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Churchill’s regard for the rules of war, and how he defined those rules. Because warfare was so important a part of his personality – though Best successfully refutes the notion that he was a warmonger – we are given numerous insights into Churchill’s psyche. Best is especially good on the bombing of Dresden, which he feels was justifiable, and on the agonies that Churchill went through after it. A distinct picture of a hero emerges, and also of the nature of heroism: the massive ego, the single-mindedness, the buccaneering humour, the patriotism, the utter determination and physical courage. Best is strong, too, on Churchill at peace, notably in his prescience in fathoming the threat from Hitler in the wilderness years of the 1930s but also in

E VAN M AWDSLEY From the Kremlin’s Archives

T HE H ITLER B OOK : T HE S ECRET D OSSIER P REPAREDFOR S TALIN

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Edited by Henrik Eberle and Matthias Uhl (John Murray 370pp £20)

I NTERESTIN H ITLER , and particularly the last days of the Third Reich, seems inexhaustible, and the flow of publications endless. The latest offering in the genre is The Hitler Book, which promises two levels of novelty – as a ‘new’ inside view of the Führer’s everyday life, and as one formerly hidden away in ‘Stalin’s archives’. The core of The Hitler Bookis a dossier produced within the Soviet secret police in the late 1940s. It was based on the testimony of unique insiders, two captured SS men who had served in the closest proximity to Hitler. Heinz Linge was Hitler’s manservant and Otto Günsche his personal adjutant. (Both characters lurked prominently in the background of the superb recent German film Downfall.) Both were interrogated in Moscow between 1946 and 1949; the present account was produced in the last two years of their time in the Soviet capital. The dossier was evidently intended for consultation at the Kremlin’s highest level, and the final version was sent to Stalin’s office at the end of 1949. A copy made in the late 1950s was recently discovered by the researcher Matthias Uhl in the former Communist Party archive, hidden by sloppy cataloguing. The original typescript, apparently with an identical text, survives in the Russian Presidential Archive but is unavailable for consultation by foreigners. A German edition of the dossier, edited also by Uhl and Henrik Eberle, appeared earlier this year. Even without this complex provenance The Hitler Book

his reaction to the invention of the atomic bomb and its place in the stand-off of the first years of the Cold War. Together with a superb analysis of Churchill as a strategist, and insights into his subject’s own often partial account in his memoirs of the conduct of the war, Best presents us with a most thought-provoking and original consideration of the role of one of the greatest of the world’s great men. More to the point, his book is an object lesson to others in the matter of how Churchill studies should be conducted at this point in historiography, and it is to be hoped – probably in vain – that others will not embark down this well-worn track without following his example. To order these books, see order form on page 78

is a peculiar artefact. It was written as a complete and fluent narrative, rather than a simple ‘report’ or indictment. The first sentence gives a sense of the style: ‘Summer 1933 – the sun was shining in Wilhelmsplatz, the location of the Reich Chancellery’. And yet it was evidently never intended for publication. It attempted to give an overall view of Hitler’s time in power, but over a third of the text is taken up by the last fifteen weeks in Berlin. The real problem withThe Hitler Bookis that there are several levels of distortion. The first, and least necessary level, is that this 2005 edition is a second-hand translation. It is admirably readable, but it is an English translation of a German translation of a Russian text. The second level is in its imbalance, which makes the reader wonder what the Soviet police team were trying to do. The dossier attempts to be both a general account of Hitler’s activities and one based on what Linge and Günsche saw. The story goes back to 1933; Linge became Hitler’s manservant only in 1939, and Günsche’s main time with Hitler was from the beginning of 1943. Linge was only twentysix when the war started, and Günsche was twenty-two. Linge was a high-class orderly. Günsche had more substance – and was a nastier piece of work – but he was hardly a figure of any importance in terms of policy. Beyond the junior status of the two main sources, and their very tangential involvement in the ‘big’ story, are the circumstances of their involvement. This is the third level of distortion. Any interesting historical perceptions or even anecdotes must be immediately doubted, given that Linge and Günsche were motivated to minimise further punishment and their Soviet police ‘editors’ were bound to follow the party line. (Indeed, if the dossier has a special use it is for indicating that party line.) Perhaps, however, the fact that so little ‘new’ of a personally compromising nature is revealed about Hitler is in itself important. Had there been scandal at the ‘what the butler saw’ level, the Russians would surely have used it. The end result of all this, unfortunately, is that the dossier has limited value. It does take the reader through the history of Hitler’s main activities, especially on the foreign policy and military side. For Hitler ‘buffs’, however,

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LITERARY REVIEW Dec 2005 / Jan 2006 WORLDWARTWO

there is little new here. Linge collaborated in his own ‘memoirs’ in 1980, and Günsche was interviewed by Western researchers; both had been released from Soviet imprisonment in the mid 1950s. For novices to the Third Reich there are fuller, much more balanced, and less tendentious sources; this is true even for the ‘last days’ in the Bunker. The dossier is packaged well by its modern publishers. There are useful maps and photographs and a multiplicity of prefaces and postscripts. The introduction to the English-language edition by Richard Overy is cautious and authoritative. The explanatory material – two sets of notes – is full. Given the many name references in the text, however, the biographical section of the German edition should have been retained. Even at the time it was completed, in 1949, the dossier was of little practical relevance. Hitler was dead; Stalin would have been more interested in a profile of Harry Truman. The Soviet leader was probably not able or willing to spend much time on the dossier. It is significant that there are no marginal comments by him; had there been such marginalia the current publication would have been far more valuable (as well as confirming that Stalin bothered to read it). As it is, there is no satisfactory study of the

Heinz Linge and Otto Günsche

contemporary Soviet view of either Hitler or of the Nazi system as a whole. Stalin’s perception of Hitler can never be laid out with ‘provable’ accuracy, but speculation about it is possible and desirable. The Italian historian Silvio Pons has perhaps come closest to an understanding of the 1939 Stalin; the Soviet dictator – rather like A J P Taylor – at that time saw Hitler as a conventional German nationalist ‘statesman’. As for the later period, Stalin arguably had a perception of the Third Reich – and its policies – in which Hitler’s own position

was more fragile than in reality. For him Hitler was a figure like Louis Napoleon or Kerensky. Before the 1941 invasion Stalin assumed that there were conflicting currents in the German leadership – rivals in the Nazi Party, industrialists, military leaders. After the setback at Moscow in December 1941 Stalin hoped that the German military might assert themselves against Hitler. Stillborn attempts to use captured senior German Army officers in 1943-44 showed that illusions remained. We can only guess what Stalin thought from the hindsight of the postwar years. But the basis for an understanding of the Führer and his Third Reich – for Stalin or for us – would require something more weighty than The Hitler Book. To order this book at £16, see order form on page 78

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The winners of the November crossword are: Brenda Walters of Cumbria, Pam Jubb of Wivenhoe, Cecilia Metcalfe of Bradford, P McNicholas of Cottingham, June Benn of London. Robert Brown of Finland, Neil Curtis of Chipping Norton, Tony Weston of North Somerset, Norman Bissett of Edinburgh and Edward Thompson of Newark. Each will receive a copy of The Seaby John Banville, published by Picador. Answers to the November crossword: ACROSS: 1 Burns, 6 Heedless, 7 Yaws, 9 Tao, 10 Reef, 12 Isobar, 13 Desert, 15 Tigris, 16 Irving, 18 Room, 20 Bid, 21 Rear, 22 Sentence, 23 Staid .DOWN: 1 Babysitter, 2 Ness, 3 Second fiddle, 4 Flares, 5 Isle, 6 Hot cross buns, 8 Wrong, 11 Fitzgerald, 14 Elite, 16 Remote, 19 Oder, 21 Raft.

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ACROSS 1 Fuel reserves previously in layer beneath the surface (7) 5 Engagement, we hear, of our founding father (5) 8 A politician once, I made a plea (5) 9 A nude sculpted by poet (5) 10 Bishop taking part in row on Roman river (5) 14 Cancel film showing small circle (7) 16 Part of battery requiring oxygen for instrument (5) 17 Push, for example, horse backwards (5) 18 Novelist and poet is showy type (7) 22 Divide up every set of books (5) 25 Four-sided figure Greek character showed to doctor (5) 26 Inevitable setting for Argentine political leader (5) 27 Crow seen by skipper initially aboard vessel (5) 28 Stretch of river containing more than one vessel (7)

DOWN 1 Lines penned by first Anzacs (6) 2 Part of the wicket that may get you out? (4) 3 Leave out order on computing (4) 4 Thelma capable when redecorating Archbishop’s residence (7,6) 5 Clothing suitable for river (4) 6 Language of the French supporting ancient city (4) 7 Clue providing suspicion (4) 11 Move for pet bird I let out (5) 12 Entreat Kent to get out of tree (5) 13 Writer’s lack of inspiration, we hear, for alliance (4) 15 In France we find gumption (4) 19 Shrew captivating artist with martial art (6) 20 Plagiarise something used by exam cheat (4) 21 Two notes attached to item of furniture (4) 22 Give encouragement for what may be on slip? (4) 23 Casual worker is not late with stencil? (4) 24 Demeanour of one surround by males (4)