David F. Crew Hitler and the Nazis A History in Documents Pages from History [2005]

Presents a history of the rise and fall of Hitler and Nazism through original source documents, including Nazi party records and propaganda and documents from witnesses, Holocaust survivors, and individuals who resisted the Nazi regime. Each chapter has a general introduction as well as commentary about the individual documents.The excerpts are drawn from government papers, Nazi propaganda, letters, diaries, articles, reminiscences, and trial and hearings testimony. The text is supplemented with black-and-white period photos, art, and documents, including reproductions that show how the Nazis used propaganda to create a mythical Hitler who became the all-powerful embodiment of the German nation.

"There are literally thousands upon thousands of books which make Nazism their main focus. So what sets this short, 176-page volume apart? Unlike most histories of the Third Reich, whose authors comb through thousands of primary documents to turn out their own narrow (albeit unique) take on the regime, this one allows those primary works to speak for themselves....The result is a lively, first-person account of the entire history of National Socialism told from a myriad of perspectives: the speeches and writings of Nazi leaders like Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels and Speer; testimonies, interviews and memoirs of SA and SS members, German soldiers and officers and the victims (both male and female) of Nazi terror; foreign newspaper reports (American and British); laws and government documents from Germany and occupied countries; and an impressive collection of visual evidence (propaganda posters, cartoons and pictures)."--James Konecke, H-Net Book Review, July 2006