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Ian Kershaw |
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Ian Kershaw is Professor of Modern History at the University of Sheffield and one of the world's leading authorities on Hitler. He was the historical advisor to the highly successful BBC series The Nazis; A Warning from History.
He is the author of 'The Hitler Myth': Image and Reality in the Third Reich, Popular Opinion and Political Dissent in the Third Reich, Bavaria 1933-45, The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation and Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions that Changed the World, 1940-1941.
He is editor of Weimar: Why Did German Democracy Fail? and Hitler: A Profile in Power; and co-editor, with Moshe Lewin, of Stalinism and Nazism: Dictatorships in Comparison.
He was knighted in 2002.
An exclusive interview with Ian Kershaw author of Hitler: Volume One: 1889-1936: Hubris and Hitler Volume Two: 1936-1945: Nemesis
Do you feel you
understand Adolf Hitler?
Yes
What do you aim to
achieve with your books on
Hitler?
Help an understanding of how such a figure could come
to
exercise such power to such devastating effect.
Is there any reason why you have written this
biography in
2 parts, and why have you split as you have?
There was a lot to say. By 1936 Hitler was triumphant within Germany.
To end Hitler 1885-1936: Hubris with his power unchallenged
within
Germany but before entering upon foreign expansion made sense.
If you could meet Hitler, what would you say
to
him?
"Please be brief, I have to leave in 2 minutes".
Do you think there was a point after which the 2nd
World
War became inevitable?
Yes. At the latest, the
march into Prague (15.3.39).
There is a debate
among
historians about the role
played by the German people in the war, in
particular with regard to the
genocide. How much responsibility to you think can be placed on one man for
what happened?
A great deal. However wide the culpability, it
can still be said no Hitler, no holocaust.
How would you describe the 2 volumes of Hitler?
Doorstops.
How long did it
take you to research these books?
11 years (and since the
1970s working on the 3rd Reich).
If there
were one thing in your life you
were
able to achieve, what would it be?
Turn Oldham Rugby League
Football Club into a
championship-winning team.
What is your
favourite book/author?
The History of Bolton
Priory by Hamilton Thompson
Which
book do you wish you
had written?
Dom David
Knowles The Monastic Order in England.
What are you reading now?
Proofs, proofs
and
more proofs.
Who do
you intend to write
about
next?
The history of Europe in the
20th century (for the
Penguin History of Europe series) - when I've had a
rest.
