The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

by William L. Shirer

  Some of the books which have been helpful to me are listed below. They are of three types: first, the memoirs and diaries of some of the leading figures in this narrative; second, books based on the new documentary material, such as those of John W. Wheeler-Bennett, Alan Bullock, H. R. Trevor-Roper and Gerald Reitlinger in England, of Telford Taylor in America, and of Eberhard Zeller, Gerhard Ritter, Rudolf Pechel and Walter Goerlitz in Germany; and third, books which provide background.

  A comprehensive bibliography of works on the Third Reich has been published in Munich as a special number of the Vierteljahrshefte fuer Zeitgeschichte under the auspices of the Institut fuer Zeitgeschichte. The catalogues of the Wiener Library in London also contain excellent bibliographies.

  PUBLISHED DOCUMENTARY MATERIAL

  Der Hitler Prozess. Munich: Deutscher Volksverlag, 1924. (The record of the court proceedings of Hitler’s trial in Munich.)

  Documents and Materials relating to the Eve of the Second World War, 1937–39. 2 vols. Moscow: Foreign Language Publishing House, 1948.

  Documents concerning German–Polish Relations and the Outbreak of Hostilities between Great Britain and Germany. London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1939. (The British Blue Book.)

  Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919–39. London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1947-. (Referred to in the notes as DBrFP.)

  Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–45. Series D, 1937–45. 10 vols, (as of 1957). Washington: U.S. Department of State. (Referred to as DGFP.)

  Dokumente der deutschen Politik, 1933–40. Berlin, 1935–43.

  Fuehrer Conferences on Naval Affairs (mimeographed). London: British Admiralty, 1947. (Referred to as FCNA.)

  Hitler e Mussolini—Lettere e documenti. Milan: Rizzoli, 1946. I Documenti diplomatica italiani. Ottavo series, 1935–39. Rome: Libreria della Stato, 1952–53. (Referred to as DDI.)

  Le Livre Jaune Français. Documents diplomatiques, 1938–39. Paris: Ministère des Affaires Étrangères. (The French Yellow Book.)

  Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. 10 vols. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946. (Referred to as NCA.)

  Nazi–Soviet Relations, 1939–41. Documents from the Archives of the German Foreign Office. Washington: U.S. Department of State, 1948. (Referred to as NSR.)

  Official Documents concerning Polish–German and Polish—Soviet Relations, 1933–39. London, 1939. (The Polish White Book.)

  Pearl Harbor Attack. Hearings before the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack. 39 vols. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.

  Soviet Documents on Foreign Policy. 3 vols. London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1951–53.

  Spanish Government and the Axis, The. Washington: U.S. State Department, 1946. (From the German Foreign Office papers.)

  Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal. 42 vols. Published at Nuremberg. (Referred to as TMWC.)

  Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals. 15 vols. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951–52. (Referred to as TWC.)

  HITLER’S SPEECHES

  Adolf Hitlers Reden. Munich, 1934.

  BAYNES, NORMAN H., ed.: The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922–August 1939. 2 vols. New York, 1942.

  PRANGE, GORDON W., ed.: Hitler’s Words. Washington, 1944.

  ROUSSY DE SALES, COUNT RAOUL DE, ed.: My New Order. New York, 1941. (The speeches of Hitler, 1922–41.)

  GENERAL WORKS

  ABSHAGEN, K. H.: Canaris. Stuttgart, 1949.

  AMBRUSTER, HOWARD WATSON: Treason’s Peace. New York, 1947.

  ANDERS, WLADYSLAW: Hitler’s Defeat in Russia. Chicago, 1953.

  ANONYMOUS: De Weimar au Chaos—Journal politique d’un Général de la Reichswehr. Paris, 1934.

  ARMSTRONG, HAMILTON FISH: Hitler’s Reich. New York, 1933.

  ASSMANN, KURT: Deutsche Schicksalsjahre. Wiesbaden, 1950.

  BADOGLIO, MARSHAL PIETRO: Italy in the Second World War. London, 1948.

  BARRACLOUGH, S.: The Origins of Modern Germany. Oxford, 1946.

  BARTZ, KARL: Als der Himmel brannte. Hanover, 1955.

  BAUMONT, FRIED AND VERMEIL, eds.: The Third Reich. New York, 1955.

  BAYLE, FRANÇOIS: Croix gammée ou caducée. Freiburg, 1950. (A documented account of the Nazi medical experiments.)

  BELGIAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Belgium: The Official Account of What Happened, 1939–1940. New York, 1941.

  BENEŠ, EDUARD: Memoirs of Dr. Eduard Beneŝ. From Munich to New War and New Victory. London, 1954.

  BÉNOIST-MÉCHIN, JACQUES: Histoire de l’Armée allemande depuis l’Armistice. Paris, 1936–38.

  BERNADOTTE, FOLKE: The Curtain Falls. New York, 1945.

  BEST, CAPTAIN S. PAYNE: The Venlo Incident. London, 1950.

  Bewegung, Staat und Volk in ihren Organisationen. Berlin, 1934,

  BLUMENTRITT. GUENTHER: Von Rundstedt. London, 1952.

  BOLDT, GERHARD: In the Shelter with Hitler. London, 1948.

  BONNET, GEORGES: Fin d’une Europe. Geneva, 1948.

  BOOTHBY, ROBERT: I Fight to Live. London, 1947.

  BORMANN, MARTIN: The Bormann Letters: the Private Correspondence between Martin Bormann and his Wife, from Jan. 1943 to April 1945. London, 1954.

  BRADLEY, GENERAL OMAR N.: A Soldier’s Story. New York, 1951.

  BRADY, ROBERT K.: The Spirit and Structure of German Fascism. London, 1937.

  BRYANS, J. LONSDALE: Blind Victory. London, 1951.

  BRYANT, SIR ARTHUR: The Turn of the Tide—A History of the War Years Based on the Diaries of Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff. New York, 1957.

  BULLOCK, ALAN: Hitler—A Study in Tyranny. New York, 1952.

  BUTCHER, HARRY C: My Three Years with Eisenhower. New York, 1946.

  CARR, EDWARD HALLETT: German–Soviet Relations between the Two World Wars, 1919–1939. Baltimore, 1951.

  —, The Soviet Impact on the Western World. New York, 1947.

  CHURCHILL, SIR WINSTON S.: The Second World War. 6 vols. New York, 1948–1953.

  CIANO, COUNT GALEAZZO: Ciano’s Diplomatic Papers, edited by Malcolm Muggeridge. London, 1948.

  —, Ciano’s Hidden Diary, 1937–1938, New York, 1953.

  —, The Ciano Diaries, 1939–1943, edited by Hugh Wilson. New York, 1946.

  CLAUSEWITZ, KARL VON: On War. New York, 1943.

  COOLE, W. W., AND POTTER, M. F.: Thus Speaks Germany. New York, 1941.

  CRAIG, GORDON A.: The Politics of the Prussian Army, 1940–1945. New York, 1955.

  CROCE, BENEDETTO: Germany and Europe. New York, 1944.

  Czechoslovakia Fights Back. Washington: American Council on Public Affairs, 1943.

  DAHLERUS, BIRGER: The Last Attempt. London, 1947.

  DALLIN, ALEXANDER: German Rule in Russia, 1941–1944. New York, 1957.

  DALUCES, JEAN: Le Troisième Reich. Paris, 1950.

  DAVIES, JOSEPH E.: Mission to Moscow. New York, 1941.

  DERRY, T. K.: The Campaign in Norway. London, 1952.

  DEUEL, WALLACE: People under Hitler. New York, 1943.

  DEWEY, JOHN: German Philosophy and Politics. New York, 1952.

  DIELS, RUDOLF: Lucifer ante Portas. Stuttgart, 1950.

  DIETRICH, OTTO: Mit Hitler in die Macht. Munich, 1934.

  DOLLMANN, EUGEN: Roma Nazista. Milan, 1951.

  DRAPER, THEODORE: The Six Weeks’ War. New York, 1944.

  DUBOIS, JOSIAH E., JR.: The Devil’s Chemists. Boston, 1952.

  DULLES, ALLEN: Germany’s Underground. New York, 1947.

  EBENSTEIN, WILLIAM: The Nazi State. New York, 1943.

  EISENHOWER, DWIGHT D.: Crusade in Europe. New York, 1948.

  ELLIS, MAJOR L. F.: The War in France and Flanders, 1939–1950. London, 1953.

  EYCK, E.: Bismarck and the German Empire. London, 1950.

  FEILING, KEITH: The Life of Neville Chamberlain. London, 1946.

  FEUCHTER, GEORG W.: Geschich
te des Luftkriegs. Bonn, 1954.

  FISHER, H. A. L.: A History of Europe. London, 1936.

  FISHMAN, JACK: The Seven Men of Spandau. New York, 1954.

  FITZGIBBON. CONSTANTINE: 20 July. New York, 1956.

  FLEMING, PETER: Operation Sea Lion. New York, 1957.

  FLENLEY, RALPH: Modern German History. New York, 1953.

  FOERSTER, WOLFGANG: Ein General kaempft gegen den Krieg. Munich, 1949. (The papers of General Beck.)

  FRANÇOIS-PONCET, ANDRÉ: The Fateful Years. New York, 1949.

  FREIDIN, SEYMOUR, AND RICHARDSON, WILLIAM, eds.: The Fatal Decisions. New York, 1956.

  FRIEDMAN, FILIP: This Was Oswiecim [Auschwitz]. London, 1946.

  FRISCHAUER, WILLY: The Rise and Fall of Hermann Goering. Boston, 1951.

  FULLER, MAJOR-GENERAL J. F. C: The Second World War. New York, 1949.

  GALLAND, ADOLF: The First and the Last. The Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe Fighter Forces, 1938–45. New York, 1954.

  GAMELIN, GENERAL MAURICE GUSTAVE: Servir. 3 vols. Paris, 1949.

  GAY, JEAN: Carnets Secrets de Jean Gay. Paris, 1940.

  Germany: A Self-Portrait. Harland R. Crippen, ed. New York, 1944.

  GILBERT, FELIX: Hitler Directs His War. New York, 1950. (The partial text of Hitler’s daily military conferences.)

  GILBERT, G. M.: Nuremberg Diary. New York, 1947.

  GISEVIUS, BERND: To the Bitter End. Boston, 1947.

  Glaubenskrise im Dritten Reich. Stuttgart, 1953.

  GOEBBELS, JOSEPH: Vom Kaiserhof zur Reichskanzlei. Munich, 1936.

  —, The Goebbels Diaries, 1942–1943, edited by Louis P. Lochner. New York, 1948.

  GOERLITZ, WALTER: History of the German General Staff, 1657–1945. New York, 1953.

  —, Der zweite Weltkrieg, 1939–45. 2 vols. Stuttgart, 1951.

  GOUDIMA, CONSTANTIN: L’Armée Rouge dans la Paix et la Guerre. Paris, 1947.

  GREINER, HELMUTH: Die Oberste Wehrmachtfuehrung, 1939–1945. Wiesbaden, 1951.

  GREINER, JOSEF: Das Ende des Hitler-Mythos. Vienna, 1947.

  GUDERIAN, GENERAL HEINZ: Panzer Leader. New York, 1952.

  GUILLAUME, GENERAL A.: La Guerre Germano-Soviétique, 1941. Paris, 1949.

  HABATSCH, WALTHER: Die deutsche Besetzung von Daenemark und Norwegen, 1940, 2nd ed. Goettingen, 1952.

  HALDER, FRANZ: Hitler als Feldherr. Munich, 1949.

  HALIFAX, LORD: Fullness of Days. New York, 1957.

  HALLGARTEN, GEORGE W. F.: Hitler, Reichswehr und Industrie. Frankfurt, 1955.

  HANFSTAENGL, ERNST: Unheard Witness. New York, 1957.

  HARRIS, WHITNEY R.: Tyranny on Trial—The Evidence at Nuremberg. Dallas, 1954. (A selection of the German documents at Nuremberg from the TMWC and NCA volumes.)

  HASSELL, ULRICH VON: The Von Hassell Diaries, 1938–1944. New York, 1947.

  HEGEL: Lectures on the Philosophy of History. London, 1902.

  HEIDEN, KONRAD: A History of National Socialism. New York, 1935.

  —, Hitler—A Biography. New York, 1936.

  —, Der Fuehrer. Boston, 1944.

  HENDERSON, NEVILE: The Failure of a Mission. New York, 1940.

  HERMAN, STEWART W., JR.: It’s Your Souls We Want. New York, 1943.

  HEUSINGER, GENERAL ADOLF: Befehl im Widerstreit—Schicksalsstunden der deutschen Armee, 1923–1925. Stuttgart, 1950.

  HINDENBURG, FIELD MARSHAL PAUL VON BENECKENDORF UND VON: Aus meinem Leben. Leipzig, 1934.

  HITLER, ADOLF: Mein Kampf. Boston, 1943. This is the unexpurgated edition in English translation published by Houghton Mifflin. (The German original: Munich, 1925, 1927. The first volume, Eine Albrechnung, was published in 1925; the second, Die Nationalsozialistische Bewegung, in 1927. Thereafter the two were published in one volume.)

  Hitler’s Secret Conversations, 1941–44. New York, 1953.

  Les Lettres Sécrètes Echangées par Hitler et Mussolini. Paris, 1946.

  HOETTL, WILHELM (WALTER HAGEN): The Secret Front: The Story of Nazi Political Espionage. New York, 1954.

  HOFER, WALTHER: War Premeditated, 1939. London, 1955. (English translation from Die Entfesselung des zweiten Weltkrieges.)

  HOSSBACH, GENERAL FRIEDRICH: Zwischen Wehrmacht und Hitler. Hanover, 1949.

  HULL, CORDELL: The Memoirs of Cordell Hull. 2 vols. New York, 1948.

  JACOBSEN, HANS-ADOLF: Dokumente zur Vorgeschichte des Westfeldzuges, 1939–40. Goettingen, 1956.

  JARMAN, T. L.: The Rise and Fall of Nazi Germany. London, 1955.

  JASPER, KARL: The Question of German Guilt. New York, 1947.

  KELLEY, DOUGLAS M.: 22 Cells in Nuremberg. New York, 1947.

  KESSELRING, ALBERT: A Soldier’s Record. New York, 1954.

  KIELMANNSEGG, GRAF: Der Fritsch Prozess. Hamburg, 1949.

  KLEE, CAPTAIN KARL: Das Unternehmen Seeloewe. Goettingen, 1949.

  KLEIN, BURTON: Germany’s Economic Preparations for War. Cambridge, 1959.

  KLEIST, PETER: Zwischen Hitler und Stalin. Bonn, 1950.

  KNELLER, GEORGE FREDERICK: The Educational Philosophy of National Socialism. New Haven, 1941.

  KOGON, EUGEN: The Theory and Practice of Hell. New York, 1951. (The German original: Der SS Staat und das System der deutschen Konzentrationslager. Munich, 1946.)

  KOHN, HANS, ed.: German History: Some New German Views. Boston, 1954.

  KOLLER, GENERAL KARL: Der letzte Monat. Mannheim, 1949. (The diary of the last Chief of the Luftwaffe General Staff.)

  KORDT, ERICH: Nicht aus den Akten. (Die Wilhelmstrasse in Frieden Und Krieg, 1928–1945.) Stuttgart, 1950.

  —, Wahn und Wirklichkeit. Stuttgart, 1947.

  KREIS, ERNST, AND SPEIER, HANS: German Radio Propaganda. New York, 1946.

  KROSIGK, COUNT LUTZ SCHWERIN VON: Es geschah in Deutschland. Tuebingen, 1951.

  KUBIZEK, AUGUST: The Young Hitler I Knew. Boston, 1955.

  LANGER, WILLIAM L.: Our Vichy Gamble. New York, 1947.

  LANGER AND GLEASON: The Undeclared War, 1940–1941. New York, 1953.

  LAVAL, PIERRE: The Diary of Pierre Laval. New York, 1948.

  LENARD, PHILIPP: Deutsche Physik, 2nd ed. Munich-Berlin, 1938.

  LICHTENBERGER, HENRI: L’Allemagne Nouvelle. Paris, 1936.

  LIDDELL HART, B. H.: The German Generals Talk. New York, 1948.

  —(ed.): The Rommel Papers. New York, 1953.

  LILGE, FREDERIC: The Abuse of Learning: The Failure of the German University. New York, 1948.

  LITVINOV, MAXIM: Notes for a Journal. New York, 1955.

  LORIMER, E. O.: What Hitler Wants. London, 1939.

  LOSSBERG, GENERAL BERNHARD VON: Im Wehrmacht Fuehrungsstab. Hamburg, 1950.

  LUDECKE, KURT: I Knew Hitler. London, 1938.

  LUDENDORFF, GENERAL ERIC: Auf dem Weg zur Feldherrnhalle. Munich, 1937.

  LUDENDORFF, MARGARITTE: Als ich Ludendorffs Frau war. Munich, 1929.

  LUEDDE-NEURATH, WALTER: Die letzten Tage des Dritten Reiches. Goettingen, 1951.

  MANSTEIN, FIELD MARSHAL ERIC VON: Verlorene Siege. Bonn, 1955. (English translation: Lost Victories. Chicago, 1958.)

  MARTIENSEN, ANTHONY K.: Hitler and His Admirals. New York, 1949.

  MEINECKE, FRIEDRICH: The German Catastrophe. Cambridge, 1950.