NetGalley ARC | The Hitler I Knew: The Memoirs of the Third Reich's Press Chief

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating | ⭐

This is a biography of Hitler written by his press chief Otto Dietrich, who served Hitler from 1933 to 1945, while he was in prison after the war. He believed Hitler was what Germany needed to pull them out of the misery following WWI and it was clear despite claiming he was 'disillusioned', that he STILL thought of Hitler as a great man when all was said and done.

Hitler is not one of those people that gets to be other-sided. There is no other side for him. Whatever positives there might have one been about him are throroughly and irrevocably negated by the fact that he ordered the extermination of an entire group of people, a mass genocide of millions. The author clearly admired Hitler still, and barely mentioned anything related to the wholesale slaughter of men, women, and children.

The author also references quite often the demonic spirit or demonic personality that Hitler displayed. Absolutely not. There is no one and nothing to blame for the choices Hitler made, except Hitler himself. Referring to it as "demonic" attempts to absolve him of responsibility, gives it this air of something occult-ish or supernatural (something the Nazis loved and were obsessed with), and this can NEVER be allowed to happen for him or the minions who followed his orders. Here there is no way to separate the men and women from their actions and this can't be allowed to happen. They are all guilty. Yet Dietrich hardly mentions the mass murder, or camps, the ghettos and murder squads that came before the gas showers and crematoriums.

Dietrich claims to have just accepted what was told to him and chose to stay on as Hitler's press chief for the entirety of the war. There is no way he didn't know what was happening, or going to happen, as the Final Solution was developed and put into action. Yet his silence on this aspect is deafening. There is zero accountability, which is unsurprising.

After Dietrich was found guilty in 1949 of crimes against humanity, he was sentenced to seven years in prison by the US Military Tribunal. it was determined at Nuremberg that under his direction, the German press was to "enrage Germans against Jews" in order to justify what was happening with the ever-increasing restrictions, and eventual imprisonment and murder. Unfortunately in 1950 Dietrich's sentences was communted ot time served and he was released. He should have died in prison and not with his freedom, as he did in 1952.

The fact that Dietrich chose to have this published only after his death also speaks volumes. Books like this can be dangerous because there can be no white-washing of the crimes committed against the Jewish population of Europe. These men and women were human and evil, and deserved to die for their crimes against humanity. Yet many "escaped" or were released from prison early. Both outcomes are unacceptable and I fully support the continued pursuit of any Nazis still alive today who have yet to answer for their crimes.

Despite the complete lack of accountability, I would still recommend this read for those with an interest in WWII and trying to understand how someone like Hitler was able to come to power and keep it for so long. When everyone around you is also evil, it is easy to be seen as 'normal'.