changed by 1944). And, of course, the Germans mostly just told him what they wanted him to hear. Regardless, the author still strove to surmise what the actual world situation was – again an interesting aspect for modern day readers with their historical knowledge of how events actually unfolded.
In eastern France, the Germans showed the author some of the sites where fighting had occurred. The author noted some of the battle damage and especially noted where there seemed a lack of battle damage. It caused him to wonder why the French didn’t blow up all the bridges over important rivers to slow the German advance. Or why the French didn’t have more artillery and aircraft focused on attacking the roads as the Germans were highly dependent upon those roads to keep their advance moving forward.
Especially interesting to me was when the Germans took the author to Paris very shortly after French capitulated. The author described the city as deserted, with literally no one in the streets.
As a radio reporter, the author would write a daily report that he would then read that night on the radio to America. But German censors examined every script prior to airtime. Bottom line: he could only say what the German’s allowed him to say. When the media is tightly controlled by a totalitarian regime, the distinction between reporting and propaganda is slight. It was those circumstances that eventually drove the author to go back to America.
Bottom line: History via a narrow and personal lens.
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The account of a foreign correspondent and his close hand observations of Hitler
Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2012
I bought this Alfred A. Knopf first edition over the internet a number of years ago as a gift for my father. As my father read Shirer's book he found himself reliving those tumultuous times which lead to his own service in World War II. My father found this book, as I did, to be a compelling read. "Don't give me another book like this," he cautioned me later--"because I could hardly put it down!"Shirer's book is, from all appearances, an actual diary. Every short section (many of which consist of a page or less) gives the city and date of the account. Shirer criss-crosses Europe as he follows events spanning 1934-1941, beginning with Lloret de Mar, Spain on January 11, 1934 to Lisbon on December 13, 1941. The cities that he visited included Paris, Berlin, Prague, Warsaw, Nuremberg, and Munich, to name a few. On August 15, 1940 in Calais he observed "German bombers roaring their way to England." On August 18 he was aboard a German army transport plane from Brussels to Berlin. On June 18, 1941 in Paris he described the eerie feeling that came with the 9 PM curfew that the occupying Germans had imposed on that great city.For me, Shirer's most compelling account is that of the 1938 Munich conference and agreement. On the eve of that infamous accord, on September 27, 1938 in Berlin, Shirer assessed the body language of Hitler while it still seemed possible that the Germans might have to fight to overcome the Sudenten mountain fortifications that might well have stymied their advance."Hitler has finally burned his last bridges. Shouting and shrieking in the worst state of excitement that I've ever seen him in, he stated in the Sportpalast tonight that he would have his Sudetenland by October 1--next Saturday, today being Monday."Shirer goes onto to say:"I broadcast the scene from a seat in the balcony just above Hitler. He still got that nervous tic. All during his speech he kept cocking his shoulder, and the opposite leg from the knee down would bounce up. Audience couldn't see it, but I could. As a matter of fact, for the first time in all the years I've observed him he seemed tonight to have completely lost control of himself."Reporting from Munich just a few days later, on September 30, 1938, Shirer observed Hitler after he got everything he wanted with having to fire a single shot:"It's all over. At twelve thirty this morning--thirty minutes after midnight--Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain, and Daladier signed a pact turning over Sudetenland to Germany."Shirer also had the opportunity to observe Hitler very early that morning in Munich:"How different Hitler at two this morning! After being blocked from the Fuhrerhaus all evening, I finally broke in just a he was leaving. Followed by Goring, Ribbentrop, Goebbels, Hess, and Keitel, he brushed past me like the conqueror he is this morning. I noticed his swagger. The tic was gone!"Shirer's book is truly an amazing account--to think that he was often near enough to Hitler that he was even able to evaluate his body language!
Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2012
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