Hello there. I love learning history and I'm very interested in the ww2 period. Recently I came across a book you might be familiar with: " Hitler – Propos intimes et politiques (1941-1942), tome I, Nouveau Monde Éditions, 2016 ". And I don't know what to think about it; there are some many books and so little time, so I can't really read every ww2 books that I come across, but seeing one that entitles itself being Hitler's personal and politic memoirs automatically caught my fancy. Still, I'm on the fence regarding it. Also, there isn't much written online about this book, the author seems legit enough.
So, here comes my question, sorry to drag this thing so long:
did Hitler leave any memoirs/journals/diaries whatsoever?
Besides those obvious fakes that you can find on wikipedia. I was actually under the impression that he didn't. So, if you could please shed some light on this matter, I'd be in your debt. Cheers!
No memoirs, and the book doesn't pretend to be memoirs.
Rather it's a translation of „Hitlers Tischgespräche“ and „Monologe im Führerhauptquartier“ (the partially falsified and therefore absolutely unreliable English "translation" by Trevor-Roper is called Hitler's Table-Talk, see M. Nilsson, "Hugh Trevor-Roper and the English Editions of Hitler's Table Talk and Testament", Journal of Contemporary History, 2016, vol. 51, issue 4; R. Carrier, "'Hitler's Table Talk': Troubling Finds", German Studies Review, 2003, vol. 26, issue 3).
The underlying German source itself is extremely problematic, as Mikael Nilsson demonstrates in "Hitler redivivus. „Hitlers Tischgespräche“ und „Monologe im Führerhauptquartier“ – eine kritische Untersuchung", Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 2019, Band 67, Heft 1.
Nilsson shows that the long and detailed notes, taken mostly in 1941-2 by Martin Bormann's assisstants Heinrich Heim and Henry Picker, were made not during Hitler's talks, but afterwards, from memory, sometimes based on key words taken down during the conversation.
By itself this wouldn't be so fatal to the value of these notes, as long as one would simply remember this is not what Hitler literally said, not a stenographic record, but Nilsson also found that whole chunks of text were added to the typed transcripts, probably months afterwards, that these notes contain alleged statements by Hitler that are contradicted by other, more credible sources, that the German editions were significantly changed with time, etc.
These notes cannot therefore be used as a credible source, and this goes for their new translation into French.
One more point that Nilsson establishes: Hitler knew that his words would be written down, therefore these notes, even had they been credibly edited, wouldn't really constitute Hitler's "private" thoughts.