Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Penguin Press (2009), 944 pages
Description
The final volume in Evans's masterly trilogy on the history of Nazi Germany traces the rise and fall of German military might, the mobilization of a people's community to serve a war of conquest, and Hitler's campaign of racial subjugation and genocide.
User reviews
LibraryThing member TomVeal
The Third Reich at War is the finale to Richard J. Evans's impressive trilogy on Nazi Germany. It is best read as a continuation of the preceding volume, The Third Reich in Power, showing how the militaristic and brutal trends of the first half of Hitler's regime reached fruition following the
The preceding volume focused on the fabric of life under Hitler; in this one, the fabric first unravels, then burns. As before, Professor Evans focuses on the impact of the regime's practices and policies on individuals, quoting frequently from contemporary diaries and letters. He is much less interested in discrete events, statistics and the intricacies of high politics, topics that, it may be noted, have been covered in extenso in many other works.
The central theme here is Nazi barbarism: toward the mentally and physically defective, toward the populace of conquered countries and, of course, toward Hitler's most hated victims, the Jews. Also chronicled is the retaliatory violence of Germany's enemies, particularly the massive Anglo-American bombing raids and the savage Soviet invasion of the eastern half of the country. The course of World War II provides a loose narrative structure on which other topics hang more or less appropriately in generally self-contained units. There is, for instance, a section on the euthanasia of "lives unworthy of life", one on the effect of the war on culture, one of the drive to develop "wonder weapons", and so on. A few matters of special importance, above all the destruction of European Jewry, reappear.
The book has a subtle approach to the multitude of controversies that divide historians of the war. It generally does not call attention to them but does present pertinent facts for the consideration of readers who are aware of the debates. Sometimes the author's own position is firmly set forth. He does not believe, for instance, that Germany's defeat was due to any delay in wartime economic mobilization (as his previous book shows in detail, the economy was on a full war footing by 1938) or by Hitler's disregard of the advice of his generals. Elsewhere, as on the attitude of the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches toward the persecution of the Jews, he lays out the conflicting evidence without trying to shape it.
On one question, The Third Reich at War is absolutely clear: The reassuring idea that the Holocaust was a secret known only to a handful of villains is unsustainable. Professor Evans does not accuse millions of Germans of being "Hitler's willing executioners", but he leaves no doubt that very few were ignorant bystanders. He does not, however, omit to note acts of sympathy, even heroism, by ordinary Germans on behalf of threatened Jews.
In the course of the book, one runs across a few minor, but interesting revisionist points, e. g., that the Waffen-SS was far less elite than its reputation and that the received picture of the Battle of Kursk has large elements of myth: The climactic clash at Prochorovka, supposedly the largest tank battle in history, was invented by the Soviet commander to cover up an embarrassing tactical blunder, and the Germans called off the offensive not because they had been defeated on the ground but in order to send reinforcements to the West. It looks, then, as if the oft-derided invasion of Sicily served the purpose of a Second Front.
I have two regrets about this book: first, that Professor Evans had to squeeze his material into a single volume, thus giving it a sometimes helter-skelter feel, and, second, that the excellently conceived maps were not better reproduced. The shades of gray too often fade into one another, though I suppose that color would be economically unfeasible.
A vast amount has been written about the Third Reich, and much old scholarship has gradually been upended. For those who want a comprehensive, up-to-date portrait, from Hitler's first stirrings to his immolation in the Berlin bunker, and who have the moderate leisure necessary for 2,000-plus pages of reading, The Coming of the Third Reich, The Third Reich in Power and The Third Reich at War are unsurpassed.
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invasion of Poland and how the Nazi edifice then collapsed under the hammer blows of war.The preceding volume focused on the fabric of life under Hitler; in this one, the fabric first unravels, then burns. As before, Professor Evans focuses on the impact of the regime's practices and policies on individuals, quoting frequently from contemporary diaries and letters. He is much less interested in discrete events, statistics and the intricacies of high politics, topics that, it may be noted, have been covered in extenso in many other works.
The central theme here is Nazi barbarism: toward the mentally and physically defective, toward the populace of conquered countries and, of course, toward Hitler's most hated victims, the Jews. Also chronicled is the retaliatory violence of Germany's enemies, particularly the massive Anglo-American bombing raids and the savage Soviet invasion of the eastern half of the country. The course of World War II provides a loose narrative structure on which other topics hang more or less appropriately in generally self-contained units. There is, for instance, a section on the euthanasia of "lives unworthy of life", one on the effect of the war on culture, one of the drive to develop "wonder weapons", and so on. A few matters of special importance, above all the destruction of European Jewry, reappear.
The book has a subtle approach to the multitude of controversies that divide historians of the war. It generally does not call attention to them but does present pertinent facts for the consideration of readers who are aware of the debates. Sometimes the author's own position is firmly set forth. He does not believe, for instance, that Germany's defeat was due to any delay in wartime economic mobilization (as his previous book shows in detail, the economy was on a full war footing by 1938) or by Hitler's disregard of the advice of his generals. Elsewhere, as on the attitude of the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches toward the persecution of the Jews, he lays out the conflicting evidence without trying to shape it.
On one question, The Third Reich at War is absolutely clear: The reassuring idea that the Holocaust was a secret known only to a handful of villains is unsustainable. Professor Evans does not accuse millions of Germans of being "Hitler's willing executioners", but he leaves no doubt that very few were ignorant bystanders. He does not, however, omit to note acts of sympathy, even heroism, by ordinary Germans on behalf of threatened Jews.
In the course of the book, one runs across a few minor, but interesting revisionist points, e. g., that the Waffen-SS was far less elite than its reputation and that the received picture of the Battle of Kursk has large elements of myth: The climactic clash at Prochorovka, supposedly the largest tank battle in history, was invented by the Soviet commander to cover up an embarrassing tactical blunder, and the Germans called off the offensive not because they had been defeated on the ground but in order to send reinforcements to the West. It looks, then, as if the oft-derided invasion of Sicily served the purpose of a Second Front.
I have two regrets about this book: first, that Professor Evans had to squeeze his material into a single volume, thus giving it a sometimes helter-skelter feel, and, second, that the excellently conceived maps were not better reproduced. The shades of gray too often fade into one another, though I suppose that color would be economically unfeasible.
A vast amount has been written about the Third Reich, and much old scholarship has gradually been upended. For those who want a comprehensive, up-to-date portrait, from Hitler's first stirrings to his immolation in the Berlin bunker, and who have the moderate leisure necessary for 2,000-plus pages of reading, The Coming of the Third Reich, The Third Reich in Power and The Third Reich at War are unsurpassed.
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LibraryThing member moncrieff
Excellent gripping history - one of the best I have read about WWII.
LibraryThing member Narboink
Three thick volumes is the new minimum for a survey of Nazi Germany geared toward the general reader. The final installment of this series seamlessly continues the story to its conclusion, which is welcome indeed. Being steeped in Nazi history for the duration of three long books is a fatiguing
The pace and style throughout is consistent, smoothly erudite, and unflaggingly interesting. It is especially helpful to have previous histories and perspectives reevaluated and subtly adjusted (or refuted) by diligent and meticulous data mining. The overall effect is one of volatile history settling - at long last - into a semblance of substantiated truth.
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exercise in misery; one can only imagine what it must have been like to actually live (or die) amongst the carnage of such a hideous moral vacuum. "The Third Reich at War" does a spectacular job answering the basic questions of how and why the Nazi regime (and greater Germany itself) was able to indulge in genocide, unprecedented levels of military violence, and all other manner of horrors. Highly specific geopolitical considerations and deep analysis of military tactics are largely glossed over in favor of a wider (and more inclusive) cultural perspective; this is principally an effort to illuminate the forest without entirely dispensing with the trees.The pace and style throughout is consistent, smoothly erudite, and unflaggingly interesting. It is especially helpful to have previous histories and perspectives reevaluated and subtly adjusted (or refuted) by diligent and meticulous data mining. The overall effect is one of volatile history settling - at long last - into a semblance of substantiated truth.
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LibraryThing member jorgearanda
As Evans says in his introduction, this is not a book about World War II, or about the Holocaust, but the final volume on his history of the Third Reich, which covers the period of 1939-1945 and necessarily deals with war and genocide since these were the two overwhelming themes of Nazi Germany in
It is a thoroughly researched book. It is also accessible for the general public, and although it is deeply depressing and horrifying it carries an important message. I see it as a single piece along with Evans' two previous volumes, adding to 2000+ pages that altogether deal with the captivating and cohesive story of the rise and fall of the Third Reich.
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this period. But there are many other intertwined stories in this book as well: the perception of Hitler by ordinary Germans of the time, the unethical experimentation with prisoners, particularly Jews and Gypsies, the dynamics and internal conflicts of the Nazi government and the military, corruption, art smuggling, propaganda, and much more.It is a thoroughly researched book. It is also accessible for the general public, and although it is deeply depressing and horrifying it carries an important message. I see it as a single piece along with Evans' two previous volumes, adding to 2000+ pages that altogether deal with the captivating and cohesive story of the rise and fall of the Third Reich.
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LibraryThing member wildbill
This book is the third volume in Richard J. Evans history of Nazi Germany. The Third Reich in Power told how Adolf Hitler fashioned Germany into a totalitarian state where life was lived according to Nazi ideology and whose sole purpose was waging war. This volume tells what happened when Germany
The author shows a complete command of the source material for his topic. The footnotes and bibliography list a wide variety of contemporary and secondary sources in English and German. Diary excerpts convey the experiences of individuals and numerous statistics illustrate the breadth and depth of events.
The combination of war, genocide and repression produced an era of death and destruction on a scale unrivaled in human history. The author's thorough and detailed narration conveys to the reader the day to day events that combined to produce an epic of horror that belied the concept of the banality of evil. Reading over and over again, he was executed by being shot in the back of the neck, fails to reduce the emotional impact of that statement
1939 brought the beginnings of mass murder and genocide but it was the war with Russia that brought wholesale slaughter. It is estimated that the civilian and military casualties of the Russians were a total of twenty million people. The German Army suffered seventy percent of their casualties on the Eastern front, thirty percent of those in 1945, and the Russian invasion of Germany exacted revenge for the suffering of the Russian people. The mass murder of eastern European Jews began in the summer of 1941.
The author makes it clear that the genocide was done on the specific orders of Adolf Hitler. In a speech on January 30, 1939 Hitler said that if a world war started it would be the fault of the Jews and they would be killed in retribution. There are numerous references to this speech in the discussion of the genocide of the Jews. The genocide continued up to the end of the war. As late as March of 1945 trainloads of Jews were being deported from Slovokia to the extermination camps.
Another important theme of the book is the destruction of Germany as the war was fought to the bitter end. The bombing of Germany day and night often created fire storms. These tornadoes of flame destroyed large portions of major cities and one in February of 1945 killed 35,000 people in the city of Dresden. As the Allied troops moved into Germany Hitler called for a scorched earth policy of destruction of everything in their path. This was resisted by Albert Speer who saw the need to preserve the ability of the German people to provide for themselves after the end of the war.
The taking of Berlin and Hitler's suicide ended the war. Germany was defeated and the ideas that had led her to war in 1914 and 1939 were destroyed as thoroughly as her bombed out cities. All that was left was her collective guilt and knowledge for future generations described by the author as follows:
" The Third Reich raises in the most acute form the possibilities and consequences of the human hatred and destructiveness that exist, even if only in a small way, within all of us. It demonstrates with terrible clarity the ultimate potential consequences of racism, militarism and authoritarianism."
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waged their planned war and used mass murder to implement the Nazi principles of eugenics and racism throughout Europe. Like the whole series it is written for the general reader and should replace The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich as the authoritative history of this era. The book is a history of Germany during World War II and not a history of World War II. Selected excerpts of the history of the war are discussed in depth when their effect on life in Germany was pronounced. The fall of France revenged the shame of 1918 and filled the German people with pride. The goal of Adolf Hitler formed in a hospital bed after he learned of the German surrender in World war I was realized. Two years later the battle of Stalingrad, with an estimated two million total casualties, was a disastrous defeat that marked the the beginning of the end for Germany and her allies. As the defeat became obvious Hitler's speeches no longer thrilled the masses.The author shows a complete command of the source material for his topic. The footnotes and bibliography list a wide variety of contemporary and secondary sources in English and German. Diary excerpts convey the experiences of individuals and numerous statistics illustrate the breadth and depth of events.
The combination of war, genocide and repression produced an era of death and destruction on a scale unrivaled in human history. The author's thorough and detailed narration conveys to the reader the day to day events that combined to produce an epic of horror that belied the concept of the banality of evil. Reading over and over again, he was executed by being shot in the back of the neck, fails to reduce the emotional impact of that statement
1939 brought the beginnings of mass murder and genocide but it was the war with Russia that brought wholesale slaughter. It is estimated that the civilian and military casualties of the Russians were a total of twenty million people. The German Army suffered seventy percent of their casualties on the Eastern front, thirty percent of those in 1945, and the Russian invasion of Germany exacted revenge for the suffering of the Russian people. The mass murder of eastern European Jews began in the summer of 1941.
The author makes it clear that the genocide was done on the specific orders of Adolf Hitler. In a speech on January 30, 1939 Hitler said that if a world war started it would be the fault of the Jews and they would be killed in retribution. There are numerous references to this speech in the discussion of the genocide of the Jews. The genocide continued up to the end of the war. As late as March of 1945 trainloads of Jews were being deported from Slovokia to the extermination camps.
Another important theme of the book is the destruction of Germany as the war was fought to the bitter end. The bombing of Germany day and night often created fire storms. These tornadoes of flame destroyed large portions of major cities and one in February of 1945 killed 35,000 people in the city of Dresden. As the Allied troops moved into Germany Hitler called for a scorched earth policy of destruction of everything in their path. This was resisted by Albert Speer who saw the need to preserve the ability of the German people to provide for themselves after the end of the war.
The taking of Berlin and Hitler's suicide ended the war. Germany was defeated and the ideas that had led her to war in 1914 and 1939 were destroyed as thoroughly as her bombed out cities. All that was left was her collective guilt and knowledge for future generations described by the author as follows:
" The Third Reich raises in the most acute form the possibilities and consequences of the human hatred and destructiveness that exist, even if only in a small way, within all of us. It demonstrates with terrible clarity the ultimate potential consequences of racism, militarism and authoritarianism."
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LibraryThing member CliffBurns
Superlative account of the descent into World War II--the Nazis instigated the conflict and were determined to truly make this one "the war to end all wars". And as the tide turned and the mighty Wehrmacht was driven back, utterly defeated, Hitler vented his rage
on the Jews, Communists, Gypsies,
This is the third book of Mr. Evans' weighty trilogy but there's not a word wasted. A solid, perhaps even indispensable addition to Second World War scholarship, to be read alongside Bullock's biography of Hitler and Shirer's RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH.
on the Jews, Communists, Gypsies,
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homosexuals, enemies of the state, employing an industrial era killing machine (whose levers he silently and invisibly operated) to do its cruel work right up to the closing days of the war.This is the third book of Mr. Evans' weighty trilogy but there's not a word wasted. A solid, perhaps even indispensable addition to Second World War scholarship, to be read alongside Bullock's biography of Hitler and Shirer's RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH.
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LibraryThing member RTS1942
The final volume in Evans' trilogy of World War II. This is a long, but readable, book of suffering, on all sides. The subject matter is arranged thematically rather than chronologically which results in a thorough reporting and analysis of each topic. Copious statistics and data but these do not
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generally interfere with the flow of the narrative. Show Less
LibraryThing member Schmerguls
I read volume one of Evans' trilogy on 12 Oct 2009 and volume two on 13 Nov 2012. This third volume covers the events after the start of World War II. I t is not a history of the war, but only discusses the events of the war in relation to what went on in Germany. The atrocities perpetrated by the
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Nazis are listed at great length, which does not make for enjoyable reading, but the concluding chapters are full of interest and say good things. As Evans says in the last paragraph of this monumental book, we all have to make decisions at times whether we will resist evil or let it happen. When the German people were fadced with this overwhleming situation they succumbed to evil and in fact in 1940 Hitler and the evil he was doing were embraced by far too many . One cannot help but wonder what one would have done if one had grown up with the evil that ruled Germany in the years of the nazis. A massive and sobering work. Show Less
LibraryThing member HadriantheBlind
Volume 3 of the trilogy. I'll put my whole review here.
Massive, all encompassing view of Hitler's Germany - its social programs, its military success - a whole nation structured and subservient to a narrow ethnocentric worldview of a mad warlord.
Exhausting. Evans' use of diary entries, in order to
The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones.
Massive, all encompassing view of Hitler's Germany - its social programs, its military success - a whole nation structured and subservient to a narrow ethnocentric worldview of a mad warlord.
Exhausting. Evans' use of diary entries, in order to
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capture the thoughts of the people of Germany at the time, is heart-rending and terrifying. He is unflinching in his detail. A brilliant and terrifying look at how an organized system of terror and death can consume a nation, and almost the world.The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones.
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LibraryThing member nmele
It is incredible how much detail Evans conveys in this relatively brief book (700 pages or so, not very long considering how much back story and context he includes). It is an excellent companion to "Hitler's Empire" which I read some months ago, about the governance of the territories conquered by
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Nazi Germany. Show Less
LibraryThing member bke
Evans concludes his monumental history of Nazi Germany with a detailed account of life in the third Reich during the war. It is tough going at times because of the detailed descriptions of the atrocities commuted, often right until hours before Allied troops entered the areas. While I knew, in
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general, what had happened, the personal accounts taken from contemporary diaries made the impact greater. Show Less
LibraryThing member Northlaw
I finished "The Third Reich At War" immediately after finishing Ian Kershaw's "The End" and I'm afraid Kershaw's book suffers by comparison. What Kershaw can take 20 pages to attempt to explain, Evans does in one paragraph. As well, Evans includes detail that makes the whole terrible history that
He also made me realize how destructive, in so many ways, were the last four months of WWII. For some reason, I had erroneously formed the opinion that after D-Day, while there was still nearly a year of war to go, the overwhelming superiority in resources and manpower of the allies made the end inevitable and that much of the last year was one of a predictable collapse of the Reich. This caused me to form a false inference about the intensity of that last 11 months. But Evans cut through that by pointing out that over a third of all German troops killed in WWII died in the last 4 1/2 months of the war.
It is a long book but very worth reading.
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much more immediate.He also made me realize how destructive, in so many ways, were the last four months of WWII. For some reason, I had erroneously formed the opinion that after D-Day, while there was still nearly a year of war to go, the overwhelming superiority in resources and manpower of the allies made the end inevitable and that much of the last year was one of a predictable collapse of the Reich. This caused me to form a false inference about the intensity of that last 11 months. But Evans cut through that by pointing out that over a third of all German troops killed in WWII died in the last 4 1/2 months of the war.
It is a long book but very worth reading.
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LibraryThing member RobertP
As good a book as you will find that explains the stupidity, incompetence, hatred, fantasy and sadistic cruelty.that was Germany in the 1930s and 40s.
LibraryThing member DinadansFriend
The trilogy is ended with this volume, and the Third Reich has one of its definitive histories. Though this last volume is a little too devoted to the "Final Solution" of the Jewish problem and the repressive aspect of the Nazi State, it is a good conclusion to the history of the Hitler years of
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the German state. The coverage of the war, as a presence in the German mind and culture is well covered as well as the effect of the German occupation on its allies. If you are looking for a comprehensive study that doesn't get bogged down in military trivia, this is a good reference and is well provided with maps and graphs for quick references to the aspects of the economy, the prison camp nexus, and the wartime economy. Worth the paperback price, at least. Show Less
LibraryThing member MarcusBastos
Total Violence
This book is about the Third Reich development during the Second World War and not a history of the war itself. The author describes the steps adopted by the Nazi State in war, since the invasion of Poland. Special attention is paid to the eugenic ideology of Nazism. The mass murder
This book is about the Third Reich development during the Second World War and not a history of the war itself. The author describes the steps adopted by the Nazi State in war, since the invasion of Poland. Special attention is paid to the eugenic ideology of Nazism. The mass murder
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of gypsies, jew and mental sickness are referred. The final solution of the Jewish question produced the murder by german troops of 5.5 million jews (6 million with the help of german's allies). The book gave special attention to it. The war economy and the war machine in german are described and confronted with the allies effort in war time. The main battles in the west and east fronts are mentioned by the author, in order to show the german concept of total war. Interesting and useful remarks are given about the morality of the Third Reich as it appears in literature, movies, theater, radio and arts. In the final chapters, contemplating the defeat of Nazism, the author mentioned the suicides of many nazi officials and the judgments of others. The legacy of the Third Reich, so argues Richard Evans, consists in revealing the possibilities of totalitarianism. One must learn with history. Show Less
LibraryThing member ffifield
The part of the Third Reich that most everyone is familiar with. The war, the concentration camps, fighting on long past any remote hope for victory. The interesting part in this book is how the average German coped with the war, what their entertainments were, and how their faith in Hitler kept
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them going on. Show Less
LibraryThing member trishrobertsmiller
An amazing book. Simultaneously readable and scholarly--it's the only book I'd recommend over Kershaw.
LibraryThing member RoxieT
If you love textbook-type, narrative nonfiction, this book is for you! I started with volume three because the latter years of WWII are a grand interest of mine. I enjoyed the buildup and thorough presentation of EVERY detail buildings up to the conflict. I also found the details about the
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development of war-fighting weapons, mass killings methods and the influence of cultural attitudes for the war very informative. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheCrow2
The third volume of Evans` work is the history of the Nazi empire during the war. As others said it`s not the history of WWII but of Germany talking about its culture, society, etc., obviously in the mirror of the ongoing world war and genocide. A must to read.
Awards
Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (History — 2009)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Nonfiction — 2009)
Christian Science Monitor Best Book (Nonfiction — 2009)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2009-03
Physical description
944 p.; 9.32 inches
ISBN
9781594202063