A Concise History of the Third Reich (review)

Any new book on the Third Reich must begin by defending its very existence. And Wolfgang Benz begins A Concise History of the Third Reich with just such a justification. Addressing a complex history, a huge literature, and a period that, for better or worse, has so radically shaped Jewish identity, Benz directs this book to readers who seek "insights of historical scholarship" and "concise but reliable information" without "retracing in detail" the many hours of human toil and debate that revealed that information in the first place. This is a thankless, almost sisyphean, task; and Benz's book displays all the pitfalls of the endeavor. And yet, Benz has succeeded where most would hardly try. His Concise History delivers on its promise to students and casual readers, even if those amongst the trees don't share his admirable ability to see the forest.

The true reward of Benz's endeavor lies in his style, tone and approach. His 'thick description' of historical dramas like the Reichstag Fire, the Machtergreifung ('assumption of power'), and Kristallnacht allows us to understand the mindset of those who enabled and, to some extent, participated in these fatefully tragic events. Take, for example, Benz's observation that many of Hitler's contemporaries thought that political office might moderate the radical demagogue into a statesman (22). Or take, as yet another example with contemporary political analogue, his observation that faction and infighting among left-wing parties hindered their opposition to Nazi political gains (122-4). Breaking oneself from the 20/20 vision of historical hindsight is no small achievement for any scholar. Doing so with such academic rigor and balanced tone is even more difficult for a German scholar who, rightly or wrongly, bears the additional cross of trying to understand the perpetrators of the Holocaust without opening himself up to the (unfair, but no less common) charge that he might sympathize with them.

The organization of Benz's book is one of its most helpful qualities. Benz eschews the strict chronology of many Concise History of 's and instead approaches this vast and complex period with topical chapters on "Economic and Social Policy," "Terror and Persecution," "Daily Life in Wartime Germany," and "Resistance" (just to name a few). This is a more difficult way to write a book; and it will, no doubt, leave Benz vulnerable to the charge that he covers every topic inadequately or one at the expense of another. But for a period as vast and complex as this one, this organization helps the book live up to its promise to make Third Reich history concise and accessible to the non-specialist. Educators will benefit from a text that makes coherent class discussion possible; and students will benefit from exposure to the historiographic lesson that history is not only a succession of dates, but an endeavor to uncover the structure and pattern of human behavior itself.

While the book's accessibility to wider audiences is one of its major strengths, more glaring weaknesses emerge as part of the process of targeting a wider audience. The glossary is short (less than twenty terms), and reads more like an afterthought than a vital part of an introductory text, given the wealth of terms that should be in it (Der Stürmer; Götterdämmerung; Kraft durch Freude; Night and Fog Decree) but aren't. This is unfortunate, not only because a weak glossary is in some ways worse than none at all, but because a thoughtful glossary (which this one is, for the few terms it treats) would allow the translator occasion to address certain terms' complexity and ambiguity. (For example, is Machtergreifung an "assumption" or a "seizure" of power?) Furthermore, the translation itself is somewhat weak. Like many German to English translators, Thomas Dunlap seems woefully oblivious to the fact that gender and case allow a German sentence to be longer and more complex before it gets confusing or simply unpleasant. (Pages...