U.S. $32.00 HITLER'S TABLE TALK 1941-1944 "This book remains the only complete and consecutive presentation of an important historical document...the official record of Hitler's 'table talk' as uttered at the height of his success. I'm glad to see this book back in print. It is surely necessary reading for students of Nazism and the Second World War. " HUGH TREVOR-ROPER OXFORD, SPRING 2000 One of the most significant documents of recent history, Hitler's Table Talk 1941-1944 records the private, off the record, informal conversations of a man, who, more than anyone else, came close to destroying the Western world. Here is a startling account of Hitler freely talking about his enemies, his friends, his ambitions, his failures, his secret dreams - voicing his thoughts to his intimate associates as the sun set at the end of each day of the war. We see here a conversational Hitler letting down his guard to his trusted henchmen. Miraculously, Martin Bormann persuaded Hitler to let these talks be taken down by a team of specially picked shorthand writers. Hitler had intended, after his infamous tyranny, to use these notes as source material for the books he planned to write about the glory of the "Thousand-Year Reich." continued on back flap Now they have come to us, indisputably authentic, a raw, fascinating, unretouched look at the inner recesses of the mind of Adolf Hitler. Der Führer's mind was crude and narrow; he had little education and, as we see here, no humanity; but we can also see that he was (as he himself knew) a political genius, a "terrible simplifier," a man who, with no equipment except his own will power, personality and ideas, attemted to bring mankind into a terrible darkness. As Trevor-Roper says in his brilliant introduction..."if we are to discover the mind of Hitler, we must penetrate behind the thick curtains of superficial evidence which conceal it - the repellant character which formed its expression, and for which no power of thought can compensate, and the unreliable intermediaries who have commented upon it. We must go directly to Hitler's personal utterances: not indeed to his letters and speeches - these, so valuable, are too public, too formalized for such purposes - to his secret conversations, his table talk." It is here, in Hitler's Table Talk 1941-1944, that the mind of this extraordinary historical figure is remarkably revealed. Printed in Canada. Hitler's Table Talk 1941-1944 His Private Conversations "This book remains the only complete and consecutive presentation of an important historical document...the official record of Hitler's 'table talk' as uttered at the height of his success. I'm glad to see this book back in print. It is surely necessary reading for students of Nazism and the Second World War." HUGH TREVOR-ROPER OXFORD, SPRING 2000 On Martin Bormann's instructions the secret conversations at Hitler's headquarters from July 1941 to November 1944 were all recorded. This extraordinary document is the result. In the relaxed atmosphere of his inner circle, Hitler talked freely about his aims, his early life and his plans for further conquest and a new German empire. The full text of Hitler's Table Talk preserved by Bormann, is presented here. This book is the most significant record of Hitler's mind and character in existence. Revealing, for instance, his thoughts on the English language which he thought inferior to German as it 'lacks the ability to express thoughts that surpass the order of concrete things', and his hatred of idealism, 'he found it quite normal that the bodies of his political prisoners should be burnt and their ashes used by his SS guards to manure their gardens'. A compelling and frequently repellent read. Hugh Trevor-Roper provides an Introduction on 'The Mind of Adolf Hitler' and a new preface. Cover photograph: Adolf Hitler at his mountain retreat at Berchtesgarten, March 3, 1933. © Hulton Getty Printed in Canada. Cover design: Andrea Purdie ENIGMA BOOKS NON-FICTION/HISTORY www.enigmabooks.com 9 781929 631056 ISBN 1-929631-05-7 HITLER'S TABLE TALK, 1941-1944 His Private Conversations Hugh Trevor-Roper is an historian and scholar noted for his works on aspects of the Second World War and on Elizabethan history. He graduated from Christ Church College, Oxford, in 1936, and during the Second World War worked in intelligence: his official investiga- tion into Adolf Hitler's death was later published as The Last Days of Hitler. From 1946 to 1957 he taught history at Christ Church. During this period he wrote several articles about Hitler, stirring controversy by contending that Hitler was not only a systematic thinker but a genius as well. In 1957 he was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History and Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. He remained at this post until 1980, when he was appointed Master of Peterhouse College, Cambridge, where he stayed until 1987. He was created a life peer in 1979. ALSO BY HUGH TREVOR-ROPER The Last Days of Hitler The Gentry, Historical Essays Hider's War Directives, 1939^1945 Religion, the Reformation and Social Change, and Other Essays The Philby Affair: Espionage, Treason, and Secret Services Princes and Artists: Patronage and Ideology at Four Habsburg Courts, 1517^1633 The Goebbels Diaries Catholics, Anglicans and Puritans HITLER'S TABLE TALK 1941-1944 His Private Conversations Translated by Norman Cameron and R.H. Stevens Introduced and with a new Preface by H.R. Trevor-Roper e n i g ma b o o ks NEW YORK CITY Hitler's Table Talk 1941-1944 Introduction and Preface by Hugh Trevor-Roper Copyright © Enigma Books 2000 First published in Great Britain by Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd, London a division of the Orion Publishing Company Introductory Essay 'The Mind of Hitler' and Preface © 2000 by H.R. Trevor-Roper English translation copyright © 1953 by Weidenfeld and Nicolson The moral right of H.R. Trevor-Roper to be identified as the author of the introductory essay 'The Mind of Hitler' and the Preface has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Enigma Books, Inc. 580 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10018 www.enigmabooks.com Second Printing Printed and bound in Canada ISBN 1-929631-05-7 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION BY H. R. TREVOR-ROPER Preface to third edition vii The Mind of Adolf Hitler xi PART ONE 1941 5th July—31st December i PART TWO 1942 1st January—5th February 161 PART THREE 1942 6th February—7th September 297 PART FOUR 1943 13th June—24th June 701 PART FIVE 1944 13th March—29th-30th November 713 INDEX 723