The rise and fall of the Third Reich : A history of Nazi Germany

Author: William L. Shirer
Publisher: London : Arrow, 1991 © 1960

Notes: Originally published: London: Secker and Warburg, 1960

Annotation: Book by Historian/Journalist William L. Shirer, this book received the National Book Award for nonfiction and a worldwide best seller. The book is a classic masterpiece which contains records of testimony by Nazi leaders, diaries of officials, transcripts of secret conferences, army orders, private letters which lead the Hitler's drive to conquer the world. Hitler thought that the Third Reich would last for thousand years but only lasted for twelve. This book explores from the birth of Adolf Hitler in 1889 to the end of World War II in 1945. It is written in simple narrative and clear prose. This book has received wide community reviews and ratings of above 4 in Goodreads.

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Hornsby Library

Dymocks

Darkest Hour

Personal Author:

Wright, Joe, 1972-, film director
Bevan, Tim, film producer
Fellner, Eric, film producer
Bruce, Lisa, film producer
McCarten, Anthony, 1961-, film producer, screen writer
Urbanski, Douglas, film producer
Oldman, Gary, actor
Scott-Thomas, Kristin, 1960-, actor
James, Lily, 1989-, actor
Dillane, Stephen, 1956-, actor
Pickup, Ronald, actor
West, Samuel, 1966-, actor
Mendelsohn, Ben, actor

Imprint: London : Australia : Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Australia Pty Ltd, 2018

Annotation: This multi Academy Awards winning motion pictures displays one of the darkest time in the early days of the World War II. Adolf Hitler has risen to fame taking Austria and marching Nazi soldiers to occupy other European nations. The fall of France is an unbearable pain to British Empire, now a nation hailed as a winner in WWI is faced with fate whether to negotiate with Hitler and save British people or convince it's people to fight against Nazi Germany. All this is put to a table of newly appointed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The movie has a high rating in both IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes with many saying it a must see movie.

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Hornsby Library

IMDb

Rotten Tomatoes 

The death of democracy: Hitler's rise to power

Author: Benjamin Carter Hett

Publisher: London : William Heinemann, 2018

Annotation: This award winning book of the year nonfiction is a tell-tell story to history's past what happened in Germany during Weimar Republic, a period in Germany between the end of World War I and the Nazi Party and Hitler's seizure of power in 1933. The book is based on award winning research and recently discovered archival materials. It tried to shed a light on issues like How a democratic government allow Adolf Hitler to seize power ?. The narrative provides a good example of what happens to a nation when a liberal democracy fails and capitalism rises, what are the aspiration of middle class people, did they really choice Adolf Hitler or they simply choose an economic self-sufficient nation which gave power to their voice through Nazi propaganda and their leader whose took the path of authoritarian dictatorship.  

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Hornsby Library

Goodreads

The Order of the Day

Author: Eric Vuillard
Translator: Mark Polizzotti
Publisher: London : Picador, 2019

Annotation: Originally written in French this historical fiction won the Prix Goncourt (the most prestigious French Literary prize) in 2017. Unlike other books written about Germany in 1930's where Nazism is seen as an inevitable part of the Germany's political and social culture which no way would have been protected. This book counter argues the theory and tries to explain what happened on 20th February 1933 in harsh Berlin winter a secret meeting led by 24 German captains of Industry and senior Nazi dignitaries in Reichstag seems more than a fiction to the story. It also explores the annexation of Austria in 1938 and advancement towards Vienna demonstrated by German military strengths is accidents of fate.

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Penguin Random House

The Guardian

Pan Macmillan

Young Hitler: The making of The Fuhrer

Author: Paul Ham
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia : North Sydney, 2017

Annotation: By the author of Hiroshima Nagasaki (2011), Vietnam: The Australian War (2007) and Kokoda (2004). This multi-award winning author writes about a biography of young Adolf Hitler who went to WWI in 1914 at the age of 25 only to be awakened by  temporarily blindness from mustard gas in hospital bed. When he came to realisation that Germany has lost the war, it was too much to bear for him. He was in complete loss to see his fatherland has been taken by others not only physically but ideologically by Kaiser, a Marxist uprising in Bavaria. This biography tries to explore a young Hitler's mind growing up in Linz, Vienna and Munich to become one of the most brutal dictator of the 20th century.

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