Mystery of Hitler unravelled in new biography
REUTERS

BERLIN, OCT 2: A chance conversation with a Jew-hating Nazi sympathiser at a cafe outside Munich in 1972 made Ian Kershaw wonder: just what was it about Adolf Hitler and his Nazi movement that Germans once found so appealing?

``I remember one phrase in particular where he said `Der Judeist eine Laus' -- the Jew is a louse,'' said Kershaw, a historian at England's Sheffield University.

``I had never come across these sentiments before and I was just sort of so shocked by them and I started wondering what went on in this little place where I was.''

Now, after a decade of intense research and 2,000 pages of writing, Kershaw has completed the second and final volume of Hitler's biography, hailed by some as perhaps the most complete work on the German dictator in any language.

The book does not offer shocking revelations, but rather focuses on a detailed portrait of the interaction between Hitler and German society that allowed and facilitated his rise and hold on total power.

``You can't expect after 60 years a radically different view of Hitler would come forward,'' Kershaw said during a visit to Berlin where he stayed just a few blocks from the site where Hitler once ruled much of the Western world.

``What you get out of this is a sense how this regime was inexorably moving towards war, genocide and final destruction, even without Hitler at all stages having to do very much.

``When you look at the unfolding of genocidal policy what is surprising is...how little Hitler needed to do to unleash this tremendous genocidal dynamic in the state and in the population.''

That meant that often aides would anticipate what Hitler would want and act -- even when it come to implementing a policy as brutal and far-reaching as the Holocaust.

A decade of research still could not unravel the mystery of all of Hitler's actions, Kershaw says.

``Why (was) Hitler so incredibly secretive about the Final Solution?'' he asked, of the code for genocide. ``The fact is he didn't speak about this in any direct sense even amongst his closest entourage and that is a little bit surprising.

``Probably the answer was that he was concerned with his own image, his own prestige and he wanted to leave the dirty work to (SS leader Heinrich) Himmler.''

Although a few of Hitler's minor aides -- including his last secretary and the valet who burned the dictator's body after his 1945 suicide -- are still alive, Kershaw said they have long since provided their insights so he relied on earlier interviews and documents.

The opening of Russia's archives also gave Kershaw access to some new documents unavailable to historians of previous biographies. Perhaps most vital to his work was a complete copy of propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels's diary, which has a detailed if biased daily look at the Fuehrer's activities.

The time needed to research and study all these documents and then write a book took Kershaw by surprise.

``When I started 10 years ago, started doing the research, I didn't think it was going to last 10 years. Probably I would not have started it otherwise,'' said Kershaw. ``It cost a great deal in term of energy and time and effort and I wonder sometimes if the 10 years were best served in doing so.

``Many times I've wanted to watch a football match on the television or something but I said no I can't because I must get on and write this next bit.

``All sorts of things then suffer at the fringes. Everything is subordinated to this one goal -- that sounds a little bit Hitlerian that,'' he said with a laugh.

Many critics are glad he made the effort, and about 150,000 people have already bought the first volume.

The New Yorker magazine wrote that this was ``as close to definitive as anything we are likely to see'', and other reviews have echoed the sentiment.

The German translation of the second volume covering the period 1937-45 and published last month brought positive reviews although some complained of in elegant prose.

The English language version will be published this month.

Some readers may be struck by the relative scarcity of personal life portrayed in the volumes.

``The things which in a biography that you would normally want to focus on very sharply are in Hitler's case relatively uninteresting,'' said Kershaw. ``Hitler became in a sense just his public image...so the personal life sort of disappeared.''

``Just detached from the immense impact of this man, the personal life is really not so interesting. Or Hitler's sex life. There's a book actually written about it but it is a very short book because there is nothing to say, really.''

The unassuming Kershaw says that during the research he was immersed in the Hitler story but never obsessed by it.

``Although I have been prepossessed with Hitler as a subject of my work I have not been prepossessed with him as a person,'' he said. ``I don't dream about Hitler, never have done.''

He said he did not harbour the historian's secret wish to have met the man either. ``Not only was he a repulsive figure, but I wouldn't have actually got the answers to the questions I had about him,'' he said.

Although Kershaw says he was able to keep a professional distance from his subject matter, he said that Hitler will always shadow Germany.

``The country will retain its historic responsibility for what happened and to that extent it cannot never really get away from Hitler,'' he said.

``Hitler represents a crucial, perhaps the crucial episode in the history. As time goes on there will be greater distance and it won't be so immediate but I don't think they will escape from it.''

Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.