Dictator Style – Lifestyles of the World’s Most Colorful Despots
Peter York, forward by Douglas Coupland
It would seem that, out there somewhere, there is a checklist and letter that your average dictator is sent when they reach a certain level. “Yes,” this letter says, “you may rule with an iron fist and have your every bloody whim met. But in return, you will have horrendous interior decorating taste.”
Right, let’s see here:
Gilt and flocked wallpaper? Check
Dark European paintings? Check
French or English antiques (or knock-offs)? Check
Enormous, empty rooms with no purpose? Check
Stashes of stuff – shoes, furs, jewelry, more furniture? Check
Vast, ugly bathrooms? Check
Of course, not all dictators stick to the list. Some are quiet inventive. ...
Until the Final Hour: Hitler’s Last Secretary
Traudl Junge – Ed. Melissa Muller
Like the accounts written by Hitler’s best friend August “Gustl” Kubizek, Until the Final Hour shows the weirdly human side of Hitler. There is something so very disconcerting about the idea of a madman having friends, normal conversations, afternoon tea and all the other conventional trappings of everyday life. Of course, it stands to reason that despots have to have some charm and personality (faked or not) otherwise they wouldn’t be able to rise as they do. Screaming, foaming madmen rarely control states if those are the only things they do. But still, my mind simply can’t wrap around the image of Hitler ...
The Young Hitler I Knew
August “Gustl” Kubizek
The Young Hitler I Knew is by far the most engrossing book I have ever read about Hitler. Gustl Kubizek was a man in a position no one else had ever been – he was Hitler’s best friend from age 15-19. In all likelihood, he was also the only real friend Hitler ever had. Kubizek chronicles his early years when he and Hitler attended the opera religiously. The two soon became inseparable.
Kubizek states their friendship worked so well because of his own gentle, pliant and wholly apolitical nature, plus his ability to listen patiently to long rants. In all likelihood this is true. Even in his youth, Hitler made wild impassioned...
Witness to Nuremberg
Richard Sonnenfeldt
This is by far the most immensely engrossing book I have read in months. Without a pause, Sonnenfeldt leaps into a description of how he, a young army grunt, was pulled from the innards of a jeep he was repairing and whisked off to Nuremberg to become the chief interpreter for the Americans. Sonnenfeldt’s descriptions bounce from interrogating Goring to wistful remembrances of beautiful women in his office to useful advice on going drinking with generals (eat 2 tablespoons of butter beforehand to coat your stomach). His commentary runs to aghast horror and fascination at what the Nazi prisoners have done, along with a strong streak of relief that he avoided ...