Heinrich Hoffmann (2) (1885–1957)

I came across a mention of this book in the new non fiction title Hitler's Private Library by Timothy W. Ryback (2008) and decided to find a copy. I'm someone who likes to look up the sources that authors include in their notes/citations/bibliographies and luckily I work in Interlibrary Loan for my network. I was able to get a copy of this book from the Sonoma State University and have spent a lot of time perusing it.

The book is entirely in German because it is an original source published in 1938 by the Third Reich. Hitler's personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, took all the photos and edited this book, which is pure propaganda intended for the German people. Being unable to read German it is difficult to understand what the forward says but due to German's origins being closely tied with English the captions are easily discerned when compared with the photos.

Without getting into the content depicted by the photos, although I'm sure we can all agree that Hitler's policies are one of the worst atrocities in modern history and that none of us support them, the photos hold a lot of historic value. They depict Hitler with German children. They provide a glimpse into the past and although they are surely posed, as much as possible, that too opens the door into the machinations of the political propaganda machine used by the Third Reich and Hitler in particular.

The photography is the highlight of this book and it is both beautiful and haunting. I strongly recommend that historians, in particular, look through this book. It is worth the time and effort. I am consistently astonished and disgusted by how happy some of the children seem to be with Hitler. There is a particularly horrible image of Hitler cradling a child in his arms while the child wears a swastika armband. I'm quite surprised that I was able to get a copy through ILL and am quite thankful to the Sonoma State University for lending this historic volume.… (mais)