| A
stunning account of the economic workings of the Third Reich
— and the reasons ordinary Germans supported the Nazi
state
In this groundbreaking book, historian Götz
Aly addresses one of modern history’s greatest conundrums:
How did Hitler win the allegiance of ordinary Germans? The
answer is as shocking as it is persuasive: by engaging in
a campaign of theft on an almost unimaginable scale —
and by channeling the proceeds into generous social programs
— Hitler literally “bought” his people’s
consent.
Drawing on secret
files and financial records, Aly shows that while Jews and
citizens of occupied lands suffered crippling taxation, mass
looting, enslavement, and destruction, most Germans enjoyed
an improved standard of living. Buoyed by millions of packages
soldiers sent from the front, Germans also benefited from
the systematic plunder of conquered territory and the transfer
of Jewish possessions into their homes and pockets. Any qualms
were swept away by waves of government handouts, tax breaks,
and preferential legislation.
Gripping and important,
Hitler’s Beneficiaries makes a radically new
contribution to our understanding of Nazi aggression, the
Holocaust, and the complicity of a people.
“This remarkable book tackles in an entirely original
manner one of the greatest paradoxes of the Nazi state: why
did the German people increasingly support Hitler’s
rule even after it unleashed a world war that ultimately led
to its own destruction? The answer, based on massive evidence
and convincingly argued, is that the Nazi regime won the support
of middle and working class Germans by creating greater social
and economic equality at home and ensuring that its own “racial
comrades” would be well fed and clothed, all with the
proceeds of mass murder and unprecedented continent-wide robbery.
This rewriting of history, which dismantles the conventional
distinction between fanatical Nazis and sober civil servants,
will irreversibly transform our understanding of the Third
Reich, revealing it as a consensual dictatorship whose popularity
was rooted in grand larceny and the profits of crimes against
humanity on an unimaginable scale.”
— Omer Bartov, author of Germany’s War and
the Holocaust: Disputed Histories
“A pathbreaking
work.”
— Amos Elon, author of The Pity of It All: A History
of the Jews in Germany
“In this
book Aly once again brings to bear his formidable research
skills, his knack for pursuing original lines of inquiry,
and his incredible capacity to uncover neglected and seemingly
innocuous documents. While I do not share Aly’s views
about the underlying economic causes of the Holocaust, I nonetheless
consider this a fascinating and important book about the Nazi
economic policies that facilitated the regime’s capacity
to implement the Final Solution.”
— Christopher R. Browning, author of Ordinary Men:
Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
“Thoroughly
researched and fluently written, this book offers a new, brilliant,
gripping and convincing dimension to the understanding of
one of the most puzzling questions in the history of our times:
why did so many Germans, both Nazis and ‘ordinary people’
support the persecution of the Jews. Enough with ideology,
sociology and psychology: it was mostly about profit.”
— Tom Segev, author of The Seventh Million: Israel
Confronts the Holocaust
“Hitler’s
Beneficiaries recalls the nightmare of older classical
liberals like Alexis de Tocqueville and Max Weber, who feared
that with the coming of mass society people would forsake
liberty to enjoy materialism and its ‘petty pleasures.’
Götz Aly has written a brilliant yet disturbing book
that shatters our complacencies.”
— John Patrick Diggins, author of Max Weber: Politics
and the Spirit of Tragedy
“Shifting
the focus from racist fanaticism as the key factor in the
success of Nazism to the economic gains from looting and genocide,
Aly provides fresh insights into the kleptocratic calculations
behind Hitler’s great popularity. A bestseller in Germany,
this important new book will stimulate renewed debate on why
millions of ordinary Germans were lured into cheering for
Hitler in peacetime and total war, and how we might come to
grips with the enormous and still puzzling dynamism of one
of the most murderous movements of the 20th century.”
— Volker R. Berghahn, author of Europe in the Era
of Two World Wars
“Götz
Aly is a highly original thinker who has made a range of breakthroughs
in Holocaust Studies.”
— Raul Hilberg, author of The Destruction of the
European Jews
“Never before
has the symbiotic relationship between… the attractive
and the criminal elements of National Socialism been so acutely
and enlighteningly depicted. This book is one of those rare
works that sharpen our perspective no the darkest period in
German history.”
— Financial Times (Germany)
“A sensational
new interpretation of the Nazi era.”
— Neue Presse
“This book
is required reading for anyone who wants to join future debates
about the Third Reich and World War II.”
— Frankfurter Allgemeine
“However
rationally Aly describes the Holocaust, the horror is not
lost. In fact, when one is confronted with the idea of racist
insanity as a coolly calculated element in policies aimed
to keep taxes low and reduce inflation, the very opposite
is true… In places, this book reads like a detective
story.”
— Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“Aly has
turned the debate about the Holocaust upside-down. No future
discussion will be able to ignore Hitler’s Beneficiaries.”
— Frankfurter Rundschau
“In light
of the immense number of participants in and profiteers from
the ‘fiscal’ plundering of Europe, Aly opens up
a new perspective on the question of guilt.”
— Die Zeit
“After reading
Aly, no one can still give credence to the claim of not having
the looting of Nazi-occupied territories. Everyone profited.
Aly is doing some major housecleaning.”
— Neue Zurcher Zeitung
One of the most respected historians of the Third Reich and
the Holocaust, Götz Aly is the author
of Architects of Annihilation, among other books.
Winner of Germany’s prestigious history award, the Heinrich
Mann Prize, Aly has been a visiting fellow at the Holocaust
Museum in Washington, D. C., and currently teaches at the
University of Frankfurt. He lives in Berlin.
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