The devil's disciples

The Nazi Regime was essentially a religious cult relying on the hypnotic personality of Adolf Hitler, and it was fated to die with him. But while it lasted, his closest lieutenants competed ferociously for power and position as his chosen successor. This peculiar leadership dynamic resulted in millions of deaths and some of the worst excesses of World War II. The Devil's Disciples is the first major book for a general readership to examine those lieutenants, not only as individuals but also as a group. It focuses on the three most important Nazi paladins-Goring, Goebbels, and Himmler-with their nearest rivals-Bormann, Speer, and Ribbentrop-in close attendance. Others who were removed in various ways-like Gregor Strasser, Ernst Rohm, Heydrich, and Hess-play supporting roles. Making the fullest use of diaries, documents, and memoirs, The Devil's Disciples offers fresh insights into their characters and their relationships to one another and to Hitler. Perceptive, illuminating, and grandly ambitious, The Devil's Disciples is above all a powerful chronological narrative, showing how the personalities of Hitler's inner circle developed and how their jealousies and constant intrigues affected the regime, the war, and Hitler himself. It is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the Nazi period, or the workings of a dictatorship.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.