viii, 434 pages : 25 cm

A book that will change forever our understanding of Hitler & his entourage. Embargoed in the U.S. & twelve other countries. Machtan (modern and current history, Bremen U., Germany) contends that not only can it be conclusively prooven that Adolf Hitler was homosexual, but that this is a historical fact that is, if not the key, central to any reinterpretation of the character of the high command of the Nazi regime. He suggests that earlier consideration of this possibility has been precluded by a post-war taboo, related to both homosexuality and to a dismissal of personal information as irrelevant to historical inquiry. Central to the argument is the case of Ernst Rohm, who had been left the leadership of the Nazis in the early 1920s, only to be recalled by Hitler and later killed on Hitler's orders as allegations of Rohm's sexuality began to surface. This incident and the Nazi's vicious campaign against homosexuals both represent, according to Machtan, Hitler's efforts to protect his political legitimacy against allegations regarding his own sexuality

Includes bibliographical references (pages 403-418) and index

Would-be Aesthete: Hitler, 1905-1914 -- Comrade Hitler: Blackmail with fatal consequences -- Private phases in a public career -- Love's labor's lost -- Röhm Campaign -- Posthumous Revelations: Erich Ebermayer and His Sources -- Dangerous Machinations: Kurt Ludecke and Ernst Hanfstaengl

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