Adolf Hitler certainly did not like all of the photographs that were taken of him. So much so that if he thought a photograph was undignified he had it banned from publication.
The reason it is being re-published is to show the craze and fanaticism of the Nazi regime. Deutschland Erwache or Germany Awaken, as it was known, was an official Nazi publication aimed at the younger generation. The one Alf found was written in the 1930s when the Nazis were still rising to power.
The book describes Hitler as honest and humble and is strong and kind. Images of Hitler posing in shorts are some of the most humorous in the book.
Other photographs show scenes of Hitler’s travels amongst the German people including with children, workers and his own close circle of Nazi leaders and advisors.
The author of this particular book, von Schirach, first met Hitler in 1925 and gradually made his way up the Nazi party career ladder.
Von Schirach was awarded the Nazi’s Iron Cross for his voluntary service. But after he was put in charge of the deportation of the Jews from Vienna, he became deeply unsettled by the wrong doing of the task. When he and his wife openly criticised the deportation they both fell out of favour with the Nazi leadership.
After the war, Von Schirach was sentenced as part of the Nuremberg trials and spent 20 years in a Berlin prison. He died in 1974.
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