More to read and ponder from The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William Shirer) [View all]

This is a huge and detailed book, with lots of fascinating episodes. I think it may take me all month to read it.

One thing I had forgotten was that when Hitler got out of jail in 1927, the Nazi Party was practically dead. Yet five years later, they controlled Germany. Part of it was due to multilevel double-crossing of various individuals and groups, but part of it was organization.

They divided Germany into districts and subdistricts and had operatives hard at work in all of them. They formed a shadow government, putting specific people in charge of specific areas of concern, almost like cabinet ministers. They worked behind the scenes to win over the army and the wealthy industrialists. They squelched anyone who deviated from the party line, such as a group that wanted a violent revolution. They wanted the appearance of legality and respectability.

They did it all with newspapers and radio.

The other thing I didn't realize is that in the election of 1932, most Germans voted for someone other than the Nazis, but no party received a majority, so a runoff election was held. It was during the period before this election that Hitler did all his horsetrading and double crossing to get named Chancellor.

Utterly abhorrent people and ideas, but very clever in getting what they wanted.