Any reccomendations on books that cover these subjects, preferably books which can be labelled a more accurate description of these times. I would like to read something quite thorough as well and I was not taught anything regarding these matters in my upbringing in Australia.
you should specify your interest...
topic is too big and with a big variety...
I am looking for books that look at national socialism that focuses on its ideas, philosophy and practices, specifically to Third Reich. I know thats not very specific but i guess discount history heavy books.
At least over here, when you go to any military section - which is found just about on any book store (new or 2nd hand), is most of all WWII, and even further, most of all focus on germany.
I can't really recommend any specific books in English, but I think good way to start, would be when idealism of national socialism was fresh and untainted. I would guess in every european country, there was NS books published prior to WWII. In Finland from the biggest publishers a'la WSOY, Otava etc, but also smaller printers. Good choices could be Kansan Työ (1936), Kansan Valta (1936) both with neat finnish style swastikas on cover.
Perhaps also 1941 Kansallissosialismi Maailmanhistoriallisen kehityksen tuloksena by judge Jussi Leino, published by Otava. National Socialism as product of development of world history.. perhaps poor translation, but those who are bored to read about atrocities and war, can read about the actual ideas and spirit of the movement or the masterminds who created & introduced the ideas. Of course, related in times long gone, but most interestingly, in times when none of these movements had really been put in practice long enough to really see them in negative light.
These books would be more of philosophy and political agenda. Criticizing alternatives, and proving how their route is the only logical way to go.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, you certainly got what I am looking for. thats a great point of trying to find national socialist texts of the time it was being promoted but finding english translations would be difficult as mentioned, maybe i should learn more german as a second langauge. This interests me more than how many died, who, when and how. Anything that is a good introductory text.
Gitta Sereny has written two outstanding books about the human side of that period. Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth and Into That Darkness about Franz Stangl, the kommendant of Treblinka. Both books cover the areas you're after very well and also give close personal accounts of two people who under every day tabloid conditions would've been written off as monsters and nothing else. Sereny doesn't do that and her account of this historical period is more interesting and ultimately informative for it.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by Willian Shirer is still, I believe, a fairy good overview of the nazi era. It includes quite a lot of their early years also.
For the offbeat: Spears of Destiny.
No, just kidding but I do recommend Occult Roots of Nazism and Hitler's Priestess by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. Black Sun was a bit of hack work though.
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I will have to track down these books, the involvement of the occult and the third reich is an interesting subject and something i would like to tackle after i get a good grasp of what nazi germany. Listening to PE/Noise has awoken an interest on this subject for me.
Had it been any good I would've recommended The Cruel Hunters: SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger. Unfortunately it's academic and dry with more emphasis on stats than the actual subject and the people behind and around him. Dirlewanger, or more accurately the machine that nurtured and shoehorned him into a unit he should have been disqualified from is fascinating so anyone who can recommend a book with more meat on its bones about him will have my eternal gratitude.
THE GOEBBELS DIARIES
http://www.amazon.com/Goebbels-Diaries-1942-1943-Joseph/dp/0837138159
there's lots of speculation that the texts are fraudulent, but it's a good read either way.
dunno if you can find it cheaper anywhere....
reading is for queers
48hours of goodness
http://audiobookvault.ws/?p=18471
guy was there when it happened and got a chance to go through a lot of the official paperwork afterwards.
Try to get:
The Revolution of Nihilism : Warning to the West from Rauschning.
Is a interesting Book from a Former NSDAP and later Anti NS Author. This Book is a View of the National Socialist Movement and the Problems to be an Revolution after the Revolution.
I have 10 or so cheap paperbacks on Concentration camps & the SS. As long as they have a lot of imagery, I'll pick'em up. I'll have to dig them out for titles; had a photo of them but can't find it...
Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer is an easy read and gives an interesting account of a lot of the main players.
I have no longer interest in the subject, especially since most of the stuff about it is either written by demonizing researcher, or from sanctifying ones.
I think instead of wasting time with the fringe sides of the subject (that may be interesting on the aestetic/apocalyptic/bizarre field), you should get into the real stuff written by the ideologist themsleves.
So, not so much Himmler's black new age mumbo jumbo, but the writings of the several leaders.
In my opinion you should start from Hitler's Mein Kampf, but also Mein Leben and what in Italian sounds like "ideas on the destiny of the world". There you can read all the ideas that led him to power, understanding Germany's social situation after WWII, his strict antisemitism, etc.
Then you can't miss Goebbles' diaries, the alreay mentioned book by Albert Speer (to be read alongside Gitta sereny's "Speer - at battle with truth", where she debunk many lies he wrote in his biography).
Rosenberg's The myth of the XX Century. A quite frontal attack on Christianity that, anyway, was pure excercise of style, since Catholics and Protestants never had problems (apart from some left-wing pristes internated in Dachau, or the likes of Father Kolbe). It is quite radical also on the racist/antisemitic side.
Then you can get any book from Leon Degrelle who, although being Belgian, can give you a perfect idea of the mentality leading Waffen SS to form the European army for the attempt of invasion in Russia.
Walter Darre's "The new nobility of blood and soil" describes pretty well the whole mystic of the land thing, with strong parts regarding the idea of the warrior/peasant, a bit like a few years before Junger saw the same in the "worker".
A quite critical book on the subject is Julius Evola's "Nazism seen from the right".
Regarding images, get any catalogue from memorial sites and you will find plenty of that.
I own two versions of the Dachau one.
Wtf ?
Do we need more than "Mein Kampf"
it´s all there
it is funny how often researcher have been trying to read between lines and give eplainations regarding the subject without reading the main source that explains it all. probably the whole occult/ufo hysteria is more exciting than the social programs, the employments plans, post WWI depression, and this sincere hatred toward hebrew people.