Roland, Paul

"Draws on the recollections of those who lived through the rise and fall of one of the most vicious and sadistic regimes the world has ever seen. These are the stories of ordinary people in extraordinary times, living in the grip of a regime that did not care if it destroyed the whole country in pursuit of its perverted goals"--Back cover.

The Nazis kept extensive files on practically everybody in the Third Reich. Now author Paul Roland turns the tables with this brilliant new expose - a fascinating psychological profile of the leading Nazis and their lesser-known associates. Examples include: Adolf Hitler had 'terrible' table manners, gorged on cake in his bunker and Allied psychologists considered him a neurotic psychopath. Franz Stangl loved his job so much (as commandant of Sobibor and Treblinka concentration camps) that he tried to make his places of work seem as normal as he could by planting flowers and shrubs everywhere and creating a fake railway station with fake painted clocks to welcome new arrivals. When Hermann Goering surrendered to the Americans, he had a gold-plated revolver and a stash of drugs in his luggage. A concise yet revealing chronicle of Hitler's henchmen and their horrifying crimes presented in a fresh and accessible way.