Member Reviews
This was such an interesting book! The author really did a lot of research and you can tell. I never knew a lot about the Hapsburg dynasty so reading about them was great and I learned a lot. It was amazing to read how much Hitler really loved his homeland and how his thinking developed into massacring so many million people. This is a great book and makes you tell yourself never to forget what happened to over 6 million people during WWII and what they suffered at the hands of a maniac. Everyone should read this.
"Hitler and the Habsburgs" looks back at the Habsburg Empire and how Hitler’s vision of a pure Aryan nation mandated that it be destroyed. The book starts prior to World War I when Hitler was a poor young man living in Vienna, and Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the future successor to Emperor Franz Joseph, was attempting to ensure peace for Austria through policies of multicultural tolerance and equality. Hitler’s venom and hatred ran totally contrary to such policies and accordingly he was obsessed with destroying the Habsburgs. The book shows how the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand set events in motion that not only led to World War I but ultimately to Hitler's rise to power, World War II, the takeover of Austria by Germany and the eventual demise of the Habsburg Empire. Longo’s book shows the resilience of the family members in surviving Hitler’s invasion and takeover of Austria. While they lost their wealth, their position in society, some were imprisoned in concentration camps, others conscripted to fight a war they abhorred, they never lost their courage, dignity or grace. The book was an absolutely fascinating and enlightening look at history. I thoroughly recommend it! I was privileged to receive a copy of the book from NetGalley and the publisher Diversion Books in exchange for an honest review.
Hitler and the Habsburgs is a great book. Longo begins with the assassination of Archduke Frank Ferdinand and its impact not only on Austria, but his children. It's a fascinating look at the rise of Hitler and how the Hapsburg family fared. The author follows through up to modern day with the family. The chapters are short and the reading goes quickly. His notes are extensive as is his bibliography, which I enjoyed perusing. A great addition to anyone"s library.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand married a Czech woman, and shared the Habsburg commitment to peace. Hitler despised him for those facts. He saw Franz as wanting to marginalize and destroy German Austria.
Franz Ferdinand and Sophie’s sons, Maximilian and Ernst, didn’t hesitate in speaking out against the rising Nazis. For that, they earned Hitler’s hatred. They were the first Austrians imprisoned in concentration camps. First at Dachau and later Flossenburg, they were assigned latrine duty. At Flossenburg, they were provided no tools or carts. They had to clean the overflowing toilets with their bare hands.
The Habsburg empire was multi-national. Central Europe has known little but disasters since the empire collapsed. The rise of nationalism would have been a problem for Franz had he become emperor, but the world may have been a safer place had he lived.
The author wrote this book wondering what became of Franz and Sophie’s orphans. He provides a look at an admirable family that has suffered much, but retained their faith.
I have mixed feelings about James Longo’s Hitler and the Habsburgs. It’s a fascinating volume, but the material doesn’t add much to the narrative put forth in 2013’s The Assassination of the Archduke by Greg King and Sue Woolmans. I don’t want to turn anyone off the book, it’s a fabulous read with a lot of great details, but the only real difference between the two is the biographical information on Hitler and Longo’s thesis which I found interesting, but inconclusive and based on exceedingly narrow subject matter.
Longo makes a solid argument for Hitler’s dislike of the monarchy, but I never felt the obsession angle tangible. This is just me, but I don’t think the tactics exercised against Sophie, Maximilian, Ernst and their families supersede those used against any other high-level political prisoner who found themselves in Nazi crosshairs. The book might have been more insightful if it had delved into the Habsburgergesetz, aka the Law concerning the Expulsion and the Takeover of the Assets of the House Habsburg-Lorraine, but Longo’s work is light on the legal aspects of the bureaucratic harassment of the royal family and centers heavily on the children of Franz Ferdinand while virtually ignoring their extended relations.
I’ll admit the book offers modest details on the family of Charles I, nephew of Franz Ferdinand and last Emperor of Austria, but it is absolutely silent on the family of Archduchess Elisabeth Marie whose second husband, Leopold Petznek, spent time in Dachau and son-in-law, Count Pierre d'Alcantara de Querrieu, died in Sachsenhausen. Call me crazy, but shouldn’t a chronicle of the Führer’s so-called obsession with a royal family extend beyond a single branch?
In sum, the biographic information on both Franz Ferdinand’s family and the Führer is there, but I did not find the thesis of Hitler and the Habsburgs convincing.
This is an outstanding read for history buffs. Well-researched and full of anecdotal details, this book filled in a lot of background perspective that I hadn't considered before. So much of Hitler's warped beliefs originated with his obsessive hatred for the Habsburgs, but particularly Archduke Franz Ferdinand who had the audacity to marry a Slav instead of an Aryan. Franz Ferdinand embodied everything that Hitler hated -- belief that people of all nations were equal, a devotion to family and country with quiet humility despite his nobility. Hitler's hatred was meted out on Franz Ferdinand's sons, who became the first two prisoners at the Dachau concentration camp and were assigned to clean out the latrines, first with teaspoons, then with their bare hands. Nothing could break these noble men, though, who continued to treat their fellow inmates with compassion and respect and continued to oppose all that Hitler stood for. If you are interested in 20th century history, this is well worth the read.
I received this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
This book is a very historical perspective of a piece of Hitler's motivation. It was interesting but not really entertaining. I love history so I did enjoy reading this book but if you aren't a history fan I'm not sure you'd want to work your way through this one.
I knew very little about Hitler prior to the WWII. I found this book to be interesting with facts about his younger years and his hatred for the Habsburgs. It was informational read and would recommend for anyone that wants to learn more about Hitler as a young man and his obsession with the Habsburgs.