Sins of the Fathers, Herbert Stern and Alan R. Winter, authors
This is the second collaborative book about Hitler written by these two authors, one who is a lawyer and author of non-fiction, and one who is an educator and author of novels. In the first book they wrote, “Wolf” (Hitler’s nickname), Adolph Hitler’s life from 1918-1934 is imagined in detail. In this novel, his rise to power, as he gained complete control over the German people, and mesmerized a good deal of the world as well, is envisioned further. With an exhaustive amount of research and investigation, uncovering information hitherto unknown or not widely published, the authors have woven fact and fiction together to create a picture of Hitler’s mental state as he rose to power, and it is very plausible. The book exposes the efforts of those who both supported and tried to thwart him, those unsung heroes who originally supported Hitler, but then were ultimately forced to continue to support him and to participate in the barbarism of this man whose sanity was most likely teetering on the edge of madness. This book is dedicated to those very real characters who sacrificed themselves in order to try to stop Hitler from bringing the world to the edge of catastrophe, and when that failed, to try to ultimately destroy him as his growing diabolical plans took shape and World War II began.
Blending the real and the imagined expertly, the authors have illustrated and documented Hitler’s efforts to create the Third Reich, his thousand-year dream which was the embodiment of evil. He imagined and planned it down to the smallest detail. He surrounded himself with men who were brutal and without a moral compass. They were savages, criminals, sadists and haters of everything decent people respected. They were arrogant, and they were cruel and violent. They were infected with Hitler’s virulent need to Aryanize so much of the world. While some of the characters will not be easily recognizable to the reader, many of the characters in the book wiill be widely known, even to those who are not students of history. FDR, Mussolini, Himmler, Chamberlain, Churchill, Goebbels, Eva Braun and Pastor Niemoller, to name a few, will ring a bell, although many of those remembered will have become negative household names, so much so, that as one reads the book, it will be hard not to wish it was pure fiction. However, because it is based on reality, the reader cannot suspend disbelief. This book is dedicated to those men who saw through Hitler’s charade, recognized his madness and the country’s doomed future and sacrificed themselves trying to stop Hitler’s barbaric plans from reaching fruition. Hitler’s Final Solution, his violence and total disregard and dislike of certain segments of German society and the world at large, his plans to create his “master race” had to be stopped. It took far too long to recognize his barbarism, and so Hitler was responsible for the loss of far too many lives. The world lost a great deal of talented and brilliant human beings to the madness and malevolence of several unworthy leaders.
Through the eyes of Hitler’s imaginary confidant and companion, Friedrich Richard, Hitler’s thought processes and private life are reconstructed to reveal exactly how he develops his diabolical plans. In the first book, where it is imagined that Friedrich and Hitler met, Friedrich’s amnesia and Hitler’s mental state and coming rise to power is introduced. In the second, a decade and a half later, Hitler and his follower's descent into Dante’s ninth circle of Hell is explored. Both Hitler and Richard in this book have lives created from fact and fiction. Friedrich is created out of whole cloth and is the embodiment of the conflicted German, the German who supported Hitler and yet turned a blind eye to his brutality, to what was happening around them because of loyalty to The Fuhrer, or loyalty to themselves, even as they suspected the worst was happening and dismissed those thoughts. At first, the very real Hitler convinced the world that he only wanted to unite Austria and Germany, something he said the Austrians also wanted, which the world witnessed as he was cheered when he and his minions marched into Linz, his hometown. Later, Hitler recognized that no one would intervene. No one had the stomach for a war. No one wanted the Jews. Not many were fully aware of the evil that was soon to begin in earnest. Therefore, when Hitler encountered so little resistance, he was emboldened to go further. He realized that no one would stop him. Although the world feared the worst possible outcome, they preferred to give Hitler the benefit of the doubt. Only those closest to him realized how dangerous he was, or perhaps they were the only ones brave enough to try to defy and stop him.
Who would ever have believed, knowing what we know now, that Hitler would become the Time Man of the Year for any reason, even because he had the most influence on the world? Hitler’s ego and arrogance were so dominant, it must have been a seminal moment for him. Hitler believed he was invincible and infallible. The apathy of the rest of the world, the ambivalence about his behavior and plans, the acceptance of the explanations for his actions, propelled him to further invade other countries and his early success was dependent upon the inaction of other leaders. If you don’t learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it, and right now, in the winter of 2022, the world is witnessing Russia’s egotistic leader, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of a sovereign country, simply because he, too, can do it. Once again, the world is looking the other way, as another man, whose genius is both authoritarian and merciless, invades a nation. Once again, will too much human capital be lost as a result of the world’s unwillingness to see the importance of the meaning behind this invasion, rather than the meaning of the invasion itself? Is there another kind of master plan at work here? This book is very timely. I suggest all read it, treating the romances lightly, because that might also take the reader’s eye off the crucial ball.
I learned many things from this book, because although some characters are fictional, the history and recognizable names are quite authentic. For those readers who are not as well versed in this history, there is a marvelous end section written by the authors. It succinctly describes the worldview in the time of Hitler. I look forward to the next book because, as they have in this one, I feel certain that these authors will uncover further little known or previously unknown theories, thoughts, facts and odd bits of information that are now being proffered as very much a pertinent part of world history.