For someone who has loathed libraries all his life and has grown up on a steady diet of popular fiction, action, spy and thriller novels; reading a biography for leisure was something I'd imagined I'd do only at Gun point. Let it be known here that apart from having been forced to read and then fall in love with - My Experiements with Truth by M.K Gandhi, this is the only other biography I've managed to read from cover to cover, given that I have the patience of a cranky 4 year old - it is nothing short of an achievement.
Right from the opening lines, the book takes a third person narrative rife with recollections and accounts from associated characters in The Führer's life and times. The research done is so intricate and simply mind boggling at times that the author on a few occasions even explains how Hitler as a little boy possessed certain personality traits which would play a key role in his becoming the Supreme leader of Germany later on. For instance, his stubborn refusal to see facts on the face when he doesn't get through to Vienna's Art University but throws a hissy fit by drifting into a lengthy scathing monologue about how the establishment refuses to recognize god sent talent if it were to stand right under its nose.
During his nascent years, he is portrayed as a very ordinary man easily susceptible to emotion and rage with a very short sighted view of the world acquired by his regular reading of fascist and racially motivated literature in the form of newspapers and books which ultimately leads him to believe that he is The Savior that a battered Germany post its World War 1 surrender has been waiting for.
Surrounded by like minded people who feel cheated and let down by the hapless government both during the 1st World War and after it - he joins the ranks of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP later infamously known as the Nazi Party) and is impressed by what they have for a party ideology which in short calls for upheaval of German society, establishment and the government. Growing within the ranks of a fairly new party is like a walk on a fresh meadow to him with his ruthless sidelining of anyone or anything opposed to his views or ideas.
The Nazi party soon comes to power in Germany - not because of their own popularity but as a result of practically all their opponents being shoddy. To no one's surprise Hitler arm twists the party leadership and one instance even the President of Germany to wrest the post of Chancellor of Germany which he seizes ultimately and brings in an array of changes almost instantaneously. One of which were isolating and at times even arresting anyone and everyone who believed in any doctrine or ideology other than National Socialism; his pet peeves being Marxism, Bolshevism and Communism. This effectively meant that the Nazi party was the only party contesting the elections and to no one's surprise they kept scoring resounding victories in practically every election from 1933 till the end of the war. The methods employed in acquiring total control of power in Germany are so calculated that you almost feel respect towards the genius that is Adolf Hitler.
Hitler at this stage is the Supreme leader of Germany with autocratic control over society, law, parliament and The armed forces. He is also described as someone who lived a very leisure life - waking up at mid day, watching movies daily before bed, eating a variety of cuisines and taking long pleasurable walks in his plush alpine resort in Bavaria as opposed to controlling his seat of power in Berlin which he visited only when the need arose. He saw no need to interfere in the daily working of the government and only saw fit in dealing with policy making in which he was fed largely one sided data which primarily led to Germany going to war and the holocaust that followed.
Once on the offensive and scoring resounding military victories against Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, Netherlands, Belgium and most of Eastern Europe - he is depicted to have become extremely power hungry with very realistic dreams of making the whole world bow down to him under the Nazi salute. It would be a mistake to say that his assumptions were wrong but for his clouded judgement to attack Russia ( a former ally in his conquest of Poland) in the winter of 1941 which he was warned against by his deputies and comrades but refused to listen to because he thought they were playing for peanuts while he was there to win.
From there on, slowly but steadily he trod on the path to ruin making one big blunder after another; in the process losing not only the war but also his sanity, trust on his own - deputies, comrades, military commanders and people. The depiction of his final 10 days when he is distrustful of anyone, has shivering hands and has his meals sampled by someone right in front of his eyes to make sure that it isn't poisoned only shows how a man who mercurially rose to occupy the ultimate seat of power in the Third Reich was reduced to a mumbling and trembling bundle of nerves.
Though a touch lesser than 1000 pages long - the book is a wonderful insight into how lives and situations can easily be influenced by ideology and power. It is definitely something I implore you to read if you want an insight not only into the head of the evil dictator but also of World War 2.
