Quotes from Peter Padfield

The narrow range of his reading is striking. Up to the spring and summer of 1924 he listed just over 200 books. Only a handful of these came from outside his own culture.

propagating the demonology of the Jew – and, if Himmler is any guide, with dreadful sincerity.

The trial has at any rate proved', The Times correspondent continued, 'that to plot against the constitution of the Reich is not considered a serious crime in Bavaria.

Hitler's power came from his ability to sense the fears and hopes of his audiences and give them back in heightened form.

after watching Hitler return from Munich in the evening of 30 June: 'Depend on it, it is precisely this Hitler going on his way over heaps of bodies, whom they [the generals] have yearned for in their deepest heart of hearts.'83

The attack of the Jews and all secret enemies occurs, as it has for centuries, via seeds of discord, via lies, calumny, via shameless intrigue.

whoever today still doubts the real existence of demonic powers has widely misunderstood the metaphysical background to this war.

What Höss rationalised as hate for the enemies of the state might be better described as a sense of power and contempt for the inmates fostered in the guards by the camp system.

Sadists had licence and delighted in their ability to cause suffering, especially if their victims pleaded for mercy.

This Christendom, this greatest pestilence which could have befallen us in history, which has weakened us for every conflict, we must finish with.

The others were led to it by admonition and example, by the need to prove hardness, after a while by indifference.