Interpret Hitler

Author: (German) Sebastian Haffner
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: "No book about the Third Reich has brought me as much benefit as Sebastian Haffner's Interpreting Hitler." — Manfred Rommel, son of the Third Reich marshal Erwin Rommel and former mayor of Stuttgart. "Fascinating, thought-provoking, and brilliantly written, in short, a masterpiece of historical prose." — Joachim Fest, renowned German historian and author of Hitler: A Biography. "If we do not wish to remain hostages of Hitler, we must confront this German trauma of Hitler—again and again. If we suppress it, it will disturb us. If we approach it, it will recede from us. So far, no book has better enabled us to understand Hitler and his catastrophe than this one." — Guido Knopp, German historical television producer. "This book strives to objectively and impartially dissect and evaluate Hitler, which is commendable, and also the reason why China Youth Press decided to translate and publish it. However, based on its ideological stance, Haffner is more or less interpreting Hitler from the perspective of Western capitalism. Therefore, some of the arguments in the book show obvious limitations. For example, his views on hegemony, his views on war, his questioning of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg's prosecution of Nazi Germany for 'war crimes,' and so on. These arguments contain certain subjective assumptions and inferences, which deviate from the mainstream views already recognized by the international community, and we also disagree with them. However, to maintain the integrity of its academic exploration and research, and to enable readers to fully understand and more accurately grasp and identify the author's perspectives, we have not made any cuts."