Books : Hitler's Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe (Allen Lane History)

• Hitler, The Germans, and the Final Solution
• Italy's Sorrow: A Year of War 1944-45
• Warsaw 1920: Lenin's Failed Conquest of Europe
• The Third Reich at War: How the Nazis Led Germany from Conquest to Disaster (Allen Lane History)
• Marlborough: England's Fragile Genius
• see more

• World War II 1939-1945 - World History - History - Subjects - Books - Europe
• World History - History - Subjects - Books - General AAS
• History - Subjects - Books - Inter-war Period 1919-1938
• History - Subjects - Books - General AAS
• Subjects - Books - General

After their early battlefield triumphs, the sheer bankruptcy of the Nazis' political vision for Europe became all too clear: their allies bailed out, their New Order collapsed in military failure, and they left behind a continent corrupted by collaboration, impoverished by looting and exploitation, and grieving the victims of total war and genocide.

About the Author:
Mark Mazower is the author of Inside Hitler's Greece, Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century, The Balkans, which won the Wolfson Prize for History, and Salonika: City of Ghosts, which won both the Runciman Prize and the Duff Cooper Prize. He has taught at the University of Sussex, Princeton University and Birkbeck College, University of London. He is now Professor of History at Columbia University.

Average Rating:

Rating: - Excellent
This is a first class book which allows a comparative reading of the Nazi occupation of different countries of Europe. What it really shows is the difficulty of trying to see Nazi occupation as a monolith. In reality the practice pursued in the different occupied countries varied enormously- according to which German administration was dominant in the occupied country, according to Nazi stereotypes of each country and what they hoped to achieved from occupying it, according to how the population of each country responded, not forgetting that Nazi occupations generally became more severe with time. A complex history but well worth reading about.

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Rating: - Britain colonized India, Germany colonized Europe. Europeans didn't like the taste of their own medicine
It's easy to work out if you'll like this book. The subject is, how did Nazi Germany administer and rule the countries they conquered and annexed? If you're already rolling your eyes and struggling to keep a yawn down, then clearly this book is not for you. On the other hand, if like me, you think, "wow, what an interesting subject," then you will probably like this book, and it should fulfil your expectations with ease. I only skipped about four pages about France's art scene and underground politics, and a page at the end that waffled on about the post war economy, so it's not a dull difficult to read book.

It goes into a fair amount of detail of how each country was handled differently. Eastern countries like Russia and ... Read More:

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Rating: - It had a great review in The Spectator's book pages
This book had a really excellent review in the London Spectator magazine dated 5th July. It made me put this book on my wishlist. One of the central theses of the book is that the Germans themselves were surprised and unprepared for the complete collapse of their Western European enemies in 1940. Thus, there were no settled policies, and given the subjective nature of racial hatred, and the competing heirarchies of SS, the Army, Civil Service and competing Gauleiters, chaos was inevitable and, ultimately, cost Germany the war. Mythical concepts of German destiny and racial hatred prevailed over military necessity and pragmatism. Mazower quotes Goebbels saying, perhaps ironically, 'If anyone asks us how you conceive the new Europe, we have to ... Read More:

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Rating: - Eye-Opening
Brilliant! This immense and wonderful book is a revelation, not just about the extraordinary state of Nazi occupied Europe but about world politics before and after.

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Rating: - A superb book.
This book is a real eye-opener! I was in turn shocked and horrified by the detailed accounts of atrocities that this book reveals. That World War 2 was essentialy a 'race war' at (least as far as the Nazi's were concerned) is a fact brought home brilliantly by the author. Buy this book but don't read it at bedtime!