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Nearly a hundred years after the Nazi phenomenon people are still asking the question: how could apparently ordinary or, in some cases, highly cultured, people commit such terrible crimes.
Evans draws together previous works on the subject, including additional material and insights that have come to light since those were published. The result is a highly readable, extremely detailed and well-organised set of biographies. These are categorised as Hitler himself, the paladins, the enforcers and the instruments. This makes it relatively easy to identify the main people at each level of hierarchy, from the top down to the lower levels.
For example, following over hundred pages on Hitler, there follows the paladins, the equivalent of a monarch’s court. These include those familiar faces of Himmler and Goebbels. Then come the enforcers, whose roll call includes Hess and Eichmann. And, finally, the instruments, including the notorious Ilse Koch and Irma Geese and, of course, Leni Riefenstahl.
Evans’ general thesis appears to be that even highly sophisticated people can become monsters if they are not only influenced by particular attitudes but live in an era in which acting upon such attitudes is enabled. Well, perhaps.
Other characteristics of a number of the people involved were their personal ambition and greed, as well as a blind adherence to a fanatic.
It is easy to select the character studies in any order. Reading this tome is not exactly a pleasant experience, but it is, perhaps, a necessary one.
A shorter version of this review was first published in Teach Secondary magazine.