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HITLER'S BENEFICIARIES Paperback – January 8, 2008
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A "provocative" account of great "intellectual significance," illuminating the economic workings of the Third Reich―and the reasons ordinary Germans supported the Nazi state (The New York Times Book Review)
In this groundbreaking book, historian Götz Aly addresses one of modern history's greatest conundrums: How did Hitler win the allegiance of ordinary Germans? The answer is as shocking as it is persuasive: by engaging in a campaign of theft on an almost unimaginable scale―and by channeling the proceeds into generous social programs―Hitler literally "bought" his people's consent.
Drawing on secret files and financial records, Aly shows that while Jews and citizens of occupied lands suffered crippling taxation, mass looting, enslavement, and destruction, most Germans enjoyed an improved standard of living. Buoyed by millions of packages soldiers sent from the front, Germans also benefited from the systematic plunder of Jewish possessions. Any qualms were swept away by waves of tax breaks and government handouts.
Hitler's Beneficiaries has been hailed as "startling" by Richard Evans, and as "fascinating and important" by Christopher Browning. Above all, as Omer Bartov testifies, this remarkable book "irreversibly transforms our understanding of the Third Reich."
- Print length448 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPicador Paper
- Publication dateJanuary 8, 2008
- Dimensions5.25 x 1.13 x 8 inches
- ISBN-100805087265
- ISBN-13978-0805087260
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“This remarkable book tackles in an entirely original manner one of the greatest paradoxes of the Nazi state: why did the German people increasingly support Hitler's rule even after it unleashed a world war that ultimately led to its own destruction? The answer, based on massive evidence and convincingly argued, is that the Nazi regime won the support of middle and working class Germans by creating greater social and economic equality at home and ensuring that its own "racial comrades" would be well fed and clothed, all with the proceeds of mass murder and unprecedented continent-wide robbery. This rewriting of history, which dismantles the conventional distinction between fanatical Nazis and sober civil servants, will irreversibly transform our understanding of the Third Reich, revealing it as a consensual dictatorship whose popularity was rooted in grand larceny and the profits of crimes against humanity on an unimaginable scale.” ―Omer Bartov, author of Germany’s War and the Holocaust: Disputed Histories
“A pathbreaking work.” ―Amos Elon, author of The Pity of It All: A History of the Jews in Germany
“In this book Aly once again brings to bear his formidable research skills, his knack for pursuing original lines of inquiry, and his incredible capacity to uncover neglected and seemingly innocuous documents. While I do not share Aly's views about the underlying economic causes of the Holocaust, I nonetheless consider this a fascinating and important book about the Nazi economic policies that facilitated the regime's capacity to implement the Final Solution.” ―Christopher R. Browning, author of Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
“Thoroughly researched and fluently written, this book offers a new, brilliant, gripping and convincing dimension to the understanding of one of the most puzzling questions in the history of our times: why did so many Germans, both Nazis and ‘ordinary people' support the persecution of the Jews. Enough with ideology, sociology and psychology: it was mostly about profit.” ―Tom Segev, author of The Seventh Million: Israel Confronts the Holocaust
“Hitler's Beneficiaries recalls the nightmare of older classical liberals like Alexis de Tocqueville and Max Weber, who feared that with the coming of mass society people would forsake liberty to enjoy materialism and its ‘petty pleasures.' Götz Aly has written a brilliant yet disturbing book that shatters our complacencies.” ―John Patrick Diggins, author of Max Weber: Politics and the Spirit of Tragedy
“Shifting the focus from racist fanaticism as the key factor in the success of Nazism to the economic gains from looting and genocide, Aly provides fresh insights into the kleptocratic calculations behind Hitler's great popularity. A bestseller in Germany, this important new book will stimulate renewed debate on why millions of ordinary Germans were lured into cheering for Hitler in peacetime and total war, and how we might come to grips with the enormous and still puzzling dynamism of one of the most murderous movements of the 20th century.” ―Volker R. Berghahn, author of Europe in the Era of Two World Wars
“Götz Aly is a highly original thinker who has made a range of breakthroughs in Holocaust Studies.” ―Raul Hilberg, author of The Destruction of the European Jews
“Never before has the symbiotic relationship between… the attractive and the criminal elements of National Socialism been so acutely and enlighteningly depicted. This book is one of those rare works that sharpen our perspective no the darkest period in German history.” ―Financial Times (Germany)
“A sensational new interpretation of the Nazi era.” ―Neue Presse
“This book is required reading for anyone who wants to join future debates about the Third Reich and World War II.” ―Frankfurter Allgemeine
“However rationally Aly describes the Holocaust, the horror is not lost. In fact, when one is confronted with the idea of racist insanity as a coolly calculated element in policies aimed to keep taxes low and reduce inflation, the very opposite is true… In places, this book reads like a detective story.” ―Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“Aly has turned the debate about the Holocaust upside-down. No future discussion will be able to ignore Hitler's Beneficiaries.” ―Frankfurter Rundschau
“In light of the immense number of participants in and profiteers from the ‘fiscal' plundering of Europe, Aly opens up a new perspective on the question of guilt.” ―Die Zeit
“After reading Aly, no one can still give credence to the claim of not having the looting of Nazi-occupied territories. Everyone profited. Aly is doing some major housecleaning.” ―Neue Zurcher Zeitung
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Product details
- Publisher : Picador Paper; First edition (January 8, 2008)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 448 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0805087265
- ISBN-13 : 978-0805087260
- Item Weight : 1.1 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.25 x 1.13 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #388,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #599 in European Politics Books
- #845 in Jewish Holocaust History
- #1,170 in German History (Books)
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Real estate and liquid wealth of Jews (buildings, businesses, stocks, deposits, precious gems and metals, jewelry, garments, luxury items) was nationalized and legally treated as a credit to government trust funds which were put in charge of handling those assets. Involuntary “creditors” were separated from the control over their former funds and were given per diem allowance for everyday needs of about $1500 per week. Over time, when Jews disappeared in camps, their property was classified as “abandoned” and either was used as a guaranty of government bonds, or sold for quite low prices. Those who invested in buying this property effectively received indirect subsidies from the government. However poorer Germans received their benefits, too. Despite the low selling prices for the Jewish property, its sheer amount made the government to collect huge sums on the property liquidation sales. These funds were used for the social programs for all Germans and for building the Werhmacht’s war machine, which was used to get more and more European Jews and their wealth into reach of Nazi regime. These policies resulted into unprecedented support of the regime from all Germans.
As a result, 4 billion Reichsmark (or about $60 billion in the current equivalent) were confiscated from Jews from 1939 to the end of WWII. Considering that before the WWII a bit more than 200 thousand Jews were living in Germany, on an average $1.2 million were expropriated form every abstract Jewish family of 4 (2 adults and 2 children – from a simple reproduction estimate).
To take away Jewish property in the occupied and allied European countries Nazi regime had to jump through additional hoops. According to the Hague Convention, which Nazi Germany tried to comply formally, an occupying power could not have seized and sold property of the civilian population. However, these regulations did not extend over the local authorities of being occupied countries, and this loophole was used for confiscating property of the European Jews. Thus, because of these requisitions, in 1940 budget revenues of France has increased by 211%, Belgium - 200%, Holland – 180%, and Norway – 242%. In 1941 this revenue boom continued, and reached 125% in Belgium, 131% in Netherlands, and 100% in Serbia.
Of course lion share of this spoil was extracted from these countries by Germans, but ordinary people of the occupied and allied countries also directly and indirectly benefited from this big grab of Jewish property. Overall, during war years 20 billion Reichsmark (or about today’s $300 billion) worth property was extracted from the European Jews. Especially these money were needed to finance needs of the Eastern Front. Thus, campaign of 1942 which allowed Germans to reach Caucasus and Volga, as well as campaign of 1943 which ended in the giant battle of the armored armadas near Kursk, were indeed funded by “Jewish money”. However, in reality, contrary to conspirological theorists, “financiers” were doing that involuntarily, and in most cases posthumously (obliteration of the Jews – 4 million – peaked in 1941-42).
So, it was not the 6 million (or 9 million pre-WWII European Jews) which was the target number of Nazi policies. That number was only a means to reach the real target number of 24 billion confiscated Reichsmark ($360 billion in current equivalent), which is about one and a half times more than GDP of the state of Israel with its 8 million population, contemporary technology and work productivity, and a more than a half-century direct and indirect financial infusions from USA. Or, again, calculated per an abstract 4 member family, that target number was about $160 thousand confiscated from each European Jewish family.
The common German did not starve during the War; after, some. But during, German soldiers happily looted Nations, sending home captured food stuffs, furniture, jewelry, anything they could pack.
Each conquered Nation was different in its compliance, and each delicately handled by subalterns for the German cause. After depriving Jews of their businesses, jobs and belongings, and moving them off into labor camps...the Reich soon realized it cost more to feed them, then what their labor was returning. The solution? Liquidation.
This is not an easy read, little of the war itself, but an overwhelming evidence of the complicity of Germans on every level to live and thrive off other Nations and races. This is the evil face of Socialism. Once Germany and Germans accepted that individuals were subordinate to the State, to be used as seen fit, then nothing stood in their way. This is the same evil America faces today: the encroaching State assuming powers never dreamed of by the Founding Fathers.
A shocking book, completely referenced.
Where the author is original is in his reading of the data of Nazi robbery. He argues that the German people benefited from the Nazi thievery, and, he says, for that reason (among others) they gave their enthusiastic support to the regime. He is careful not to dismiss other factors altogether, such as anti-Semitism, but he stresses the importance of the economic benefit to the population.
There are a number of problems with this thesis.
First, the evidence for happiness with economic conditions during the Hitler regime is totally anecdotal. The author has talked with members of his own family and other acquaintances, but there is no assurance that such haphazard interviewing has resulted in a representative picture. The same goes for his unsystematic reading of published memoirs by famous writers.
Is it simply common sense to assume that people are happy when they reap economic benefits? Not in the absence of other considerations. The German people, after all, underwent great hardship under the Nazi regime, especially in wartime. Aly does not mention that, from the point of view of material comfort, they had as many reasons to be unhappy with the Nazis as to be happy. Their taxes were low during the war, says Aly, because the Nazis robbed the Jews and the occupied countries to pay for the war. And low taxes make people happy. Even if your cities get bombed and your sons and husbands die on the battlefield? If, as Aly suggests, it is material benefits that motivate people above all else, the Germans might have been expected to oppose Hitler.
In my view, writers who have assigned greater weight to non-material motivating factors, such as the Nazi theology of anti-Semitism, have given more satisfactory answers to the puzzle of the Germans' wartime approbation of Hitler.
The Germans' happiness with the Nazis, moreover, began long before Jewish properties were expropriated. Why were the Nazis so popular in 1933, 1934, 1935 - before the program of looting was put into effect? On this point, Aly is totally ahistorical. His thesis is one of cause and effect - Nazi robberies having the effect of Nazi popularity. But what if the effect began before the putative cause?
To this reader at least, Aly's thesis lacks logic.





