Quotes from Ian Kershaw

Hitler was highly secretive - not least about his personal life, his background, and his family.

In the west, too, the Reich would have to be strengthened. The French would 'have to bleed for that'. But there it was a strategic, not an ethnic, question. 'We must solve the ethnic (völkischen) questions in the east.

Inaccessibility, sporadic and impulsive interventions, unpredictability, lack of a regular working pattern, administrative disinterest, and ready resort to long-winded monologues instead of attention to detail were all hallmarks of Hitler's style as party leader.

Great men are not made by propaganda, but grow out of their actions

The result only reinforced Hitler's self-belief that he was a 'man of destiny', treading his path 'with the certainty of a sleepwalker'.

Hitler's rise from humble beginnings to 'seize' power by 'triumph of the will' was the stuff of Nazi legend. In fact, political miscalculation by those with regular access to the corridors of power rather than any actions on the part of the Nazi leader played a larger role in placing him in the Chancellor's seat.

Each group, agency, or individual involved in pushing forward the radicalization of anti-Jewish discrimination had vested interests and a specific agenda. Uniting them all and giving justification to them was the vision of racial purification and, in particular, of a 'Jew-free' Germany embodied in the person of the Führer. Hitler's role was, therefore, crucial, even if at times indirect. His broad sanction was needed. But for the most part little more was required.

William Shirer, witnessing the scene, the 600 Reichstag deputies, 'little men with big bodies and bulging necks and cropped hair and pouched bellies and brown uniforms and heavy boots, little men of clay in his fine hands, leap to their feet like automatons, their right arms upstretched in the Nazi salute, and scream "Heil's".

Nor could a younger generation whose 'working lives' had been entirely without work find much enthusiasm for a self-professed working-class party, the SPD, which had – however necessary it had objectively been – kept Brüning in office and voted Hindenburg back into power.

That this new deed of Hitler is another milestone on the way to the hell's jaws of destruction,' the same perceptive report of the exiled Social Democratic movement added, 'seems hardly to have entered the consciousness of anyone.

Ce anume ne-a f?cut de fapt s? îl urm?m în abisul în care acesta ne-a condus, la fel cum l-au urmat copii din poveste pe Cânt?reÈ›ul din flaut? Enigma nu este Hitler, Enigma suntem noi.

Totul se redusese la a bea ast?zi, pentru c? s-ar putea s? nu mai existe ziua de mâine.

Foarte curând, grijile de zi cu zi trecuser? din nou în prim plan. Idealurile È™i marile cauze nu mai însufleÈ›eau pe nimeni, sugerau rapoartele. SoldaÈ›ii "luptau pentru c? li se ordona È™i pentru a-È™i salva viaÈ›a".

He was a quiet man behind the scenes who, at another time in another place, might have become a company secretary. But Bouhler, still bearing a walking disability – and perhaps psychological scars – from the serious injuries to his legs sustained towards the end of the war which had prevented him from pursuing an officer's career in the army as his father had done, was ambitious.

În timp ce foarte mulÈ›i se temeau pentru soarta celor apropiaÈ›i, suferinÈ›a celorlalÈ›i nu mai conta aÈ™a de mult.

There are times – they mark the danger point for a political system – when politicians can no longer communicate, when they stop understanding the language of the people they are supposed to be representing. The politicians of Weimar's parties were well on the way to reaching that point in 1930.

During 1940 the twin obsessions of Hitler – 'removing the Jews', and Lebensraum – had come gradually into sharp focus. Now, in the first half of 1941, the practical preparations for the showdown that Hitler had always wanted could be made. In these months the twin obsessions would merge into each other. The decisive steps into genocidal war were about to be taken.

Hitler was seen as a type of 'political instructor'. He could whip up the feelings of the masses like no one else. But beyond that he had no clear idea of the mechanics of attaining power. Cooler heads were needed for that.

The Treaty of Versailles was 'the blackmailer's lucky find'.

Only through history can we learn for the future.

Charismatic rule has long been neglected and ridiculed, but apparently it has deep roots and becomes a powerful stimulus once the proper psychological and social conditions are set. The Leader's charismatic power is not a mere phantasm – none can doubt that millions believe in it.' Franz Neumann, 1942

His failure to enter the Academy and his mother's death, both occurring within less than four months in late 1907, amounted to a crushing double blow for the young Hitler.

Karl Marx's dictum that 'men do make their own history, but . . . under given and imposed conditions'.

That murder on the orders of the head of government was the basis of the 'restoration of order' passed people by, was ignored, or – most generally – met with their approval.