About the Author
Sir Richard John Evans is a Regius professor of history born on 29 September 1947 in the United Kingdom. His large contributions focused on 19th- and 20th-century European history, Nazi Germany in particular.
The professor has published several bestsellers, but he’s most known for the Third Reich trilogy. A three-part book on the coming and going of the Third Reich.
Chapter 1—The Police State
The book opens up with the chapter called The Police State. In this chapter the author explained how Hitler removed everything between him and power. Then he moved on to rewrite all German rules of law to make himself the law of the land. And lastly, he established new and strengthened old policing agencies that are critically loyal to him to carry out his brutal wishes upon his opponent.
Chapter 2—The Mobilization of the Spirit
The second chapter was about convincing the Germans through sheer propaganda, which was led by Goebbels, that his government is on their side through and through. And this is achieved by infiltrating the fellow citizen’s entire cultural life. They were fed every diluted Nazi message. The Nazis also infiltrated schools to capture the young and used entertainment to capture their old.
Chapter 3—Converting the Soul
What’s next for the Nazis to do? Religion. Christianity is the religion of most Germans, especially Catholicism, but the Nazis wanted the Germans to worship Nazism instead. They banned the Catholics from worshiping and twisted every spiritual text so as for the masses to come to their own side. In the end, Evans shows they didn’t get the desired result they were hoping for, but the masses reluctantly conform to the Nazi leaders.
Chapter 4—Prosperity and Plunder
The next chapter highlighted the Second World War financing, which was led by Göring’s Four-Year Plan program and Hjalmar Schacht’s Mefo bill. To further fund the rearmament, the Nazis illegally seized all Jewish properties and businesses while still funneling some funds to their own personal pockets.
Chapter 5—Building the People’s Community
Building the people’s community highlights how the Nazis set out to create an impossible classless national community. The influential were the first to lose their political power, which then stemmed down to all social groups. Workers, too, lost their union for the Nazis’ own Labour Front. In the end, the classes were later classed, just not what they were hoping for.
Chapter 6—Towards the Racial Utopia
The sixth chapter explains how the Nazis practice racial cleansing by eliminating those that are perceived as weak among their population. Compulsory sterilization is the method that was adopted to murder so-called degenerates. And also in this chapter, Prof. Evans shows how multiple laws were passed between 1933 and 1938 to remove the Jews completely from the society.
Chapter 7—The Road to War
In this final chapter, the book tells us that since Hitler’s appointment as German chancellor, he’s been too confident that he feared no superpower country. To prove this, he crossed every boundary set by the Treaty of Versailles and finally declared war on Poland to start the Second World War by September 1, 1939. To protect Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939.
