“It is one of the great examples,” as Friedrich Meinecke, the eminent German historian, said, “of the singular and incalculable power of personality in historical life.”10 To some Germans and, no doubt, to most foreigners it appeared that a charlatan… — William L. Shirer Copy Share Image
“This crude, cowardly bargain seems not to have unduly bothered Hitler. If Mussolini was personally attracted to him, as Ciano said, by “something deeply… — William L. Shirer Copy Share
“The confused locksmith Drexler provided the kernel, the drunken poet Eckart some of the “spiritual” foundation, the economic crank Feder what passed as an… — William L. Shirer Copy Share
Chamberlain's stubborn, fanatical insistence on giving Hitler what he wanted, his trips to Berchtesgaden and Godesberg and finally the fateful journey to Munich rescued… — William L. Shirer Copy Share
“In our new age of terrifying, lethal gadgets, which supplanted so swiftly the old one, the first great aggressive war, if it should come,… — William L. Shirer Copy Share
“And though the very name of the Nazi Party proclaimed it as “socialist,” Hitler was even more vague on the kind of “socialism” he… — William L. Shirer Copy Share
“The disillusion among the rank-and-file Nazis, especially among the S.A. storm troopers, who formed the large core of Hitler’s mass movement, was great. Most… — William L. Shirer Copy Share
“One of them was Fritz Thyssen, one of the earliest and biggest contributors to the party. Fleeing the "Nazi regime has ruined German industry."… — William L. Shirer Copy Share
“It never, however, drove him to the extremity of trying to find a regular job. As he makes clear in Mein Kampf, he had… — William L. Shirer Copy Share
Most true happiness comes from one's inner life, from the disposition of the mind and soul. — William L. Shirer Copy Share
Adolf Hitler is probably the last of the great adventurer-conquerors in the tradition of Alexander, Caesar and Napoleon, and the Third Reich the last… — William L. Shirer Copy Share
“One of the appalling aberrations of the German officer corps from this point on rose out of this conflict of “honor”—a word which, as… — William L. Shirer Copy Share
“The power which has always started the greatest religious and political avalanches in history rolling has from time immemorial been the magic power of… — William L. Shirer Copy Share
No class or group or party in Germany could escape its share of responsibility for the abandonment of the democratic Republic and the advent… — William L. Shirer Copy Share
“The consequences of committing high treason, if you were a man of the extreme Right, were not unduly heavy, despite the law, and a… — William L. Shirer Copy Share
