William L. Shirer's The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich

Another tome which I revisited during my leave from work, is William Shirer's The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich. This book is introduced to me by a Uni mate back in the mid 90s. History can be quite dry, but Shirer managed to write it in ways that the entire beginning and eventual fall of Hitler's Nazi Germany chronicles read like a thriller. With tons of factual infos on real life subjects, their thoughts and the events leading to WW2 and its aftermath, I practically could not let go of the book. The best is the early chapters on how did Hitler and the Nazi Party managed to become the absolute authoritarian in Germany and why and what made a nation gave its fate to the hands of a group of nationalistic, racist extremists. The political manuverings and back handed negotiations, like between Joseph Stalin and Hitler, also made a very good reading. The most harrowing is of course when the Nazis planned and implemented the Final Solution.