James Pool's powerful exposé; Who Financed Hitler: The Secret Funding of Hitler's Rise to Power; 1919-1933; was praised by The New Yorker as "one of the most useful and illuminating studies of Nazism" ever published. Now; James Pool discloses the shocking and often bizarre financial strategies and relationships that enabled Hitler to consolidate his power and perpetuate his reign of terror. Hitler and His Secret Partners at last tells the full; fascinating story of an amassed legacy that continues to make headlines with the recent emergence of Nazi accounts in Swiss banks. Included are these startling revelations: Top German industrialists and financiers funded Hitler's regime -- and were rewarded with multibillion-dollar returns on their investments. Hitler's foreign supporters included King Edward VIII; his companion; Wallis Simpson; who may have been a Nazi collaborator; and Joseph Kennedy; who gave tacit approval to Hitler's "Jewish policy." Many of Germany's largest companies profited from the Holocaust. There is evidence that the concentration camps themselves were designed as sources of slave labor for German industry. Adolf Hitler's private life was one of extravagance -- in which no expense was spared in the indulgence of his every whim; from the architectural to the sexual. A thoroughly documented account of a controversial subject; Hitler and His Secret Partners is the definitive study of the calculation; exploitation and greed at the heart of the Third Reich.
#1004598 in Books Viking 1990Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 20.00 x 20.00 x 20.00l; #File Name: 0670807737643 pages
Review
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. a fantastic workBy Enrique BozzoThis book is the ultimate -until now; at least- on the numerical part of WW2. A fantastic effort to put all this information together; and a sobering information that forces two questions upon us:1) How could Germany endure so much and so long in the face of extraordinary shortages and numerical inferiority?2) Why didn't the Allies win much sooner; thus saving innumerable lives on both sides?The answers are not easy; and beg for our own further research; no doubt into the political field.13 of 14 people found the following review helpful. The Axis never had a chance!By Bill PilonI just finished John Ellis' magnificent Brute Force. Ellis' thesis is that the key factor in the Allies victory over the Axis powers was primarily the result of overwhelming economic power which they were able to apply to the battlefield with their immense industrial potential.Ellis' book is replete with examples and statistics that prove his point; including a fairly comprehensive set of charts and table in the appendices that are worth the price of admission all by themselves. The result of all this is; to this reader at least; utterly convincing.In addition to proving his central thesis; Ellis provides several interesting insights in the balance of his work; not the least of which was that the average rate of mortality among Bomber Command aircrew actually exceeded the mortality rate of Kamikaze pilots! Another interesting finding is that the level of motor transport necessary to fully supply Rommel's Afrika Korps at the end of its 900 mile supply line from Tripoli would have required the Wehrmacht to commit roughly 75% of all the trucks it possessed; leaving the forces on the Eastern front more or less immobile.I recommend it very highly to pretty much anyone who wants to gain some insight into the results of WWI. If you're interesting in WWII; you've pretty much got to read this book.10 of 11 people found the following review helpful. Good but is it still current?By Michael ReeseLike Ellis'THE SHARP END OF WAR this books is easy to read and provides a lot of incite in what I would call the "historical variation of WW2" which is the Germans didn't have a chance of winning. The book also points out this fact didn't lead to a quick or painless end of the war but to a long road to Berlin and Tokyo despite the Allies overwhelming material and manpower superiority over the Axis; and our ability to read the German and Japanese codes (ULTRA vs. Germany) so in many case we knew exactly what the Germans were doing and what their forces were and how they were deployed. Despite this the Allies made many mistakes that in the author's view extended the war and Allied lives. Highly Recommended.
