Adolf Hitler. La séduction du diable

Plus de soixante-dix ans après les faits, on se demande encore et toujours comment l'extermination des Juifs a pu avoir lieu. Fondé sur de nombreux témoignages inédits, des documents d'époque et des travaux d'historiens, cet ouvrage esquisse une réponse à ce questionnement. Du développement des convictions antisémites de Hitler en 1919 jusqu'à la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, Laurence Rees livre une analyse fine et dense de la période où furent mis en place les lois de Nuremberg, la guerre d'extermination et les camps de concentration, et propose un nouvel éclairage sur la Shoah. De loin le livre le plus éclairant jamais écrit sur l'Holocauste, mais aussi le meilleur pour comprendre les origines du projet, son caractère aberrant autant que son déroulement chaotique.

?Thank God ? that occasionally books of the stature of Laurence Rees's superb ?Auschwitz"are published.'Andrew Roberts, Evening Standard In his highly acclaimed bestseller"Auschwitz', author and broadcaster Laurence Rees tells the definitive history of the most notorious Nazi institution of them all. we discover how Auschwitz evolved from a concentration camp for Polish political prisoners into the site of the largest mass murder in history - part death camp, part concentration camp, where around a million Jews were killed. Rees uses Auschwitz as a window through which to examine the Holocaust in its broader context. He argues that, far from being an aberration, the camp was a uniquely important institution in the Nazi state, one that played a vital role in the "Final Solution'."Auschwitz"examines the mentality and motivations of the key Nazi decision makers, and perpetrators of appalling crimes speak here for the first time about their actions. Fascinating and disturbing facts have been uncovered - from the operation of a brothel to the corruption that was rife throughout the camp. The book draws on intriguing new documentary material from recently opened Russian archives, which will challenge many previously accepted arguments. Auschwitz lay at the hub of a complex system of extermination that spread throughout Nazi Europe. Rees addresses uncomfortable questions, such as why so few countries under Nazi occupation protected their Jews and why the Allies did little directly to prevent the killing even after they knew about the existence of the camp. This is a story of murder, brutality, courage, escape and survival, and a powerful account of how a human tragedy of such immense scale could have happened. "

?Thank God ? that occasionally books of the stature of Laurence Rees?s superb ?Auschwitz? are published.?Andrew Roberts, Evening Standard In his highly acclaimed bestseller "Auschwitz', author and broadcaster Laurence Rees tells the definitive history of the most notorious Nazi institution of them all. we discover how Auschwitz evolved from a concentration camp for Polish political prisoners into the site of the largest mass murder in history - part death camp, part concentration camp, where around a million Jews were killed. Rees uses Auschwitz as a window through which to examine the Holocaust in its broader context. He argues that, far from being an aberration, the camp was a uniquely important institution in the Nazi state, one that played a vital role in the"Final Solution'. "Auschwitz" examines the mentality and motivations of the key Nazi decision makers, and perpetrators of appalling crimes speak here for the first time about their actions. Fascinating and disturbing facts have been uncovered - from the operation of a brothel to the corruption that was rife throughout the camp. The book draws on intriguing new documentary material from recently opened Russian archives, which will challenge many previously accepted arguments. Auschwitz lay at the hub of a complex system of extermination that spread throughout Nazi Europe. Rees addresses uncomfortable questions, such as why so few countries under Nazi occupation protected their Jews and why the Allies did little directly to prevent the killing even after they knew about the existence of the camp. This is a story of murder, brutality, courage, escape and survival, and a powerful account of how a human tragedy of such immense scale could have happened.

Laurence Rees est un cas. A la fois historien de formation passé par Oxford, directeur des programmes historiques de la BBC et auteur de documentaires télévisés couronnés partout dans le monde, il en utilise les témoignages et les sources pour écrire des livres qui - tel Auschwitz: les nazis et la solution finale - sont "une contribution unique et considérable à la compréhension de l'histoire" (université de Sheffield). Exploitant ici les multiples entretiens avec des Allemands "ordinaires" ayant connu le nazisme, Laurence Rees fait descendre le lecteur au c?ur du système, de ses applications concrètes dans les familles, au bureau, à l'armée; il raconte "vue d'en bas" l'histoire d'une conquête du pouvoir, puis des territoires et son échec - avec les illusions, les mensonges souvent, les enthousiasmes parfois et, après coup, la perplexité toujours. Mieux qu'une vie quotidienne, ce livre est un long travelling documenté et fascinant sur l'Allemagne des années noires.