Book Review: ‘Exorcising Hitler: The Occupation and Denazification of Germany‘
Author Frederick Taylor details the trouble the Allied forces had in establishing a new society in the Nazis’ country after World War II.
By Martin Rubin
Special to the Los Angeles Times
July 5, 2011
For the German people, unconditional surrender in spring 1945 meant the end of self-government for the foreseeable future. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower minced no words when he announced that the Allied troops were there as conquerors, not liberators. Of course, they were, in fact, both. But, as Frederick Taylor says at the outset of his enthralling book, “Exorcising Hitler: The Occupation and Denazification of Germany,” the country, “as it came under Allied control, resembled a blank object, a clean sheet.” As far as government, yes, but the Nazis had fouled that sheet, and “Exorcising Hitler” shows just how much messier—politically, socially and economically—things became before they could be cleaned up sufficiently for a new kind of society to take root. . . .
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