9780062421166
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Devil’s Diary audiobook

  • By: Robert K. Wittman
  • Narrator: P.J. Ochlan
  • Category: History, Holocaust
  • Length: 15 hours 9 minutes
  • Publisher: HarperAudio
  • Publish date: March 29, 2016
  • Language: English
  • (387 ratings)
(387 ratings)
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Devil’s Diary Audiobook Summary

This exploration of the private wartime diary of Alfred Rosenberg–Hitler’s “chief philosopher” and architect of Nazi ideology–interweaves the story of its recent discovery with the revelation of its never-before-published contents, which are contextualized by the authors: The result is a unprecedented, page-turning narrative of the Nazi rise to power, the Holocaust, and Hitler’s post-invasion plans for Russia.

A groundbreaking historical contribution, The Devil’s Diary is a chilling window into the mind of Adolf Hitler’s “chief social philosopher,” Alfred Rosenberg, who formulated some of the guiding principles behind the Third Reich’s genocidal crusade. It also chronicles the thrilling detective hunt for the diary, which disappeared after the Nuremburg Trials and remained lost for almost three quarters of a century, until Robert Wittman, a former FBI special agent who founded the Bureau’s Art Crimes Team, played an important role and tells his story now for the first time.

The authors expertly and deftly contextualize more than 400 pages of entries stretching from 1936 through 1944, in which the loyal Hitler advisor recounts internal meetings with the Furher and his close associates Hermann Goring and Heinrich Himmler; describes the post-invasion occupation of the Soviet Union; considers the “solution” to the “Jewish question;” and discusses his overseeing of the mass seizure and cataloguing of books and artwork from homes, libraries, and museums across occupied Europe. An eyewitness to events, this narrative of Rosenberg’s diary offers provocative and intimate insights into pivotal moments in the war and the notorious Nazi who laid the philosophical foundations of the Third Reich.

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Devil’s Diary Audiobook Narrator

P.J. Ochlan is the narrator of Devil’s Diary audiobook that was written by Robert K. Wittman

Robert K. Wittman created the FBI’s Art Crime Team and was the Bureau’s national expert on cultural property crime. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Priceless. David Kinney is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of The Big One and The Dylanologists.

About the Author(s) of Devil’s Diary

Robert K. Wittman is the author of Devil’s Diary

More From the Same

Devil’s Diary Full Details

Narrator P.J. Ochlan
Length 15 hours 9 minutes
Author Robert K. Wittman
Category
Publisher HarperAudio
Release date March 29, 2016
ISBN 9780062421166

Subjects

The publisher of the Devil’s Diary is HarperAudio. includes the following subjects: The BISAC Subject Code is History, Holocaust

Additional info

The publisher of the Devil’s Diary is HarperAudio. The imprint is HarperAudio. It is supplied by HarperAudio. The ISBN-13 is 9780062421166.

Global Availability

This book is only available in the United States.

Goodreads Reviews

Carlos

June 17, 2017

This was such a good book, it's fast paced and very detailed , in it you will find the philosophy that paved the way for the Nazis to rise to power and the one that was used to try to brainwash a whole nation into committing the worst crimes in recorded human history, because of it 60 million people would lie dead at the end of the Second World War, 6 million Jews among them, who was the creator of that philosophy, in this book you'll meet him (Rosenberg) , and you'll see how he was able to influence the key players of the Nazi party into applying his philosophy, even Hitler himself . This book is highly detailed and it goes from book looting , art theft , the Nazi rise to power and their downfall , to the Nuremberg trials and its aftermath. The diary of Rosenberg which is the main point of this book is the catalyst to go into detail for all the matters mentioned above. It was a very informative book in a great format which made it easy to read and digest .

Jimmy

May 27, 2016

A few years ago I read a really good book titled Hitler’s Philosophers by Yvonne Sherratt. The book mentioned Alfred Rosenberg as one of the Nazi’s influential ideologue and so when I found this book in the library I felt I had to pick it up to know more about this Rosenberg. The book is about the diary of Rosenberg and I was expecting it to focus mainly on the contents within Rosenberg’s diary. To be frank I was disappointed with my expectations but I couldn’t totally dismissed the entirety of the book either because it was an interesting subject. The beginning portion of the book gives us an interesting tale of the history of Rosenberg’s diary after the war was over. It was in the Allies hands and then handed to a prosecutor who kept it as a personal possession among other important documents. After the individual died there is a tale of legal battles for the materials to be handed to scholars for studies but unfortunately the diary was stolen by an eccentric liberal theologian and publishers of odd books. It’s the story of how a holocaust archivist and a former FBI detective specializing in stolen historical artifacts and relics pursued the case of getting the diary back. Because the story was so interesting one can readily forgive the author for writing at such lengths of the account of what happened. However since I was expecting the second portion of the book to be an analysis of the diary I did felt disappointed that this wasn’t going to be a book on the diary. Instead the rest of the book was a thriller of sorts that covered two men during the rise of the Nazis and afterwards: First is of course the story of Rosenberg and the second is the story of German Jew named Robert Kempner. In a way Kempner was a foil in the book for Rosenberg for while Rosenberg was part of the Nazis’ in-crowd and involved with the Nazi’s internal politics, Kempner was ostracized and eventually he fled Nazi Germany, came to America and after the war was involved with the prosecution of Nazi war criminals. The book provided a fascinating look at the personalities of both individuals and those around them (other Nazis, the wife of Kempner and his mistresses, etc). Although I was disappointed that the book wasn’t about the contents of the diary as its main focus I did appreciate this for the stories that’s told and personally for me to understand a little bit more about Rosenberg. One take away point I got from the book is the fact that Rosenberg’s political battles with other Nazis reveal that every organization no matter how ideological has its politics. Without downplaying Rosenberg’s evil I think I also learned from the book also his limitations of merely being an idealist in the world of Nazi politics and petty jealousies. Rosenberg was definitely an evil man and his attempt to shore up pseudo-intellectual support makes it all the more wicked.

Ellen

April 12, 2016

Important reading, not only to understand the the Nazi hatred & atrocities, but the significance of propaganda & brainwashing on an entire nation. Sadly, it seems to me that in the US now we are experiencing this brainwashing toward Muslims.

Bill

June 25, 2019

The first three chapters form a sort of prologue telling about the search for and recovery of the 1934-45 diary of Alfred Rosenberg, which was illegally taken by German-American Nuremberg war crimes prosecutor Robert Kempner and, after his death, presumed lost, not found in his vast and chaotic collection of documents. This leads to the body of the book, a kind of dual biography of Rosenberg and Kempner ending with Rosenberg’s 1946 execution.The Rosenberg part of the story is yet another run-through of the rise and fall of the Third Reich -Beer Hall putsch, thuggish street fighting, seizure of power, oppression, murder, war, looting, genocide, Götterdämmerung – told mainly from the perspective of a high-level Nazi functionary and theorist. Extracts from the diary serve mainly as another example of the banality of evil: exaggerated boasts and self-congratulations about awards and recognition alternating with agitated whining about perceived incursions into his bureaucratic preserve, mainly by chief rival Goebbels and nominal underling Erich Koch. And, of course, a stomach-churning level of Führer-worship. The main ideological concern cited from the diary involves Rosenberg’s wish to de-Christianize Germany, a goal he saw Hitler as sharing, though only in private due to the demands of realpolitik. The Jewish Kempner is a more unusual figure, someone who might well appear as a scoundrel were it not for the historical circumstances in which he became involved. While working with Weimar-era German police in preparing prosecutions, he became acquainted with Rudolf Diels, who was to become the first head of the Gestapo. Diels described Kempner as, “a real Gestapo man. He just happened to be racially handicapped.” During the 1930s, Kempner found himself forced to leave Germany and eventually Europe. In emigrating to America he left behind his two sons, one an adolescent in the custody of his German ex-wife, another an infant, left in the institutional care of a Nice orphanage; however, in emigrating he was accompanied by both his second wife and his mistress, the mother of his younger son. Once in America, along with a job at the University of Pennsylvania, the salary of which was made up partly from Kempner’s own savings – a way of meeting visa income requirements – he did freelance work for the FBI helping to compile dossiers on suspected German and German-American Nazis and Communists in the US. Thanks to his knowledge of German law enforcement and possession of a large cache of pre-1933 documents on the Nazi movement that he brought with him from Europe he was able to find a place on the US prosecution team at Nuremberg, which sets up the book’s lengthy final chapter with both Rosenberg and Kempner in the same venue, one as defendant and the other as prosecutor.

Casey

November 03, 2019

The book has undergone a subtitle change due in large part that the first small part of the book is actually about the hunt for the lost papers and the majority it about the influence that Rosenberg had on the Nazi culture from the early days through World War II ending with his death by hanging after the Nuremberg using entries from his diary. It also spends time on Robert Kempner who was one of the prosecuters at Nuremberg. Overall, an interesting read.I have also posted my review on Goodreads, Amazon and my review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook page.

Russellmacphailcomcast.Net

February 16, 2019

excellent book

Elizabeth

October 05, 2019

Muy interesante libro acerca del holocausto y de un ideólogo nazi importante pero desconocido.

Joel

May 07, 2016

I received this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways and this is my unbiased review.This review may give some details about the contents of the book, but given that it is a non-fiction about the Nazi's and WWII I am reluctant to label anything here a spoiler. That being said I may reveal some details some readers may not want to know before reading.This book tells the story of the formation and rise of the Nazi party, the events of WWII, and its aftermath for the leaders of the movement through the experiences of two people.Alfred Rosenberg was there at the beginning for the Nazis. He was in charge when Hitler went to jail and later named the chief philosopher of the Third Reich, helping to form the ideas of how to cleanse Europe for the pure Aryan race.Robert Kempner was a Jew who worked in the German government after WWI. Forced out of his job, his country, and eventually his continent by the Nazis, he returned after the war as a part of the American prosecution team in the Nuremberg Trials. He also stole many boxes of captured Nazi documents from the trials, including Rosenberg's diary, which were kept from the public and posterity until they were recovered in 2013. The revelations in the diary are reflected in this book and add to the overall understanding of how those at the top of the Nazi hierarchy operated.This book begins with the story of how Kempner obtained the diary and other documents and how they were recovered. It's a neat little detective story.The rest of the book covers the lives of both Kempner and Rosenberg, telling the entire arc of the Nazi party's formation, rise, and fall. The bits of story regarding Kempner felt a little off for me. Maybe it was an attempt to tell how the Nazi's policies affected this individual, or maybe just remind the reader that Kempner still existed and he would arrive back in the story at the end. Kempner himself isn't the most likable character, at times seeming more concerned with saving himself and improving his own lot in life than others. This was the first book I've read about the Nazi's and WWII. I've seen documentaries and learned about it in school, but nothing this in-depth. It tells very little of the battles fought in the war, but much of the fights in the administration of the Third Reich and the battles of personality in those looking for personal power and to be in the good favor of the Fuhrer. An enlightening read recommended for anyone less interested in the military aspect of Nazism and the Third Reich and more desiring to learn about the rest.

Susie

March 28, 2016

"The Devil's Diary" version I won via Goodreads was in the form of an uncorrected proof and didn't actually come with the subtitling of "Hitler's High Priest and the Hunt for the Lost Papers of the Third Reich" -- the subtitling was instead, "Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich". No matter. This history and mystery doesn't answer all the questions it nudges into the reader's mind all these decades after the Rosenberg diary went missing, or after the formation of the Nazis, which occurred many years before the United States got actively involved in the Second World War (for which Rosenberg, as the authors Robert K. Wittman and David Kinney note, blamed the higher echelon Jews). Just imagine all the mythology Rosenberg, Hitler and others who held the German peoples in thrall for so long under the pretext of Nationalism, sucked into their brains and spewed out upon the world for so very long! THE AUTHORS inject some sly wit from time to time in this history book, amazingly, considering the horrific grimness of the subject matter. Rosenberg was hanged, Goebbels and others, including Hitler and his spouse, Eva Braun, suicides in the months following the end of the war and the revelation of the death camps. Robert Kempner, who was fired by one Nazi bureaucrat years before Kempner fled to the United States, finagles his way onto the prosecutorial team during the trials at Nuremberg and helps send many war criminals either to prison or to suicide or to the hangman. Wittman, who first searches for treasures stolen from their many victims by the Nazis as part of a special FBI team, later gets into the action seeking Rosenberg's diary, which was handed over in 2013 and is now in the Holocaust Museum. Rosenberg -- his words from the diary and from material amassed while he was awaiting trial and on trial as a war criminal are among the examples of an incredible, unbelievable string of observations and philosophies leading to mass brutalities -- and others around Hitler espoused pity or sympathy for their uniformed murderers taking part in killing thousands of innocents -- all the expending of bullets, led to the creation of less hands-on methods, such as gas chambers disguised as showers or vans. This book is recommended.

Robert

June 03, 2016

Quite fascinating look at the philosopher of the Nazi party and Reichminister for the Eastern Territories during World War II when Hitler and his killers ruled Europe. The lead author has been involved in recovery of cultural artifacts in his work with the FBI and the volume arose out of the discovery of the diary of Alfred Rosenberg in the early years of the 21st Century. This Nazi and his history of work during the Third Reich is the heart of the book as well as the parallel story of Robert Kempner, an emigre from Nazi Germany who while doing civic work within Germany, opposed the Hitlerites. Kempner proved to be very adept at making himself useful to various individuals and led a stimulating though bizarre life. He was Jewish so his life in Germany always hinged on a knife edge. He did make good finally and the later half of the book moves to discussion of the Nazi Gotterdammerung at the post-war trails at Nuremberg. All the surviving characters of Nazi Germany are discussed with particular attention to Goring and Rosenberg. The trial discussions make for fascinating reading and present new information as do the scores of quotes from the newly revealed diary of Rosenberg. In the heated political climate of today's US election campaign it certainly behooves everyone to actually read and study what the Nazi machine did to the world in World War II and then consider whether quick insults and referrals of Nazi-like behavior involving Donald Trump are appropriate. Read your history, check out the diary quotes and then honestly cogitate on the horror of these Nazi monsters. You will have your eyes opened and fully opened for sure.

Judy

June 17, 2016

I have read much about Nazi Germany and it is a specialty for me first as a Jew second as a person concerned about the human condition. With each of these books (last read was KL history of the concentration camps) I learn about another dimension of this era and those people. The thirst for power and the depravity and the lack of conscience and boundaries. someone should write about the Nazi women as most of what I read is on the male supremacy ideal. What I noted with this book was the reason for its existence (Nazi existence) was a world of the Aryan race pure and unaffected by any others. Their plan was to destroy everyone and everything that didnt fit into that mad view. Rosenberg was considered by Hitler as the idealogue and he absolutely hated the jewish people and that was in agreement with Hitler while he helped to build that as their platform with everything coming from that and therefore the plans to solve the "jewish question" by killing us all. In this book the authors include parts of the Rosenberg Diary which was only recently discovered. So the book is about Rosenberg as it is about the Nazi segment of world history and the other criminal Nazis. It is also about Robert Kempner who got hold of the Diary and tried to keep it and maybe he sold it. It is a rich book...

Don

February 05, 2017

The story behind this story is just as fascinating as the main topic of the book. A German Jewish lawyer by the name of Robert Kempner attempted to prosecute Adolf Hitler for high treason and to ban the Nazi party back in 1928. Once the Nazis took power he was expelled from Germany. He moved to America with his wife and mistress (where they maintain a permanent, though secret polygamous relationship. After the war he returned to Germany as an anti-Nazi legal expert who assisted with the Nuremberg trials. It was during this time that Kempner stole most of the diary belonging to Alfred Rosenberg, Hitler's philosopher of Nazism. The diary remained lost until 20 years after Kempner's death in 1993.Since its recovery, the author of this book has used it and other sources to tell the story of Rosenberg. Not as well known now as Hitler's other evil cronies, Rosenberg still played an important role in the rise of the Nazis, especially during the early years. In latter years he was sidelined by Goebbels and Bormanm, but was culpable enough that he was hanged at Nuremberg.Rosenberg codified the Nazi hatred for the Jews. He and Hitler had plans to also suppress Christianity had the Nazis prevailed in the war.

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