
Hitler
The Memoir of a Nazi Insider Who Turned Against the Fuhrer
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Narrated by:
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Robin Sachs
About this listen
An intimate friend of Adolf Hitler’s who turned against him during the Nazi rise to power delves into the character of one of history’s most evil dictators.
Of American and German parentage, Ernst Hanfstaengl graduated from Harvard and ran the family business in New York for a dozen years before returning to Germany in 1921. By chance he heard a then little-known Adolf Hitler speaking in a Munich beer hall and, mesmerized by his extraordinary oratorical power, was convinced the man would some day come to power. As Hitler’s fanatical theories and ideas hardened, however, he surrounded himself with rabid extremists such as Goering, Hess, and Goebbels, and Hanfstaengl became estranged from him. But with the Nazi’s major unexpected political triumph in 1930, Hitler became a national figure, and he invited Hanfstaengl to be his foreign press secretary. It is from this unique insider’s position that the author provides a vivid, intimate view of Hitler - with his neuroses, repressions, and growing megalomania - over the next several years.
In 1937, four years after Hitler came to power, relations between Hanfstaengl and the Nazis had deteriorated to such a degree that he was forced to flee for his life, escaping to Switzerland. Here is a portrait of Hitler as you’ve rarely seen him.
©1957, 2011 Ernst Hanfstaengl. Introduction copyright c. 1994, 2011 by John Toland. Afterword copyright c. 1994, 2011 by Egon Hanfstaengl (P)2012 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Hitler
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For all the literature about Adolf Hitler, there have been just four seminal biographies; this is the fifth, a landmark work that sheds important new light on Hitler himself. Drawing on previously unseen papers and a wealth of recent scholarly research, Volker Ullrich reveals the man behind the public persona, from Hitler's childhood, to his failures as a young man in Vienna, to his experiences during the First World War, to his rise as a far-right party leader.
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Performance
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In Nazi Germany, they were called the Schutzstaffel. The world would know them as the dreaded SS - the most loyal and ruthless enforcers of the Third Reich...It began as a small squad of political thugs. Yet by the end of 1935, the SS had taken control of all police and internal security duties in Germany - ranging from local village "gendarmes" all they way up to the secret political police and the Gestapo.
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Got lost in the details.
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The Nuremberg Interviews
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The Nuremberg Interviews reveals the chilling innermost thoughts of the former Nazi officials under indictment at the famous postwar trial. The architects of one of history’s greatest atrocities speak out about their lives, their careers in the Nazi Party, and their views on the Holocaust. Their reflections are recorded in a set of interviews conducted by a US Army psychiatrist. Dr. Leon Goldensohn was entrusted with monitoring the mental health of the two dozen German leaders charged with carrying out genocide, as well as that of many of the defense and prosecution witnesses.
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Interesting
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Overall
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Performance
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Hailed as the most compelling biography of the German dictator yet written, Ian Kershaw's Hitler brings us closer than ever before to the heart of its subject's immense darkness. Ian Kershaw's Hitler brings us closer than ever before to the character of the bizarre misfit in his thirty-year ascent from a Viennese shelter for the indigent to uncontested rule over the German nation that had tried and rejected democracy in the crippling aftermath of World War I.
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The heart of evil
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Editorial reviews
All tyrants start somewhere. The most infamously diabolical tyrant of the modern age was Adolf Hitler. Ernst Hanfstaengl seeks to share his experiences from within Hitler's inner circle. Ernst describes his first meeting of the outspoken orator named Adolf in 1921, through his firsthand accounts of Hitler's rise to power as Fuhrer and the eventual betrayal that led to his fleeing from Germany as the Nazi party turned again him. It is not very often that such looming and reviled characters from history are able to be represented in a frank manner, but performer Robin Sachs brings a great urgency and realism to Mr. Hanfstaengl's work in Hitler: The Memoir of a Nazi Who Turned Against the Fuhrer.
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Few, if any, 20th-century political leaders have enjoyed greater popularity among their own people than Hitler did in the decade or so following his rise to power in 1933. The personality of Hitler himself, however, can scarcely explain this immense popularity or his political effectiveness in the 1930s and '40s. His hold over the German people lay rather in the hopes and perceptions of the millions who adored him. Based largely on the reports of government officials, party agencies, and political opponents, Kershaw's study charts the creation, growth, and decline of the Hitler myth.
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Story
For decades after 1945, it was generally believed that the German army, professional and morally decent, had largely stood apart from the SS, Gestapo, and other corps of the Nazi machine. Ben Shepherd draws on a wealth of primary sources and recent scholarship to convey a much darker, more complex picture. For the first time, the German army is examined throughout the Second World War, across all combat theaters and occupied regions, and from multiple perspectives: its battle performance, social composition, relationship with the Nazi state, and involvement in war crimes and occupation.
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Thorough and scholarly
- By Mary A. on 03-23-18
By: Ben H. Shepherd
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The End
- The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1944-1945
- By: Ian Kershaw
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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From the preeminent Hitler biographer, a fascinating and original exploration of how the Third Reich was willing and able to fight to the bitter end of World War II. Countless books have been written about why Nazi Germany lost World War II, yet remarkably little attention has been paid to the equally vital question of how and why it was able to hold out as long as it did.
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Engrossing yet horrifying
- By Liz on 10-14-11
By: Ian Kershaw
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Hitler
- Ascent 1889-1939
- By: Volker Ullrich
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 34 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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For all the literature about Adolf Hitler, there have been just four seminal biographies; this is the fifth, a landmark work that sheds important new light on Hitler himself. Drawing on previously unseen papers and a wealth of recent scholarly research, Volker Ullrich reveals the man behind the public persona, from Hitler's childhood, to his failures as a young man in Vienna, to his experiences during the First World War, to his rise as a far-right party leader.
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Worthwhile if you haven't read a Hitler biography
- By Joshua on 11-03-16
By: Volker Ullrich
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Travelers in the Third Reich
- The Rise of Fascism: 1919-1945
- By: Julia Boyd
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Travelers in the Third Reich is an extraordinary history of the rise of the Nazis based on fascinating firsthand accounts, drawing together a multitude of voices and stories, including politicians, musicians, diplomats, schoolchildren, communists, scholars, athletes, poets, fascists, artists, tourists, and even celebrities like Charles Lindbergh and Samuel Beckett. Their experiences create a remarkable three-dimensional picture of Germany under Hitler - one so palpable that the listener will feel, hear, even breathe the atmosphere.
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Why must I write a review to have my rating count?
- By Saint Exupery on 03-04-23
By: Julia Boyd
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Goering
- The Rise and Fall of the Notorious Nazi Leader
- By: Roger Manvell, Heinrich Fraenkel
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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In Goering, Roger Manvell and Heinrich Fraenkel use firsthand testimonies and a variety of historical documents to tell the story of a monster lurking in Hitler's shadows. After rising through the ranks of the German army, Hermann Goering became Hitler's right hand man and was hand-picked to head the Luftwaffe, one of history's most feared fighting forces. As he rose in power, though, Goering became disillusioned and was eventually shunned from Hitler's inner circle.
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From Fighter Pilot Ace to Cartoon Villain
- By aaron on 03-27-21
By: Roger Manvell, and others
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Goebbels: A Biography
- By: Peter Longerich, Alan Bance - translator, Jeremy Noakes - translator, and others
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 28 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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In life and in his grisly family suicide, Goebbels was one of Hitler's most loyal acolytes. Though powerful in the party and in wartime Germany, Longerich's Goebbels is a man dogged by insecurities and consumed by his fierce adherence to the Nazi cause. Longerich engages and challenges the careful self-portrait that Goebbels left behind in his diaries, and, as he delves deep into the mind of Hitler's master propagandist, Longerich discovers firsthand how the Nazi message was conceived. This complete portrait of the man behind the message is sure to become a standard for historians and students of the Holocaust for years to come.
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Excellent Account of the Private Goebbels, But...
- By Derek on 05-29-15
By: Peter Longerich, and others
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Prevail Until the Bitter End
- Germans in the Waning Years of World War II
- By: Alexandra Lohse
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In Prevail Until the Bitter End, Alexandra Lohse explores the gossip and innuendo, the dissonant reactions and perceptions of Germans to the violent dissolution of the Third Reich. Mobilized for total war, soldiers and citizens alike experienced an unprecedented convergence of military, economic, social, and political crises.
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Pronunciations are questionable
- By Gayblaze on 01-02-22
By: Alexandra Lohse
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Stormtroopers
- A New History of Hitler's Brownshirts
- By: Daniel Siemens
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Germany's Stormtroopers engaged in a vicious siege of violence that propelled the National Socialists to power in the 1930s. Known also as the SA or Brownshirts, these "ordinary" men waged a loosely structured campaign of intimidation and savagery across the nation from the 1920s to the "Night of the Long Knives" in 1934, when Chief of Staff Ernst Röhm and many other SA leaders were assassinated on Hitler's orders.
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Tedious
- By AudioFile on 10-21-19
By: Daniel Siemens
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Speer
- Hitler's Architect
- By: Martin Kitchen
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 19 hrs
- Unabridged
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In his best-selling autobiography, Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments and chief architect of Nazi Germany, repeatedly insisted he knew nothing of the genocidal crimes of Hitler's Third Reich. In this revealing new biography, author Martin Kitchen disputes Speer's lifelong assertions of ignorance and innocence, portraying a far darker figure who was deeply implicated in the appalling crimes committed by the regime he served so well. Kitchen reconstructs Speer's life with what we now know, including information from valuable new sources that have come to light only in recent years.
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Interesting, but extremely biased
- By Rodney on 10-28-18
By: Martin Kitchen
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Retreat from Moscow
- A New History of Germany’s Winter Campaign, 1941-1942
- By: David Stahel
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Germany's winter campaign of 1941-1942 has commonly been seen as its "first defeat". In Retreat from Moscow, David Stahel argues that, in fact, it was its first strategic success in the east. Though the Red Army managed to push the Wehrmacht back from Moscow, the Germans lost far fewer men (one to six), frustrated their enemy's strategic plan, and emerged in the spring unbroken and poised to recapture the initiative.
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Nothing new on the Eastern front basically!
- By philippe jacob on 03-28-20
By: David Stahel
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Witness to Nuremberg
- The Many Lives of the Man Who Translated at the Nazi War Trials
- By: W. Richard Sonnenfeldt
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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In this gripping memoir by the chief American interpreter at the Nuremberg trials, Richard Sonnenfeldt recounts a remarkable life. By age 22 he had fought in the Battle of the Bulge and helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp, when he was appointed chief interpreter for the American prosecution of Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials.
During his service, he spent pretrial time with Hermann Göering as well as other top Nazi leaders.
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So much more than expected
- By Kathy on 03-23-12
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The Churchills: In Love and War
- By: Mary S. Lovell
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 21 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The first Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722) was a soldier of such genius that a lavish palace, Blenheim, was built to honor his triumphs. Succeeding generations of Churchills sometimes achieved distinction but also included profligates and womanizers, and were saddled with the ruinous upkeep of Blenheim. The Churchills were an extraordinary family: ambitious, impecunious, impulsive, brave, and arrogant. Winston - recently voted "The Greatest Briton" - dominates them all. His failures and triumphs are revealed in the context of a poignant and sometimes tragic private life.
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Grand! In it's own wonderful way.
- By Cookie on 12-05-11
By: Mary S. Lovell
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War on the Eastern Front
- The German Soldier in Russia 1941-1945
- By: James Lucas, Robert Kershaw - foreword
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Dawn on Sunday, June 22, 1941 saw the opening onslaughts of Operation Barbarossa as German forces stormed forward into the Soviet Union. Few of them were to survive the five long years of bitter struggle. A posting to the Eastern Front during the Second World War was rightly regarded with dread by the German soldiers. They saw epic battles such as Stalingrad and Kursk, and yet it was a daily war of attrition which ultimately proved fatal for Hitler's ambition and the German military machine.
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A Must Read for WW2 Buffs
- By Tactical Terry on 03-05-21
By: James Lucas, and others
What listeners say about Hitler
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kennedy Connor
- 02-12-19
Love Putzi!
i have read many works about hitler. this one is unique! a sane person's view of germany's descent into madness- from the inside!
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- Dennis
- 04-14-17
Hitler the man
I conclude the low ratings given to this book are because people still do not want to hear anything about Hitler that suggest he was a half decent man with a great sense of humor.
This is a rare ten hour book that is worth a credit.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Jonathan Donihue
- 08-09-18
An unique perspective
This is a really unique book. The perspective it offers of the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party is at the same time laughable and deeply disturbing.
the narration is excellently done. It never seemed dry or boring; a true accomplishment for a first person, historical account.
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-27-18
A fascinating memoir!
Written by Hitler’s former foreign press chief Ernst Hanfstaengl, this riveting memoir offers a glimpse into a psyche of Adolf Hitler, a man responsible for dragging half of the world into the most blood-shedding war in history. Part German, part American, Hanfstaengl never seemed to overcome this problem of self-identification: throughout the whole narration he appears to struggle between his devotion to both countries, which eventually led to his downfall in Hitler’s hierarchy. The two men met each other when Hitler was still a nobody, a gifted, even though somewhat shabby public speaker working the sympathetic crowds in the beer halls of München. Initially attracted to Hitler’s enigmatic persona, Hansftaengl soon becomes one of his closest friends and associates. Hanfstaengl introduces Hitler to the influential social circle in the hope to not only restrain his manner but make him into someone more cultural, more open to new ideas, ready for the dialogue and compromise - in short, into someone whom Hitler would never become. As more and more radical characters start surrounding the unstable future chancellor, the more Hansftaengl tries to persuade himself that his presence is even more essential now as he’s virtually the only person who can still sway the future dictator into a correct direction. But as Hitler officially becomes the leader of the state and purges began gaining force, the feebler Hanfstaengl’s hopes become, until he finally realizes that from a close friend he became one of the “undesirables,” someone who needs to be rid of as well. I’ve hardly ever come across such a detailed, intimate historical account. I’d definitely recommend this memoir for all serious history buffs. The narrator did a wonderful job.
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- Debbie Mathisen
- 09-29-20
Differnt View of Hilter
This was one of the most interesting books about Hitler that I have ever read. The writer (Ernst Hanfstaengl) tells about Hitler from a totally different perspective. Ernst Hanfstaengl tells about Hitler's younger. He tells about how Hitler's ideology changed over time and about how Hitler became the cruel man he became. Ernst Hanfstaengl talks about how he and his wife influenced Hitler and about all the other people who influenced Hitler over time, both good and bad. And finally Ernst Hanfstaengl talks about how he no longer has any influence over Hitler and how he has to run to stay alive. This is well written and narrated. I highly recommend.
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- Rodney
- 10-26-18
Interesting
This is a really interesting book that gives detail into Hitler from a different angle than what you usually get. Unlike other dopes who seem to think this is pro-Hitler, it's not and you have to be a real dullard who has never read history to think it is. However it's also not anti-Hitler read either, it's just the story of what he experienced and in that regard it's a useful piece of history. Hanfstaengl comes off like a trule upper class snob and you can tell his fellow NAZIs really never liked him since he was such a prompus suck up, but again, that is part of what makes the book interesting. Also the joke his fellow NAZIs play on him is pretty hilarious.
Overall I give this 5/5, it's a really interesting read involving lots of unlikeable people all vowing for Hitler's attention and approval, all told from a totally new point of view. The book is never boring and even if you've read hundreds of WW2 books, like myself, you're still going to learn something new.
Narration was fine. I always list at 1.25x or faster, and at that speed the narration was quite good.
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- Anonymous
- 08-30-20
He contradicts himself a lot
He contradicts things that he himself says at different times in the book, and contradicts what other say about Hitler in their own memoirs. The memoirs of others seem to correlate together while this one seems off. I don't think he knew Hitler as well as he thought he did. He was completely unaware of Hitler's relationship with Eva Braun and tried to contradict what Hitler's medical records state about his health and the state of his genitalia. This book overall doesn't seem very credible, more a compilation of his thoughts and opinions rather than facts.
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- Anonymous User
- 03-14-23
Excellent look into the rise of Nazism
This is an excellent look into the rise of Nazism. There will be critics of his, rightfully so, yet his point of view is critical in understanding the bigger story.
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- Alan
- 04-10-13
Once a Nazi, always a Nazi
Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstaengl was a nazi.
Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstaengl was a high ranking nazi.
His wife Helene was a nazi who as legend goes, stopped Hitler from committing suicide.
Knowing these facts are very important when listening to this book.
When he wrote this book in 1957, the reader can tell that the author is still in love with Hitler. He goes into numerous stories of how smart and literate Hitler was. ( It is at this part Im reminded of Mel's Brooks play 'Springtime For Hitler' in his movie The Producers)
Once you get off the topic of Hitler and he starts describing his inter reactions with other party members does this book actually shine. Ernst's description of Geli Raubal (Hitler's niece with whom it is specualded he had a sexual relationship with) is one of the high points of the book and I actually wish more stories had been included. Ernst also had very little respect for Eva Braun. Ernst lays out numerous examples of why he believes Hitler may have been homosexual.
Ernst's biggest hatreds turned out to be against two of Hitlers most trusted followers, Joseph Goebbles and Alfred Rosenberg. He tries to blame these two people for poisoning his poor Furher's mind. This hatred probably was the main reason for Ernst's fall from grace
I always enjoy books from people who were the actual participants but Im always cautious as to people who write books in an effort to rehabilitate their names.
I really didnt like Albert Spear's book.
I definately didnt like James Duffy's book where he tries to rehabilitate Charles Lindburgh
In Putzi's case, i make a SMALL exception. There is an element of honesty that comes thru on certain topics and for this i give it 3 stars.
The book is easy to listen to and if you had an extra credit lying around, you could use it here.
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8 people found this helpful