See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/279797221

Review of "Hitler: a biography" by A N Wilson.

Article · June 2013

CITATIONS READS

0 376

1 author:

Rolf Clayton
University College London
10 PUBLICATIONS   3 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Rolf Clayton on 06 July 2015.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Short review of Hitler: A Short Biography by A N Wison.
9th Jun. 2013
By Rolf Clayton.

This book may be a helpful introduction for those who know nothing of the subject, but it is
not entirely objective nor factually reliable. For example, he describes many dog-lovers as
people who are incapable of showing affection to human beings, and calls Alsations smelly
near-cousins of the wolf ; both comments are somewhat tendentious and probably tell us
more about A N Wilson than about Hitler.

He also says that most scientists believe a version of crude Darwinism, which is completely
untrue. He repeats tittle-tattle without giving any reference (for example the alleged but
unsupported story that Leni Riefenstahl offered to sleep with Hitler), and the old but
unsupported story that Hitler "refused" to shake hands with Jesse Owens, the winner of 4 gold
medals. There is no evidence that he "refused" although it is true he did not shake hands with
Owens, as he did not with many other Gold Medal winners. The Queen did not shake hands
with Mo Farah when he won his gold medals in the 2012 London Olympics (so she must be
racist as well!) When asked about this Owens pointed out that the President of the USA also
did not shake his hand when he returned to America. Interestingly, for an age when
colour-prejudice was common, Owens was great favourite with the German crowd who
chanted "Jesse, Jesse" when he appeared on the track. Hitler avoided the finals which
involved Owens because it was well known that he had a good chance of winning. In the
long-jump in which he won a gold medal, Owens said that he was given friendly and helpful
advice by the German competitor Luz Long who did shake Owen's hand after being pushed
by him into second place.

He also says that the Germans voted for Hitler which is a bit misleading. In the election on
6th November 1932 in which 51 Parties took part the Nazis did not emerge as the over-all
winners although they won the largest number of seats (196). However, the combined Social
Democratic and Communist Parties had a larger number of seats (221) which alarmed the
established politicians who were anxious to prevent a left-wing coalition taking power.
Nevertheless, none of the leading politicians of the time wanted the Nazis in power either, so
a stalemate followed which resulted in three months of political haggling. Ultimately the
politicians failed in their objective which thus lead to Hitler's appointment as Reich
Chancellor in January 1933. In the November election, the last democratic election in
Germany until the post-war years, the Nazis won about 26% of the electorate's votes (ie about
33% of votes cast with a turnout of about 80%) which means that almost three quarters of the
Germans did not vote for Hitler (see Kershaw, Hitler, Vol. 1). Furthermore, high
unemployment in Germany at the time, estimated by Kershaw (Hitler, Vol.1) to have been
approaching 50% (taking account of both the official and unofficial unemployed figures) was
a significant factor in the despair which Hitler exploited; German unemployment was
significantly higher in comparison with the USA and the UK where "official" unemployment
at that time was about 23% and 17% respectively.

When President Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor in January 1933 the eminent war
hero General Erich Ludendorff, who had met Hitler in the 1920s, sent a letter to Hindenburg
in which he wrote "You have delivered up our holy German Fatherland to one of the greatest
demagogues of all time. I solemnly prophesy that this accursed man will cast our Reich into
 the abyss and bring our nation to inconceivable misery. Future generations will damn you in
your grave for what you have done."

Wilson also briefly covers Mussolini and writes, astonishingly, that it is not clear why
Mussolini declared war on France and Britain in support of Hitler. Clearly Wilson has not
heard about Italy's mutual defence pact with the Nazis, the so-called Pact of Steel, nor of
Italy's expansionist policy (eg its annexation of Ethiopia, Albania and intended annexation of
parts of Greece - which resulted in modern Greece's most famous public holiday, the "Ochi
Mera" or "No Day" when Metaxas sent the Italian ambassador packing apocryphally saying
"No" to the Italians' proposed annexation - although he is reportedly actually to have said
“Alors, c’est la guerre.”).

He also blunders when he writes that communists (note that he does not write, less
tendentiously, communist partisans) captured Mussolini in Mezzagra. The actual location of
Mussolini's capture is the village of Dongo on Lake Como, about 22 km north of Mezzagra,
where there is a museum showing photographs of many of his entourage being shot on the
lakeside by Dongo's main square and a letter from Mussolini saying he had been treated
correctly by his captors.

Wilson even manages to get the date for the invasion of Poland wrong!

This is an interesting but not very objective nor accurate book which should be read with
considerable caution and only if you do not have the time to read a proper biography by a real
historian - of which there are many.

View publication stats