Search results for ""author martin davidson""

'Finally, eight decades on, there comes a convincing reason as to how an entire nation was able to swallow and then endorse the warped ideology of Hitler and the Nazis. Not only a brilliantly argued book, Mobilising Hate is also a grimly compelling and utterly absorbing examination of one of the most terrible events in world history. Martin Davidson's meticulous and scholarly research and exquisite writing has provided us with one of the most important books ever written on the subject.' JAMES HOLLAND'A highly readable thesis of how ordinary people were turned into monsters by the malevolent propaganda of Hitler and his henchmen ... A very good book.' SAUL DAVID, TelegraphBy 1942, it was an article of faith that what the Nazis called 'The Jewish Question' had only one answer: the mass extermination of an entire people. Six million European Jews were savagely murdered as a result of this perverted but profoundly held conviction. In this radical new perspective on Hitler's so-called 'Final Solution', Martin Davidson shows that the terrible fate of Europe's Jews was not one Nazi policy amongst many, but the central preoccupation of the regime, one which they were determined to achieve and of which they were most chillingly proud. How were so many people convinced that the Jews deserved such treatment - or were at least persuaded to shrug their shoulders and turn a blind eye? Why did they think Germany could only be reborn with their eradication? That Jewish suffering was not only necessary, but deserved? How were the moral standards of an entire nation so warped and perverted, that the Final Solution came to be regarded as a rational, thrilling, even sacred, element of Nazi state policy? Mobilising Hate examines in detail how Nazi ideologues worked to frame and amplify anti-Jewish feeling in Germany. Davidson explores the origins of radical anti-Jewish polemic in the volcanic upheavals that swept over Germany in the months after the First World War. How it seeded a theory that claimed to explain the truth of the entirety of human history. How that theory would go on to pervert science; corrupt the law; rewrite history; taint art, music and literature; and turn the media into the servant of a brutal and pitiless regime with a single message to communicate: destroying Jews lives was the indispensable first step to making Germany - and indeed, Europe - great again. Davidson goes on to track the way in which Nazi leaders moved from theory to practice, by accident and by design, skilfully dramatising the many twists and turns that would lead to Auschwitz and beyond, many of which are not generally included in conventional accounts. Mobilising Hate is driven by the first-hand accounts of many of those defined by the Nazi genocide; both its architects and perpetrators, as well as its targeted victims. Poignantly too, the book turns the spotlight on the whistle-blowers who saw, recorded and shared accounts of the horrors unfolding across the continent - only to be greeted time and time again, with guarded and non-committal hedging from Allied governments. Many people inside Germany, and across the world, knew, but, it seemed, very few felt they needed to care. As our world once again grapples with the challenges of global mass resentment, economic insecurity and the growing desire to find people - entire populations - at whom to point the finger of blame, the issue of Hitler's Final Solution and the thinking that gave birth to it have worrying new resonance. Rarely has the 'warning from history' been so acute, nor the refrain 'never again', been so heartfelt. Above all, Mobilising Hate is the story of how the Nazis spawned a vision of 'us' and 'them', that taken to its logical conclusion, spelled a death sentence for millions. Hitler may have lacked an early masterplan for the mass extermination of Europe's Jews, but it would be his zealously constructed policies and unflinching determination to see them through to the bitter end that would make it impossible for his Nazi Holocaust not to happen. That the Jews should face total extermination was Hitler's biggest, proudest prophecy, and the one he moved mountains to make come true, no matter the cost.

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In 1926, at the age of twenty, a trainee dentist called Bruno Langbehn joined the Nazi party. Growing up in a Germany that was impoverished and humiliated by the defeat of the First World War, and surrounded by a fiercely military environment, Bruno was one of the first young men to sign up. And as the party rose to power, he was there every step of the way. Eventually his loyalty was rewarded with a high-ranking position in Hitler's dreaded SS, the elite security service charged with sending Germany's 'racially impure' to the death camps. For fifty years after the end of the Second World War, his family kept this horrifying secret until his British grandson, Martin Davidson, uncovered the truth. Drawing on an astonishing cache of personal documents, Davidson retraces Bruno's journey from disillusioned adolescent to SS Officer to mysterious grandfather. In this extraordinary account he tries to understand how Langbehn and millions of others like him were seduced by Hitler's regime, and attempts to come to terms with this devastating revelation.

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Long after the Battle of Britain, the aircrews of RAF Bomber Command risked their lives night after night during the Second World War. Over 55,000 of the airmen never returned from these missions; a further 10,000 became prisoners of war. And yet Bomber Command has been mired in controversy and its veterans - all volunteers - have never been awarded a campaign medal. Their crucial contribution to the outcome of the war has all too often been overlooked. BOMBER CREW exposes the bravery of these men using gripping first-person testimony from the surviving pilots and crew. For them this was a time of incredible hardship and adrenaline, courage and friendship, and their stories bear witness to the strength of the human spirit in times of incredible danger. Never before has their story been so vividly told. This is also a revealing look at the history of Bomber Command itself, from the early days through to eventual victory in 1945. From the terrifying action of the bombing raids to the intimate personal accounts of heroism, tragedy and triumph, this is the ultimate account of these brave men and their contribution to the Allied victory.

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