Nazism and War

Unknown, Ben Macintyre

Category: Education

Tags: Education

This noted historians book on Nazism offers both the serious scholar and the lay reader a concise yet comprehensive perspective on the events and horrors of that period. Bessels main contention is that, rather than viewing racism as a component of the Nazi war machines ideology, we must understand that the Third Reichs views towards race and war were inseparable. War was itself an expression of the applied racism of the regime, Bessel writes. Nazi war was racial struggle; Nazi racial struggle was war. Bessel concedes that other regimes throughout history have committed atrocities and genocide, but he argues that Nazi war had a different quality: It was not fought in order rationally to defend national interests or to ensure national security; it was fought in order to redraw the racial map of Europe through violence and mass murder. Instead of examining one narrow aspect of the history of Nazism, Bessel takes an integrative approach, discussing the political, economic and social aspect