‘Hitler’s People: The Faces of the Third Reich’ by Richard J. Evans

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Hitler's People by Richard J. Evans

History doesn’t stand still. New information surfaces, new ideas crop up and interpretations change. So why another book on the Nazis? History’s ever-changing direction justifies the new addition to the library by British scholar Richard J. Evans, Hitler’s People.

After World War II, most historians interpreted the rise and fall of the Reich through (psycho)analyzing the regime’s leading men. Academic fashions changed after ‘70s. Individuals were deemed unimportant, and history was explained by vast social forces and institutions. Hitler’s People reflects the current understanding that people and social forces are interactive, and people and institutions mold each other. 

Evans admits that the model for Hitler’s People is the seminal work by Germany’s Joachim Fest, The Face of the Third Reich. Like The Face,Hitler’s People offers cogently composed, chapter length biographies of Hitler and his associates. The difference between the two books is measured by the mass of archival material, especially letters and diaries, that have come to light since The Face was published in 1963. Perhaps the most significant change in understanding concerns Hitler’s architect and munitions czar, Albert Speer. Fest accepted Speer’s repentant attitude and his claims to have kept hands clean from Nazism’s dirtiest horrors. But incriminating documents surfaced after Speer’s death in 1981, putting the lie to his reputation as a technocrat who simply did his job.

Mostly, the archives unavailable to earlier researchers have served less to change perceptions than to complicate them. Evans is skeptical that the crimes of most Nazis resulted from any “individual pathology” but reflected instead “attitudes and beliefs that were common,” amplified by Nazi propaganda and grotesquely magnified by the example set by the regime’s leaders. Evans finds mixed motives that varied from person to person. Nazism numbered true believers and opportunists as well as people who accepted only portions of the ideology. Fear was a factor, but many Nazis committed crimes by their own free will. They followed orders happily.

Will Hitler’s People close the book on Nazi Germany? Absolutely not. Some of Evans’ opinions based on doubtful memories and remain debatable. And more significantly, interest in the subject has scarcely abated in our time of rising authoritarianism.

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