List of Illustrations
vii
List of Maps
xiii
Preface xv
Acknowledgements xix
Maps
xxv
1936: Hitler Triumphant xxxv
Ceaseless Radicalization
1 (60)
The Drive for Expansion
61 (66)
Marks of a Genocidal Mentality
127 (28)
Miscalculation
155 (26)
Going for Broke
181 (50)
Licensing Barbarism
231 (50)
Zenith of Power
281 (58)
Designing a `War of Annihilation'
339 (52)
Showdown
391 (68)
Fulfilling the `Prophecy'
459 (38)
Last Big Throw of the Dice
497 (62)
Beleaguered
559 (48)
Hoping for Miracles
607 (46)
Luck of the Devil
653 (32)
No Way Out
685 (64)
Into the Abyss
749 (46)
Extinction
795 (34)
Epilogue 829 (14)
Glossary of Abbreviations 843 (4)
Notes 847 (194)
List of Works Cited 1041 (38)
Index

"Summer 1936: the eyes of the world were trained on Berlin, elaborately decked out for the Olympic Games. Aside from the swastikas unfurled inside and outside the massive stadium, visitors to the games saw scant evidence of a repressive regime. Nazi Germany and its unchallenged leader, Adolf Hitler, were on their best behavior. Yet, away from the spectacle in Berlin, an ominous war machine was in the making." "As Ian Kershaw opens this monumental volume, large segments of the German population idolize Hitler for bringing the nation out of economic despair. Supported by four pillars of the Nazi regime -- the Party, the armed forces, the industrial cartels, and the civil service -- Hitler is poised to realize his Mephistophelian vision: the subjugation of Europe under the Thousand Year Reich and, in the process, the annihilation of the Jews. Meanwhile, a continent still carrying the scars of the First World War largely ignores his blueprints for conquest." "Soon Hitler embarks on expansion. With chilling efficiency, he annexes Austria with the support of rabid local Nazis, and then, after hoodwinking European leaders in Munich, undertakes a lightning conquest of Czechoslovakia. His invasion of Poland plunges Europe headlong into a cataclysmic war, a war that Hitler is convinced he alone has the genius to conduct. In unsparing prose, Kershaw describes the slaughter of conquered troops and civilians alike as German soldiers, accompanied by fanatical SS units, sweep into country after country." "For three years, Hitler's armies have the upper hand. But once the tides of battle turn in favor of the Allies, Hitler, no longer the invincible warlord, becomes an increasingly desperate gambler. Rarely leaving his "Wolf's Lair" he continues to mastermind the war, his public appearances and radio broadcasts limited to whipping up fervor among his countrymen against Jews, "Bolsheviks," and others deemed enemies of the Aryan race."