Introduction

“Not another book on Hitler!” I can hear you say. Yes, this is another book on Hitler, but it is most certainly not another biography. Ian Kershaw, who has written widely on Hitler, has claimed that, “As Dictator of Germany, Hitler is for the historian largely unreachable, cocooned in the silence of the sources” (Kershaw 1993: 4) Kershaw was referring to the deliberate destruction of evidence by the Nazis towards the end of the war and the huge void in the sphere of central decision-making left by Hitler's extraordinary, unbureaucratic style of rule. I should like to turn the phrase round and state that, undeterred by Kershaw's warning, my intention in writing this book is to reach parts of Hitler that other historians have not reached! Put simply, the aim of the book is to try to clarify and elucidate Hitler's role within the rise and fall of the Third Reich.