Category: History

How Germany fell for Nazi ideology

World War II, and specifically, Nazi Germany, has been a fascination of mine since I was young enough to read. The main attraction has always been the question of how an apparent civilized and developed people could be led to commit such horrors. What eventually led to the rationalizations necessary to completely disregard human dignity and commit atrocities? And how… Read more →

“Into That Darkness”

The first book I read this year was Gitta Sereny’s ‘Into That Darkness’ which tells the tale of Franz Stangl, one of only 4 men who commanded Nazi Extermination camps, Sobibor and Treblinka in his case. Gitta Sereny conducted a series of interviews with him while he was incarcerated in a Dusseldorf prison in 1971. She suffuses her narrative with… Read more →

Remember… and do not forget

About nine years ago, I picked up a copy of Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ while visiting the United States. For over twenty years I have been fascinated by the Second World War, and have read about and studied that period extensively, focusing mainly on Nazi Germany. My maternal grandparents lived through that period in the Netherlands and experienced German occupation… Read more →