Hitler and His Secret Partners - Softcover

Pool, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0671760823 ISBN 13: 9780671760823

Publisher: Atria Books, 1998

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review

James Pool's Hitler and His Secret Partners exposes Nazi financial machinations dating from Hitler's seizure of power in 1933 to the end of his dictatorship in 1945. In this sequel to his acclaimed Who Financed Hitler, Pool contends that "looting and plundering were the primary motives" of the Nazi elite, arguing that these men waged war and effected genocide in order to line their pockets.

While there have been dozens of explanations of the motives behind the murderous actions of the Third Reich, Hitler and His Secret Partners stands out for its focus on the sheer greediness of the Nazi regime and its collaborators. Pool thoroughly explores how German industrialists reaped immense profits from slave labor and conquest, arguing that Hitler's status among these powerful men was transformed from pampered front man to ruthless master. The most interesting contribution of this book is the story of how Hitler's financial partners spared German industry from the Führer's desperate plans for destruction and sealed his fate in the last days of the war.

Pool has furthered the argument of his previous book that lust for money must be counted among anti-Semitism and totalitarianism as the primary elements within Nazi ideology. Although readers will find a more comprehensive treatment of Nazi beliefs and Hitler's place within the Third Reich in Ian Kershaw's Hitler 1889-1933: Hubris, Hitler and His Secret Partners nevertheless demonstrates the importance of economic considerations within the Nazi state. --James Highfill

About the Author

In the early 1970s, James Pool traveled extensively in Germany, interviewing many former Nazis who actually helped finance Hitler or were personally close to him. He also interviewed Allied intelligence officers and surviving slave laborers who worked for German companies. He has BA and MA degrees from the University of Cincinnati. Mr. Pool is also the author of Who Financed Hitler: The Secret Funding of Hitler's Rise to Power, 1919-1933, now completely revised and updated, and available in trade paperback from Pocket Books.

Edition details

• Publisher: Atria Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0671760823
• ISBN 13: 9780671760823
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 432