Hitler's Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe

In the history of the continent, Hitler's empire was the largest, most brutal, and most ambitious in its claim to reshape Europe. Inspired by imperial legacies such as that of the British Empire, the Third Reich cast its shadow from the Channel Islands to the Caucasus, over a territory home to hundreds of millions of people. And yet, as the author shows us, this empire was founded on an illusion. From Hitler's plans for building motorways across the continent to the delusional dreams of constructing an economic power in the occupied territories that would rival the US, Mark Mazower reveals the deadly fusion of mass murder, modern management methods, bureaucracy, and incompetence that underpinned the Nazi New Order. In a comprehensive analysis that covers the various facets of the Nazi occupation in Europe – the administrative details of the occupation, population transfers, the organisation of extermination, the economy of the occupied territories and their contribution to the Reich, and the relationship between the Armed Forces and the Party – Hitler's Empire is an invaluable reference work for understanding the phenomenon that plagued Europe for six years and, in many respects, profoundly transformed it.