Ian Kershaw Quotes

Hitler frequently demonstrated diffidence and unease in dealings with individuals which contrasted diametrically with his self-confident mastery in exploiting the emotions of his listeners in the theatrical setting of a major speech.

Ian Kershaw

The road to Auschwitz was built by hate, but paved with indifference.

Ian Kershaw

• Hate
• Road

Hitler was no inexorable product of a German 'special path', no logical culmination of long-term trends in specifically German culture and ideology. Nor was he a mere 'accident' in the course of German history.

Ian Kershaw

• Long
• History
• Culture

You have delivered up our holy German Fatherland to one of the greatest demagogues of all time. I solemnly prophesy that this accursed man will cast our Reich into the abyss and bring our nation to inconceivable misery. Future generations will damn you in your grave for what you have done.

Ian Kershaw

• Up
• Time
• Done

Hitler was unapproachable and impenetrable even for those in his close company.

Ian Kershaw

Following a meeting with Hitler, Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber, a man who had 'courageously criticized the Nazi attacks on the Catholic Church' - went away convinced that Hitler was deeply religious.

Ian Kershaw

• Church
• Religious
• Catholic

Hitler was never a socialist.

Ian Kershaw

Hitler was highly secretive - not least about his personal life, his background, and his family.

Ian Kershaw

• Life
• Family

The repeated claim before the 'seizure of power' - that the NSDAP, as a national social-revolutionary movement, and not simply another political party... would create new bonds of unity through its elimination and transcending of the party system, was highly attractive and conveyed much of Nazism's dynamic appeal.

Ian Kershaw

• Power
• Political
• Party