rise-and-fall-of-the-third-reich-william-shirer-pdf

1028 THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH”In ordinary circumstances,” Trevor-Roper began, ”it would be impossible,only half a generation after its end . . . to write its history. But with the ThirdReich, nothing was ordinary, not even its end. In that total annihilation all thesecrets of [Hitler’s] rule were broken open, all the archives captured. . .”Now, as never before, the living witnesses can converge with the historicaltruth. All they need is a historian. In William L. Shirer they have found one. . . ”This was heady stuff, and at the very beginning of the review. It almosttook my breath away. The concluding lines were almost as breathtaking. ”Thisis a splendid work of scholarship, objective in method, sound in judgment,inescapable in its conclusions.”I was brought down to earth by the front-page review in the rival New YorkHerald-Tribune Book Review. Its author, Gordon A. Craig, then a historianat Princeton, did not agree at all with his Oxford colleague that the ThirdReich had found its historian in me. By no means! He thought the book wastoo long and ”out of balance.” He regretted that I had not read the book ofan obscure German historian. The fact that the book was based not on whatother historians had written but on original sources – captured secret Germandocuments – did not impress him, if he noticed it.In Germany, to put it mildly, the book did not fare very well with the reviewers.The Germans simply could not face up to their past. Led by the chancellorof West Germany, Konrad Adenauer, the book was furiously attacked and theauthor maligned. ”A German-hater!” Adenauer called me. Since the book dealtobjectively with Nazi Germany and the crimes the Germans committed againstthe human spirit and against their neighbors and against the Jews of Europe,and since I allowed the documented facts to speak for themselves, I was somewhattaken back by the vehemence of the German reaction, but not entirelysurprised.And now, as the thirtieth-anniversary edition of The Rise and Fall goes topress, the world is suddenly confronted with a new reunification of Germany.Soon, united, Germany will be strong again economically and, if it wishes,militarily, as it was in the time of Wilhelm II and Adolf Hitler. And Europe willbe faced again with the German problem. If the past is any guide, the outlookis not very promising for Germany’s neighbors, who twice in my lifetime havebeen invaded by the Teutonic armies. The last time, under Hitler, as the readersof this book are reminded, the German behavior was a horror in its barbarism.People ask now: Have the Germans changed? Many in the West appear tobelieve so. I myself am not so sure, my view no doubt clouded by the personalexperience of having lived and worked in Germany in the Nazi time. The truthis that no one really knows the answer to that crucial question. And quiteunderstandably the nations that were former victims of German conquest donot want to take any chances again.Is there a solution to the German problem? Perhaps. It lies in enmeshingreunited Germany in a European security system out of which it could neverbreak loose to pursue its past policies of aggression.In one fundamental sense, the situation has changed since the fall of theThird Reich. The development of the hydrogen bomb, as I mentioned at theend of my Foreword, written in 1959, has rendered an old-fashioned conquerorlike Adolf Hitler obsolete. If ever a new adventurer such as Hitler tried to leadthe Germans to new conquests, he would be repelled by a nuclear response. Thatwould put a quick end to German aggression. But, unfortunately, it would put