Hitler S Crusade

A ground-breaking study that looks at why European nations sent troops to take part in Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union.

In the early hours of 22 June 1941 units of the Wehrmacht began to pour into the Soviet Union. They were embarking on an undertaking long planned by Adolf Hitler. Since the 1920s National Socialist doctrine had largely been determined by an intense hatred and hostility towards not only the Jews but also towards Bolshevism. This ideology, Lorna Waddington argues, had been identified by Hitler and his acolytes as the political poison concocted by the Jews in an attempt to impose, as he saw it, their own tyrannical domination across the globe. This impressively researched book provides a sustained and detailed analysis of this crucial dimension to Hitler's Weltanschauung, exploring several new avenues, including the little-known activities of the Antikomintern, as well as offering fresh interpretations and new insights on well-documented events. Engaging a wide range of archival sources and supported by a voluminous secondary literature Waddington charts the origins and development of Hitler's crusade against international Bolshevism from his earliest political activities until deep into the Second World War. Focussing on the function of anti-Bolshevism in Nazi ideology, foreign policy and external propaganda, Waddington traces the links inferred by Hitler between the purported forces of 'World Jewry' and revolutionary socialism. She explains why by the mid-1920s anti-Bolshevism had become a central tenet of Nazi ideology and examines the nature and function of anti-Bolshevism as manifested in German external propaganda. We discover how, despite the shifting sands of international diplomacy, Hitler's foreign policy throughout the 1930s and early 1940s remained firmly fixed on the eventual destruction and spoliation of the USSR, the avowed ideological enemy and the epicentre of supposed 'Jewish Bolshevism'. 'Hitler's Crusade' provides the definitive analysis of Hitler's attitude towards Bolshevism, the destruction of which he was still describing in early 1945 as the raison d'être of the Nazi movement.

"In the early hours of 22 June 1941 units of the Wehrmacht began to pour into the Soviet Union. They were embarking on an undertaking long planned by Adolf Hitler. Since the 1920s National Socialist doctrine had largely been determined by an intense hatred and hostility towards not only the Jews but also towards Bolshevism. This ideology, Lorna Waddington argues, had been identified by Hitler and his acolytes as the political poison concocted by the Jews in an attempt to impose, as he saw it, their own tyrannical domination across the globe.This impressively researched book provides a sustained and detailed analysis of this crucial dimension to Hitler's Weltanschauung, exploring several new avenues, including the little-known activities of the Antikomintern, as well as offering fresh interpretations and new insights on well-documented events. Engaging a wide range of archival sources and supported by a voluminous secondary literature Waddington charts the origins and development of Hitler's crusade against international Bolshevism from his earliest political activities until deep into the Second World War.Focussing on the function of anti-Bolshevism in Nazi ideology, foreign policy and external propaganda, Waddington traces the links inferred by Hitler between the purported forces of 'World Jewry' and revolutionary socialism. She explains why by the mid-1920s anti-Bolshevism had become a central tenet of Nazi ideology and examines the nature and function of anti-Bolshevism as manifested in German external propaganda. We discover how, despite the shifting sands of international diplomacy, Hitler's foreign policy throughout the 1930s and early 1940s remained firmly fixed on the eventual destruction and spoliation of the USSR, the avowed ideological enemy and the epicentre of supposed 'Jewish Bolshevism'."Hitler's Crusade" provides the definitive analysis of Hitler's attitude towards Bolshevism, the destruction of which he was still describing in early 1945 as the raison d'etre of the Nazi movement."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

From the bestselling authors ofThe Holy Blood and the Holy GrailandThe Dead Sea Scrolls Deception, a stunning revelation of Hitler’s secret enemy — Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg — and “Secret Germany’s” plot to kill the Fuhrer. At thirty-seven, Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg, Chief of Staff of the Reich Reserve Army, was a charismatic figure destined for supreme command. The group of conspirators with whom he conceived a plot to kill Hitler in July 1944 was called “Secret Germany.” That was also the name of the esoteric circle in which Stauffenberg as a young man had been a disciple of the mystic anti-Nazi magus and poet Stefan George. What were the motivations of this extraordinary aristocratic soldier, with the looks of a Hollywood idol and reputed to be the only man to stare the Fuhrer down until he averted his eyes? For Stauffenberg, the bomb plot was not a political move but a moral and spiritual necessity. After forty-two serious attempts on Hitler’s life in the previous twenty years, why did he not succeed? Had he done so, some would say he would have become the de Gaulle of Germany, saviour of the nation’s soul. Even in failure, there can be no doubt of Stauffenberg’s heroism. He stands as atonement for the Third Reich and a resolution of the conflicting myths of German culture. In this remarkable investigation, his whole life explains a troubled past to the present generations of Europeans.

Bergman takes a fresh look at Germany's most influential Nazi leaders to provide compelling evidence that the rising influence of Darwinism, eugenics, and race theory in early-20th-century society set the foundation for the Nazi pursuit of engineering a German "master race" and exterminating European Jews, gypsies, Blacks, most Slavs, and the Christian religion.

Many have commented upon Hitler's inexplicable behavior during World War II. He failed to invade England; he neglected his air force; he engaged enemies on multiple fronts. Viewed in terms of Germany's struggle against the West, these and other actions made little sense. In truth, however, the war against Western powers had little to do with Hitler's grand plan: to conquer Russia and lands to the east of Germany, eradicate or enslave their populations, and create a vast Teutonic empire. In light of this goal, Hitler's actions were consistent throughout. In line with his dictum of "All or Nothing," once Hitler failed to defeat Russia in December 1941, he conducted the rest of the war with the sole purpose of inflicting maximum bloodshed and desolation, including upon Germany itself. Weakened, sensing defeat, he knew he was a drowning man--and he was determined to take friend and foe alike down with him. This evaluation of Hitler's objectives in World War II expands upon a theory gaining prominence among historians: Hitler's true motive was a crusade against the East, and he had little interest in waging war with England, much less the United States. It examines the different nature of the war on the Eastern and Western fronts; the disparate treatment afforded the two groups of POWs and civilians; and Hitler's scorched-earth policy, adopted after his primary objective proved beyond his grasp. In poignant, painful detail, it recreates the Russians' devastating four-year struggle against Germany, which went much further towards ensuring its defeat than any of the comparatively belated Western efforts.

The fascinating untold story of how Nazi architects and planners envisioned and began to build a model “Aryan” society in Norway during World War II Between 1940 and 1945, German occupiers transformed Norway into a vast construction zone. This remarkable building campaign, largely unknown today, was designed to extend the Greater German Reich beyond the Arctic Circle and turn the Scandinavian country into a racial utopia. From ideal new cities to a scenic superhighway stretching from Berlin to northern Norway, plans to remake the country into a model “Aryan” society fired the imaginations of Hitler, his architect Albert Speer, and other Nazi leaders. In Hitler’s Northern Utopia, Despina Stratigakos provides the first major history of Nazi efforts to build a Nordic empire—one that they believed would improve their genetic stock and confirm their destiny as a new order of Vikings. Drawing on extraordinary unpublished diaries, photographs, and maps, as well as newspapers from the period, Hitler’s Northern Utopia tells the story of a broad range of completed and unrealized architectural and infrastructure projects far beyond the well-known German military defenses built on Norway’s Atlantic coast. These ventures included maternity centers, cultural and recreational facilities for German soldiers, and a plan to create quintessential National Socialist communities out of twenty-three towns damaged in the German invasion, an overhaul Norwegian architects were expected to lead. The most ambitious scheme—a German cultural capital and naval base—remained a closely guarded secret for fear of provoking Norwegian resistance. A gripping account of the rise of a Nazi landscape in occupied Norway, Hitler’s Northern Utopia reveals a haunting vision of what might have been—a world colonized under the swastika.

Reveals for the first time Heinrich Himmler's master plan for Europe: an SS empire that would have no place for either the Nazi Party or Adolf Hitler. His astonishingly ambitious plan depended on the recruitment of tens of thousands of 'Germanic' peoples to build an 'SS Europa'. Himmler fervently believed that over many centuries, 'Germanic' blood had been 'seeded' in every corner of Europe and even parts of Asia. This book, researched in archives all over Europe and using first-hand testimony, exposes Europe's dirty secret: that nearly half a million Europeans and more than a million Soviet citizens enlisted in the armed forces of the Third Reich - to fight a crusade against 'Jewish-Bolshevism'. No other historian has examined the connections between these SS 'foreign legions' (both police and Waffen-SS) and the Holocaust. Even today, some apologists claim that the foreign volunteers were merely soldiers 'like any other' and fought a decent war against Stalin's Red Army. Christopher Hale demonstrates conclusively that these surprisingly common views are mistaken. And as the Reich collapsed in 1944, Himmler's monstrous scheme would lead to bitter confrontations with Hitler - and the downfall of the man once known as 'loyal Heinrich'.