Hunt for Martin Bormann - Softcover

I began this slim volume hoping to find out more about the "Brown Emenince", Nazi-era Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, wartime personal secretary of Adolf Hitler. Though second in political power only to Hitler himself in the Third Reich, Bormann was so long unknown that when the victorious Allies began their hunt for the Nazi leaders, they had only a single photo of him. Recent biographies, some of them revisionist, have illuminated Hitler's other chief lieutenants: Goering, Hess, von Ribbentrop, Goebbels, Himmler, and Heydrich. But Bormann, who by the war's end wielded more power than any of the rest, has remained largely unknown. I hoped that this book would shed some light on his obscure personality. Alas, this is far less a biography of Bormann than a study of Cold War confusion and conflicting interpretations, often for unrelated political aims. The main problem with this book seems to lie in the fact that it is a supposedly new edition of a work first published in 1973 at the height of the Cold War as Germany was slowly-but-steadily emerging from the catastrophic effects of the war. From the footnoted dates, the author, Englishman Charles Whiting, conducted his own personal search for "The Truth" in about 1971; his book's original publication date coincides with the offical September, 1973 announcement of the discovery in Berlin of what was unmistakably Bormann's skeletal remains. Unfortunately most of the book reads as if Bormann's fate remains a mystery, making it difficult to tell just how much "revision" went into this edition. Large parts of it merely repeat the findings of others, most notably Hugh Trevor-Roper, who in his own landmark 1947 study, "The Last Days of Hitler" arrived at the conclusion that Bormann died in the failed attempt to escape Berlin in May, 1945. Unfortunately for neat historical tieings-up, Bormann continued to be "seen" in various parts of the world, from Italian monasteries to jungles in the Amazon. The discovery of actual Nazi fugitives like Adolf Eichmann only fueled the speculation that somehow the Reichslieter, too, had survived. This is not to say this fails to be worthwhile reading, especially if you know little about Bormann, the end of the Third Reich, or the machinations of the Cold War - the book is in roughly equal thirds about all of these. I only wish Whiting had truly rewritten his original, putting it in a more coherent context in light of subsequent findings regarding Bormann's fate. As for the subject himself, we are told that every other member of Hitler's entourage hated him, from the Fuhrer's mistress Eva Braun to lowly clerks and chauffers. Though he was undoubtedly a bounder, there are far too few examples of his loutishness; and almost none of his executive excellence that made Hitler regard him so highly as to say, "To win this war, I need Bormann!" Admittedly, one problem in assessing a man such as this is the fact that though greedy, grasping, and power-and-luxury-loving, he absolutely shunned publicity and the limelight, so unlike others such as Goering and Goebbels. ( Hence the reason his appearance was so little-known by the Allies. ) This relative dearth of information has produced an uneven but interesting look at a personality who, until a major biography comes along, must remain as he was long known, "The Man in the Shadows". --James F. Neel

Having not read a great deal about Bormann I gained a good amount of knowledge about him as well as the various theories of what happened to him after the war. The author details these very well and leaves you feeling that each siting of Bormann must have been real. Then at the end of the book you find what the author believes to be the truth (and the evidence is convincing) and you feel a little let down. But if the evidence bears this out, it is simply a fact of history and not the author's fault that the mystery wasn't as great as it seemed for 30+ years. The book is enjoyable and informative and worth reading if you are interested in this era of history. --A Customer

I found this book enjoyable. It's an easy read. The author's conclusion puts an end to the mystery of the disappearence of Martin Bormann. --A Customer