The fiftieth anniversary edition of the National Book Award–winning bestseller that is the definitive study of Adolf Hitler, the rise of Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, and World War II. This special edition now features a new introduction by Ron Rosenbaum, author of u003ciu003eExplaining Hitleru003c/iu003e and u003ciu003eHow the End Beginsu003c/iu003e.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eNo other powerful empire ever bequeathed such mountains of evidence about its birth and destruction as the Third Reich. When the bitter war was over, and before the Nazis could destroy their files, the Allied demand for unconditional surrender produced an almost hour-by-hour record of the nightmare empire built by Adolph Hitler. This record included the testimony of Nazi leaders and of concentration camp inmates, the diaries of officials, transcripts of secret conferences, army orders, private letters—all the vast paperwork behind Hitler's drive to conquer the world.u003cbru003e u003cbru003eThe famed foreign correspondent and historian William L. Shirer, who had watched and reported on the Nazis since 1925, spent five and a half years sifting through this massive documentation. The result is a monumental study that has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of one of the most frightening chapters in the history of mankind.u003cbru003e u003cbru003eHere is the complete story of Hitler's empire, one of the most important stories ever told, written by one of the men best equipped to write it.u003cbru003e u003cbru003eThis worldwide bestseller has been acclaimed as the definitive book on Nazi Germany; it is a classic work.