Gerhard Bartels has lived at Hintersee for most of his life, including around the time of World War II. Hintersee, a village near Berchtesgaden, is a beautiful area of mountains & lakes & it was a destination popular with Hitler & many of his entourage in the lead-up to the war. This biography looks at the lives of the ordinary local people & how they changed with the arrival of the Nazi era.

This is a book about World War II but it looks at it from a different angle from most of the other books I've read on the subject. Instead of concentrating on the military aspects, this book looks at Hitler the politician & Hitler 'off duty', He was one of the first to use the now common political tropes of being photographed relaxing on holiday, & with children to appeal to the ordinary voter. The photographs in this book are fascinating examples of how his image was carefully choreographed in the early years with his visits to Hintersee being used on postcards etc. There are also lots of photographs of the area & the various buildings at the time.

The biography portion is less extensive & looks at some of the local people, especially Gerhard Bartels, who was a young boy at the time. We also see how the village rallied around to hide a Jewish woman from the authorities at the risk of their own lives when the area was rife with high-ranking Nazi officers. I do wish we had followed Gerhard Bartels in a more chronological way through his life at different junctures. though as I think that would have been very interesting. His biography seemed to be over very quickly with the rest of the book concentrating on the photographs of the area. Overall, it's a unique & interesting addition to the plethora of information already out there.

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Pen & Sword History, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

Hitler at Hintersee by James Wilson is a remarkably intriguing book about Germany during World War II, especially pertaining to Adolf Hitler, the Nazis and those they crushed, and a boy in a photograph. The many photographs are important to show perspectives, propaganda of the day and the juxtaposed beautiful scenery in the Berchtesgaden area in Germany in a time of pure evil. Many ordinary Germans at first got caught up in the "feel-good factor" and fervor with the up and coming Hitler. Then the world changed. Author James Watson describes his connection to Gerhard Bartels, a boy in a photograph with a smiling Hitler at Hintersee near Berchtesgaden. The author's quest was to learn more about the context of the photo and the people in it. Hitler felt Berchtesgaden was the most beautiful place in the world (I know it and attest to its glorious prettiness, though punctuated by horrors of the past). Though he officially only visited Eagle's Nest fourteen times, it had historical and personal significance. Today it remains a terrible but important part of history.

Gerd related his story to the author and recalled Hitler's hold on people, the feeling of elation when Hitler died and postcards of Hitler and children used as propaganda. Amongst my favourite stories Gerd told include the roofing story at Alpenhof, the Obersalzberg smoke generators and he and a friend discovering one of Hitler's special Mercedes. Also mentioned is Paula, Adolf's sister. It must have been an odd feeling in retrospect to have been held by the same Hitler at whose behest millions of innocents were killed during the Holocaust. Gerd is one of those fascinating people one would happily sit with awe and rapt attention, listening to story after story.

If you are keen to learn more about people who knew Hitler behind the scenes, especially Gerd, this book is for you. The interconnections are amazing. What people near Hitler wanted, they got. They could make anything happen...and unfortunately did.

My sincere thank you to Pen & Sword and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this phenomenal book.

This is a neat micro-history of Gerhard Bartels, a boy who appeared in photographs with Hitler while he was in Hintersee, a picturesque Alpine German town. Herr Bartels is still alive and reminds us that WWII wasn’t that long ago. Hintersee played an essential role in the Third Reich; it was a southern headquarters. This book has a ton of information and photographs (primary sources!), and I enjoyed learning about this area.

Thank you, NetGalley and Pen & Sword, for an advanced copy.

This book offers an interesting insight into how normal things became during Hitler’s regime, which now seem so hard to fathom. Taking a regional focus, waders are shown how the locals adapted to the presence of the Nazis in a role of other than oppressor. I enjoyed reading the details of the young boy’s experiences, including how things progressed as the situation worsened for the Nazis. A very interesting perspective and a new one for me.