The Last Days of Hitler [antikvár]

1FOREWORDBy Marshal of the RAF Lord Tedder, gcb. Deputy Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force, 1943-51here used to be a school of historical thought which held that the course of human history was determined largely by political and economic factors rather than by the characters and actions of individuals. My own experience during this last war has emphasized to me the immense, and in some cases decisive influence exercised on the course of events by individual personalities. In the past it has rarely been possible for the effects of the personality and character of individual leaders to be assessed other than by the study of documents. Their writings may have been recorded; their words may have been memorized, but the life had gone out of them. History written on such a basis is inevitably liable to distortion due to point of view or due to incomplete evidence.Here on the other hand we have history written from living material. Mr Trevor-Roper, as an intelligence officer, was given the task of uncovering step by step the events of Hitler's last few weeks of life. In discharging this duty he has produced a piece of history which is as living as it is accurate and as monumental as the scale of events he recalls. Although Hitler is dead, the agonies he brought on mankind are still alive, and however much mystery he attempted to weave around his personal activities, they have been laid bare by the flood of living testimony and documentary material which has become available since Germany's capitulation. There is no possibility of distortion in this case. Mr Trevor-Roper's story sets the seal on Nuremberg.Hitler was not one who was prepared to allow history to follow any predetermined political or economic course. In a