Bringing History to Life Collections

Bringing History to Life Collector’s Edition’ is a 180 page must read special issue packed with in depth WW2 historical information narrated as a story and illustrated with informative graphs and timelines. Readers interested in WW2 will not be disappointed.

The Third Reich’s rise and fall

1933-35

1936

1937-38

1939-41

1942

1943-44

THE EARLY YEARS 1918 -1924 • In 1918, a Bavarian locksmith founded the German Workers’ Party. In September the following year, the party enrolled a new member – a pale, Austrian soldier with an unprecedented talent for speaking. Adolf Hitler became member no. 55 in the insignificant party. The next four years, he seized power in the workers’ party, renamed it to the Nazis and built an army of young, brutal thugs who could crush any opposition. Having become known in Munich and surroundings as an angry, yet very gifted speaker, Hitler decided to carry through the Nazi revolution in Germany. His attempt failed.

A VISION DEVELOPS 1924-1933 • Adolf Hitler left the Landsberg prison in southern Bavaria as a new man. He had spent his nine months behind bars drafting visions for a future Nazi empire headed by himself. Even disastrous elections, public speaking bans and temporary bans against the SA and the SS could no longer stop the ambitious Nazi leader. Over the next nine years, Hitler won the favour of the German people through a combination of political ingenuity, street violence and favourable circumstances.

CONFRONTING THE PAST 1933-1934 • In 1933, when Adolf Hitler was installed as Reich Chancellor, he started a manhunt on his opponents. The frail German democracy fell victim to a brutal and violent campaign initiated by Hitler and executed by the hundreds of thousands of thugs from the SA corps. The first victims included the arch enemies in the Communist Party. Later followed Social Democrats, trade union leaders and anybody who might pose a threat to the power of the newly-elected Chancellor. It only took one year for Hitler to destroy the German democracy and introduce a ruthless dictatorship.

THE NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES 1934 • The Night of the Long Knives became a brutal confrontation between old friends and enemies. Within two bloody days and nights, Hitler defeated the SA leaders, had his closest friend, Ernst Röhm, killed and settled old scores. The following eight pages provide an intense account of the dramatic hours in 1934 when Hitler assumed total power.

THE WAY OUT OF THE CRISIS 1933-1939 • On 23 September 1933, Adolf Hitler cut the first sod for the country’s new Autobahn. The symbolic event marked the beginning of an economic miracle that had never been seen before anywhere in the world. The Nazis did away with the soaring unemployment, raised the pensions, sent people on holiday paid by the State and started a fight against poverty. But it was all done for borrowed money, and six years later, it brought the Third Reich on the verge of bankruptcy.

DAILY LIFE IN THE THIRD REICH • In the six years that passed from Hitler’s seizure of power in 1933 until the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the standard of living for ordinary Germans increased dramatically. By confiscating wealth from the Jews and borrowing billions abroad, the Nazis raised money for construction projects that gave millions of people a job – and means to pamper the population with welfare benefits that had never been seen before. The new middle class went camping, did team sport and enjoyed new technical wonders, such as television and the Volkswagen. However, a new war was constantly looming on the horizon.

1935 14TH SEPTEMBER HITLER YOUTH ARE TRAINED FOR DEATH • Hitler thinks that Germany’s youth should be tough as leather and hard as Krupp steel. The Führer forces all German boys into the Hitler Youth, where millions of...