The Nazi Mind: Twelve Warnings from History

The Nazi Mind: Twelve Warnings from History

Laurence Rees

Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 5.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 5.0

How could the Nazis have committed the crimes they did? Why did commandants of concentration and death camps willingly – often enthusiastically – oversee mass murder? How could ordinary Germans have tolerated the removal of the Jews? In THE NAZI MIND, bestselling author Laurence Rees combines history and the latest research in psychology to help answer some of the most perplexing questions surrounding the Second World War and the Holocaust.Ultimately, he delves into the darkness to explain how and why these people were capable of committing the worst crime in the history of the world. Rees traces the rise and eventual fall of the Nazis through the lens of ‘twelve warnings’ – from talk about ‘them’ and ‘us’ to the escalation of racism – whilst also highlighting signs to look out for in present day leaders.Rees uses previously unpublished testimony from former Nazis and those who grew up in the Nazi system, and in-depth psychological insights including cutting edge work on obedience, authority and the brain. THE NAZI MIND is a revelatory new way of understanding how so many people committed the most appalling crime of the 20th century.


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  • BookAnonJeff
    Apr 25, 2025
    Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 5.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 5.0

    Solid Nonpartisan Examination Of The Psychology Of Nazism - And All The More Terrifying For It. This is one of those *detailed* looks at the full history of Nazism, all the way back into its origins in the 19th century, that uses different psychological concepts as the focus of each chapter and shows how both the leaders of the Party and even the German laypeople fell under its spell. Even with most chapters being a detailed history of the Nazi period of Germany and with only the final "Twelve Warnings" chapter having really anything to do directly with life a century later, the parallels to political life now - on *all* sides - become quite clear, even without Rees having to explicitly detail them. Whether it be the anti-immigrant MAGA or the anti-white "Woke" Left, the parallels to the various psychological foibles of Nazism are quite clear in Rees' history here - which makes it all the more utterly terrifying. Because no matter what modern society wants to think, and as a great grandson of an American soldier who was a German POW during WWI and a grandson of two survivors of the Battle of the Bulge on the American side (one of whom earned a Silver Star and a Purple Heart for this actions in that particular battle) of WWII, I think I have some space to talk here: Nazis did utterly horrific things, this is clear. Things that would drive those who even witnessed them - even as liberators - to lifelong alcoholism after the war, and that was among the *better* effects. But Nazis were *not* some mythical monster. They were utterly, completely, 100% human - and we and our society - *any* of us - could fall into their depravities much easier than we like to think in the 2020s. Rees' history here makes this all too clear, and should serve as a clarion call to *ALL* of us, no matter our political beliefs or reasonings. Read this book. Apply it to your political enemies - that's the easy part. Then critically look at those closest to you politically... and apply it to them as well. That's hard. Then critically look into your own mind, seriously examine your own thought processes and how you believe what you believe, and apply this book to that as well. That's the hardest part of all. Yet it may indeed be our only way of truly preventing the horrors of the past from becoming a prophecy of a future that could come again. Very much recommended.

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