The enormous loss of life and physical destruction caused by the First World War led people to hope that there would never be another such catastrophe. How then did it come about that there was a Second World War causing twice the 30 million deaths and many times more destruction as had been caused [...]

In the late summer of 1942 Hitler ordered that stenographers take down every word that was uttered during the twice-daily military conferences. Of the more than 103,000 pages recorded less than 1,000 pages survived destruction in May 1945 and make up the material of this book. A truly definitive wor[...]