John Wheeler Wheeler-BennettCritiques

This is the last book Bennett wrote before his death. It is a memoir of his time spent in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia between the wars. Bennett was a man with an inheritance and spent most of his life observing and cavorting with the great and near great: Wilhelm II, von Papen, General Groner, Jan Masaryk and his son, Leon Trotsky, and Benes, just to name a few. He drew the line at Nazi's, whom he despised; although he had met Hitler, Goebbels and Rohm on at least one occasion. He was in Berlin during the Reichstag Fire and just fled Austria as the Nazi tanks were roaring in. According to von Papen, Bennett was to have been liquidated on the Night of Long Knives in Berlin. He started out working for the foreign press, then moved on to delicate political negotiations in Locarno, The League of Nations, and among other things, aided the prosecutor at the Nuremburg Trials. His memories of these historical personages are invaluable as well as poignant. It is my personal opinion that he went out of his way to be fair to all-telling the good and the bad. I will be collecting books as I find them at a good price from this author. 200 pages

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and Germany's Eastern Policy by Sir John W. Wheeler-Bennett A small (52 pages) but mighty book! Mr. Wheeler-Bennett was quite a distinguished and well-respected journalist, historian, and statesman of which I was unaware before I read a previous book he had written; I now have 3 additional on my shelf to read. This was by far his shortest book and the topic, the price Russia had to pay to get out of WWI to the Germans, was a topic that I only knew one word about: pricey! Bennett makes no bones about the predatory nature of the Germans in this treaty and also posits that this did as much to ally Russia and the US during WWII more than anything else and also saved the Bolshevik revolution. Among other things discussed was the German desire for the detachment of the Ukraine from Russia to become a German satellite state, the restoration of a Polish kingdom under the auspices of German/Austrian nobility, the installation of a German King in a semi-independent Finland, and the annexation of all the Baltic States. The basic purpose, as seen by the Germans, was the elimination of the Russian state, altogether. At this particular time, nobody was really sure what Bolshevism was. I have taken 5 pages of typed notes from this book and will probably go down a rabbit hole for quite some time as many things here piqued my interest. 52 pages 5 stars

Lo Stato Maggiore tedesco, l'erede orgoglioso della tradizione di Scharnhorst e di Gneisenau, di Hindenburg e di Ludendorff, si illuse di poter volgere ai propri fini la megalomania di un caporale austriaco, Adolf Hitler, legare a sé le milizie in camicia bruna, trarre nuova gloria dalle guerre scatenate dal nazism o, Fu un calcolo errato : in realtà la casta degli alti ufficiali tedeschi si consegnò, legata mani e piedi, alla macchina statale e bellica di Hitler; e fini col partecipare alle pia gravi responsabilità del nazismo, dalla guerra di aggressione al genocidio. Non la gloria ancora una volta sognata, dunque, ma lo sfacelo e la condanna di tutto il mondo civile. Né valse alla riabilitazione il tardo ravvedimento e la lunga, macchinosa, sorda, impotente congiura tristamente fallita il 20 luglio 1944. Di questa tragica parabola l'autore di questo libro sa darci una storia ricca, avvincente, eccezionalmente documentata. Per gli alti incarichi che egli ebbe durante il conflitto e nell'immediato dopoguerra, John Wheeler-Bennett ha potuto vedere e cercare documenti rimasti sinora segreti, e ricostruire con lucida precisione i complessi rapporti tra esercito tedesco e partito nazista, negli anni fra la crisi della repubblica di Weimar e la sconfitta di Hitler.
Ma questo non è soltanto il libro di un insigne storico della seconda guerra mondiale, di un attento e sagace ricercatore di archivi. La conoscenza diretta della Germania fra le due guerre - e dei tragici personaggi di questo libro - ha permesso al Wheelett Bennett di darci un quadro vivo dei fatti narrati e un ritratto drammatico degli uomini che si muovono sulla scena tedesca. Il generale della Wehrmacht, infatti, qui non è mai il manichino convenzionale a cui ci ha abituati tanta generica letteratura sull'argomento. E' un uomo : da von Seeckt a Rommel, da von Schleicher all'infelice von Scauffenberg, ciascuno coi suoi inconfondibili tratti, partecipa a suo modo della tragedia a cui l'ha condotto l'orgoglio della tradizione e della casta. Questo libro insomma fa luce su di un aspetto fondamentale, ma assai poco noto, della recente storia tedesca; ci aiuta a comprendere cosa fu la Germania, cosa è la Germania, questo straordinario paese su cui oggi, ancora una volta, si volge l'attenzione vigile e perplessa del mondo intero.

A trent'anni di distanza il patto di Monaco resta ancora la svolta decisiva della nostra storia: in esso infatti trova logica conclusione la politica sostanzialmente filo-fascista delle democrazie europee, che se vi raggiunse il massimo punto di elasticità vi preparò anche l'inevitabile rottura che a distanza di pochi mesi avrebbe portato alla seconda guerra mondiale. Ma oltre questi fatti nel patto di Monaco sembrano prefigurarsi alcuni momenti successivi della politica occidentale, ad esempio nei confronti della Russia sovietica, momenti che temporaneamente abbandonati durante la tardiva alleanza antihitledana, finiranno per esprimersi in tutta la loro drammaticità dopo il crollo nazista, quando la guerra fredda attuerà la tanto desiderata coalizione contro l'URSS.
Oggi si torna a parlare del patto di Monaco, come di un argomento di politica attuale, a proposito delle frontiere della Cecoslovacchia e dei rapporti fra questo paese e il vicino tedesco. Comunque sia, al di là dei richiami occasionali è certo che per intendere le vicende anche attuali del nostro continente bisogna sempre risalire a quel lontano settembre del 1938, quando due dittatori folli e due stanchi «campioni» della democrazia, col pretesto di salvare una pace irrimediabiImente compromessa, suggellarono l'ennesima violazione dei diritti dei popoli.
Un'opera che è al tempo stesso un approfondito studio delle fonti e un'interpretazione originale, mettendo sapientemente a frutto la ricchissima documentazione dei processi di Norimberga e gli archivi di stato cecoslovacchi.

Indice: Parte Prima - Il dramma di Monaco (marzo-ottobre 1938); Parte Seconda - Cinque anni (1933-1938); Parte Terza - Cinque mesi (novembre 1938 - marzo 1939); Parte Quarta - Il risveglio (marzo - agosto 1939).

Important study of the peace Imperial Germany imposed on Soviet Russia just before Germany itself collapsed. A good demonstration of German war aims in practice, and of Soviet calculation that Russia could afford to make concessions in the faith that Germany would soon be caught up in a wider revolution. Curious suggestion that some of the Soviet leaders condemned in the purge trials might actually have seen themselves as working for the similar peace in the 1930s (unlikely).

A collection of brief memoirs by six people who worked very closely with Winston Churchill during the Second World War. The preface explains that these men decided to publish their memoirs describing Churchill to counter what they felt was an erroneous interpretation and evaluation of Churchill by his physician, Lord Moran. The essays are well written and edited and are essential to an understanding of the hold that Churchill had on his "Secret Circle" and also his methods of working.

The book was first published in 1936, and tells very well of the life of Hindenburg (born 2 Oct 1847, died 2 Aug 1934)There are no footnotes or bibliography, but other than that I find no fault with the work. Hindenburg's life up to 1914 is covered very summarily, but the time in the Great War, and his role in the Kaiser's flight to Holland and his time as President of Germany from 1925 to his death is well told and of unfailing interest. The story of 1932 and 1933 resulting in Hitler's accession to power left me feeling that German voters had a great deal to do with Hitler coming to power, and one could not be surprised that Hindenburg broke down and let Hitler become Chancellor--and after that no one could stop the rise of Nazi tyranny, apparently. Even though the book is old it seems very adequate to me and is well worth reading.

2517 Knaves, Fools and Heroes: In Europe between the Wars, by Sir John Wheeler-Bennett (read 11 Jul 1993) This is a very enjoyable 1974 book about the author's life between the wars, filled with name-dropping accounts of what he has seen. He was born in 1902. The book is a delight. He tells of his time in Weimar Germany from 1929 to 1933, his time in Hitler's Germany, only by chance leaving on June 28, 1934, just before the Nazis would have killed him, his visits to Vienna, including visits with the widow of Archduke Rudolph (who lived till 1945), with Archduke Rudolph's only child, Elizabeth (known as Red Lizzy), who died in 1963, with Katerina Schratt, the "incredible friend" of Emperor Franz Josef, with Dollfuss, Archduke Otto; his time in Prague and his friendship with Jan Masaryk, his time in France before the war, and his visit to Kaiser Wilhelm II at Doorn in August 1939. A fantastic life he did have and I would like to read the sequel, covering the time since 1940.½