JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
“Ernst Henri” (a probable pseudonym?) wrote Hitler Over Europe in 1934–it is a very insightful appraisal of Nazism written early in the history of the newly-presiding party of German politics and life. This book was published in 1934 by Simon and Shuster and translated by Michael Davidson, and then published in Argentina and China the following year, and then in England by Dent in 1936. (I’ve checked WorldCat/OCLC and find the printing history a little confusing, but I think that this is about right–also there are more than 240 copies located in libraries worldwide, which means that it is or was a popular title.)
It is in the very first paragraph (below), where you can easily see that the author is using high octane.
It is interesting to set this appraisal of Hitler’s background and politics against the great Dorothy Thompson’s insights into the man when she interviewed him in 1932…and read him right and then very wrong. (“He is formless, almost faceless, a man whose countenance is a caricature, a man whose framework seems cartilaginous, without bones,” she wrote. “He is inconsequent and voluble, ill-poised, insecure. He is the very prototype of the Little Man. A lock of lank hair falls over an insignificant and slightly retreating forehead. . . .The nose is large, but badly shaped and without character. His movements are awkward, almost undignified and most un-martial. . . .The eyes alone are notable. Dark gray and hyperthyroid—they have the peculiar shine which often distinguishes geniuses, alcoholics, and hysterics…There is something irritatingly refined about him. I bet he crooks his little finger when he drinks a cup of tea.”–quote from Historynet.com http://www.historynet.com/encounter-dorothy-thompson-underestimates-hitler.htm)
Henri, whoever he was, seems to have clenched his fist around the heart of Nazism. The book is at least worth a good solid browse:
- The full text, Hitler Over Europe, can be found at the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/hitlerovereurope009891mbp?q=%22Ernst+henri%22+hitler
“Thyssen”
“WHO sent Hitler?”
“Many believe that it was the German middle class, that
forgotten social force, which nobody thought about and
which suddenly, in a rapid awakening, burst on to the
political scene and smashed everything around it. So it
seemed from without. This is an illusion.”