Excellent book if you are looking for something to read, or as a gift for the history minded. Rosenberg was the architect of much of the ideology used by Hitler and the Nazis, but I don't think he's ever received enough attention. He was loyally with Hitler from the beginning, and for at least 8 of those years he kept a diary. The interesting aspect of the book is the weaving of the storyline into the Rosenberg material about how the diary disappeared in 1946, not to be seen for decades. As the principle Nuremberg Trials came to their conclusion the West grew weary of punishing Nazis/Germans, and became more interested in holding off the USSR a lot of material simply vanished. No spoilers as to who had it and why, but by itself that is a fascinating tale.
Inside the diaries there is the mundane, to the petty infighting among top Nazi leaders, to the thinking behind some of the most impactful decisions made in the run up to WW2. If Rosenberg had other diaries before or after the known period he took that with him to the gallows. Interestingly enough Rosenberg tried to avoid the death penalty by saying that he was just really an ideas guy, and he didn't put things into action. And, to that point the book offers a cautionary tale about how authoritarian regimes rise with such frequency.
Inside the diaries there is the mundane, to the petty infighting among top Nazi leaders, to the thinking behind some of the most impactful decisions made in the run up to WW2. If Rosenberg had other diaries before or after the known period he took that with him to the gallows. Interestingly enough Rosenberg tried to avoid the death penalty by saying that he was just really an ideas guy, and he didn't put things into action. And, to that point the book offers a cautionary tale about how authoritarian regimes rise with such frequency.
