THE HITLER YEARS

The first volume of a new Hitler biography.

McDonough provides an expert, disheartening account of the first seven years of Hitler’s chancellorship, during which he seemed to have the golden touch. The author reminds readers that in 1932, Germany’s establishment had long viewed Hitler as a lowbrow demagogue, but the Nazis were the largest political party. Certain that they could control him, leading conservatives persuaded the president, Paul von Hindenburg, to appoint Hitler as chancellor. He took office on Jan. 30, 1933, and swiftly proposed the Enabling Act “to end parliamentary democracy now and forever.” This required an election. Many historians pronounce the Nazi’s 44% minority in the March 5 voting a disappointment, but it was a spectacular achievement for a multiparty system, the “highest vote of any party” in any German election since 1919. Passing the act required 66% of the Reichstag, which Hitler accomplished by banning communist deputies and threatening the Centre Party. McDonough offers an insightful chronological account of what followed: brutal persecution and packed concentration camps inside Germany and a pugnacious foreign policy that produced easy, bloodless takeovers of Austria, the Sudetenland, and Czechoslovakia before the invasion of Poland persuaded a reluctant Britain and France to declare war. Few historians fail to denounce the refusal to take Hitler seriously until it was almost too late, but McDonough emphasizes that his frenzied public persona disguised a sophisticated diplomat. By the 1930s, almost everyone deplored the Treaty of Versailles and sympathized with his denunciation of Germany’s persecution. After interviews, Western journalists wrote fawning articles; face to face, most politicians found him reasonable. Western leaders refused to believe that Hitler always intended to go to war, not only because they hated the thought of conflict, but also because wars are often pointless. Of course, Hitler was deeply determined and pugnacious, and the catastrophic results of his ambition will likely become apparent in the second volume.

Hitler biographies are not in short supply, but this one is worthy of study.