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Hitler was shrewd, not so hypnotic, new German biography says

He wrote a whole book to explain how he was shrewd and not hypnotic?

Of course he was shrewd . . . I thought that was the whole impetus behind Hitler being - well - Hitler. A shrewd, cunning bastard that manipulated people into getting what he wanted.

Am I just not getting how 'a lot of people' see Hitler or something? How many paper airplanes are flying over my head right now?

It's called "revisionist history" Auntie S.

This new author is trying to get rich and famous by conjuring up a different twist.
 
Mein Kampf is a turgid mishmash of half-baked nonsense. He has all the hallmarks of an uneducated, undisciplined, ignorant mind. This is in spite of help from Rudolf Hess, who himself had a screw loose.

Your comment about a Jewish buddy does not warrant a response. As to him knowing few Jews before the Great War, one important one was his mother's physician, Dr Eduard Bloch who gave her the best medical attention available at a reduced fee because of her circumstances as she was dying of cancer in Linz. In gratitude, Hitler gave Bloch special protection after the Anschluss. During the Great War, Hitler was recommended for the Iron Cross First Class by his superior officer, Leutnant Hugo Gutmann, a Jew.

I never claimed to be a historian but I taught history for years in junior and senior high schools and I know how to read a book.

Well if what you state is what you truly believe and that's what you taught to your students then you brainwashed them with lies.
 
That is my impression also. That his underlings were intent on pleasing him and largely left to their own devices. Why the Jews? Because they owned everything, including the political machine. So in this sense Hitler becomes an opportunist. Is that a correct interpretation? I can't say with certainty.

All politicians are opportunists.
 
Well if what you state is what you truly believe and that's what you taught to your students then you brainwashed them with lies.
It is unmannerly to trash a person's life work with an accusation of mendacious brainwashing.
 
It is unmannerly to trash a person's life work with an accusation of mendacious brainwashing.

Well think about it.

There have been lots and lots of people with a special interest to belittle Adolf and they have been very successful with their own propaganda.

However belittling him is inconsistent with his rise to power.

If you have done the same thing then you have simply failed in teaching truth to the youth.

The truth is that both Adolf and Tojo were monstrous tyrants but very gifted in many ways.

They struck the world at the same time and together they reeked havoc upon it for 10 (Tojo) to 12 (Adolf) years.

You can call either one of them a fool, but you're only kidding yourself and your audience.

Each one of them made only one or two major mistakes, but the rest of their actions were brilliant.

Tojo ordered the attack on Hawaii without following it up with a mainland attack on California. That was his mortal mistake.

Adolf ordered the attack on Russia, which alone was probably fatal. He also declared war on the USA which then accelerated and sealed his own fate.

Adolf's book is a repeating rant which hypnotizes it reader with repetitious rants until the reader if he/she is vulnerable (poor, hungry, unemployed) will succumb to the propaganda. Four people wrote it, not just Adolf. None of the 4 was stupid. Adolf was a very gifted public speaker. All 4 were quite smart.

If you taught your kids Adolf was a fool, then I wonder if any of them will later question you and recall they were lied to then.
 
Longerich is highly regarded by fellow historians and is the author of a number of excellent books about the Reich/Holocaust including:

The Unwritten Order: Hitler's Role in the Final Solution - Stroud Tempus Publishing 2003
Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews - Oxford University Press 2010
Heinrich Himmler: A Life - Oxford University Press 2011
Goebbels: A Biography - Random House 2015

He was also a noted witness in the David Irving trial (2000). Irving insisted on a literal interpretation of the Nazi phrase "resettlement in the East". Longerich demonstrated conclusively that "resettlement in the East" was was only a euphemism for extermination and nothing more.
 
He wrote a whole book to explain how he was shrewd and not hypnotic?

Of course he was shrewd . . . I thought that was the whole impetus behind Hitler being - well - Hitler. A shrewd, cunning bastard that manipulated people into getting what he wanted.

Am I just not getting how 'a lot of people' see Hitler or something? How many paper airplanes are flying over my head right now?

Yes, Hitler was very shrewd, and very good @ manipulating people.

I haven't read Hitler's book, or the one mentioned in the OP, but I've read 'The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich' by W. Shirer.

The ways Hitler treated both friends and enemies to get his way was amazing...esp. regarding other world leaders. And he got away with it, for the most part....until the 'fall' part started, anyway.
 
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