Mobilising Hate

Praise for The Perfect Nazi:

'Absorbing, highly readable and painstakingly researched' NIALL FERGUSON

'Unforgettable, haunting reading' SIMON SCHAMA

'A fascinating and extraordinary journey into the banality of evil at the heart of Nazism' BEN MACINTYRE

'Riveting' THE TIMES

'Fascinating, scrupulously researched, compelling' SUNDAY TIMES

In this radical new perspective on the Holocaust, Davidson challenges popular understanding and existing histories of the Holocaust.

He does this in three main ways.

Firstly, he describes the way in which German policy developed and was enacted in new and compelling detail, providing a road map to the 'long and twisting road to Auschwitz', skilfully dramatising those twists and turns, many of which are not generally included in conventional narratives.

Secondly, he allows us to hear from new voices, notably female perpetrators, resisters and victims. These provide individual human perspectives on the unfolding events, without which true understanding is impossible; from planning and implementation, to knowledge - and its opposite, denial - all the way to its final reckoning, then and now.

And finally, he provides a reappraisal of the moral perspective that drove the Holocaust, getting beyond the conventional notion of 'evil' as a catch-all rationale, to examine why anti-Jewish vitriol was such a powerful motivator for so many Germans, who used arguments and self-justifications that are more resonant today than they have been for decades. Never more so than in the use of the idea of suffering - how 'our' supposed suffering justifies 'theirs'.

His focus is very much on the mindset that brought about the Holocaust, the desire to 'make Germany great again' and to make Germany's perceived enemies suffer. Again, this story of dreams of national greatness, and racially-targeted redemptive malevolence could not be more resonant today.

Davidson foregrounds the stories of women, in part to illustrate the mindset of Nazi true believers - the German wife stationed in Poland, for example, who found a group of Jewish children who had escaped a mass execution, and shot them herself. He also describes the particular horror experienced by female inmates of the camps, who, as mothers, were the first to be killed alongside their children, and who were among the bravest of German resisters to the crimes being committed in their name - like twenty-one-year-old Sophie Scholl, whose leaflets listing and denouncing Nazi crimes resulted in her execution, in October 1943.

The Holocaust forces us to understand that it wasn't the power of a single malevolent leader wh

“Praise for The Perfect Nazi : Absorbing, highly readable and painstakingly researched . . . An intensely personal exploration of the banality of evil.Praise for The Perfect Nazi : One of the most unsettling books to have been written about the Third Reich not only because of the brutality with which it engages but because of the story of the hatching of great wickedness in a most prosaic life. If there ever was a personification of the banality of evil, it is Martin Davidson's Granpa Bruno. It is two stories in one - both riveting - that of the dentist's transformation into unswerving SS officer and of the grandson's appalled discovery. Woven together they make for unforgettable, haunting reading.Praise for The Perfect Nazi : Searching for the truth about his German grandfather, Martin Davidson discovered Hitler's Everyman: the enthusiastic fascist functionary, unquestioning, unrepentant, and chillingly ordinary. The Perfect Nazi is a fascinating and extraordinary journey into the banality of evil at the heart of Nazism.Praise for The Perfect Nazi : The fascinating and utterly compelling account of what it's like to discover that your grandfather was a ruthless officer in Hitler's SS.Praise for The Perfect Nazi : A terrific piece of writing . . . The ordinariness of the man, combined with the fact that he was an "old fighter", make him a compelling example of willing Germans. His postwar life and the absence of any reflection or remorse are also strikingly familiar from other cases we know. [ The Perfect Nazi ] deserves to do well.Praise for The Perfect Nazi : Davidson's journey into his grandfather's past makes for a compelling and unsettling tale . . . [A] thoughtful and affecting book.Praise for The Perfect Nazi : Fascinating . . . Davidson has pulled together an account which is compelling and yet, at times, tantalizingly incomplete . . . this is an important book for anyone interested in the moral climate which led to the Holocaust and the other crimes of the Third Reich, and I can highly recommend it. - Evening StandardPraise for The Perfect Nazi : Riveting. - The Times”

A highly readable thesis of how ordinary people were turned into monsters by the malevolent propaganda of Hitler and his henchmen . . . A very good book -- Saul David Telegraph
Finally, eight decades on, there comes a convincing reason as to how an entire nation was able to swallow and then endorse the warped ideology of Hitler and the Nazis. Not only a brilliantly argued book, Mobilising Hate is also a grimly compelling and utterly absorbing examination of one of the most terrible events in world history. Martin Davidson's meticulous and scholarly research and exquisite writing has provided us with one of the most important books ever written on the subject -- James Holland
Praise for The Perfect Nazi: Absorbing, highly readable and painstakingly researched . . . An intensely personal exploration of the banality of evil. -- Niall Ferguson
A powerful new analysis of the strategies employed by the Nazis to fuel antisemitism in Germany and achieve their murderous objectives ... [Davidson's] ideas draw on 70 years of sound Holocaust research, and they are passionately and eloquently argued. BBC History Magazine
Davidson is a dramatic storyteller with a powerful voice. His driving narrative tells the story of Hitler's Final Solution in a compelling manner The Times Literary Supplement
Praise for The Perfect Nazi: One of the most unsettling books to have been written about the Third Reich not only because of the brutality with which it engages but because of the story of the hatching of great wickedness in a most prosaic life. If there ever was a personification of the banality of evil, it is Martin Davidson's Granpa Bruno. It is two stories in one - both riveting - that of the dentist's transformation into unswerving SS officer and of the grandson's appalled discovery. Woven together they make for unforgettable, haunting reading. -- Simon Schama
Praise for The Perfect Nazi: Searching for the truth about his German grandfather, Martin Davidson discovered Hitler's Everyman: the enthusiastic fascist functionary, unquestioning, unrepentant, and chillingly ordinary. The Perfect Nazi is a fascinating and extraordinary journey into the banality of evil at the heart of Nazism. -- Ben MacIntyre
Praise for The Perfect Nazi: The fascinating and utterly compelling account of what it's like to discover that your grandfather was a ruthless officer in Hitler's SS. -- Philip Kerr
Praise for The Perfect Nazi: A terrific piece of writing . . . The ordinariness of the man, combined with the fact that he was an "old fighter", make him a compelling example of willing Germans. His postwar life and the absence of any reflection or remorse are also strikingly familiar from other cases we know. [The Perfect Nazi] deserves to do well. -- David Cesarani
Praise for The Perfect Nazi: Davidson's journey into his grandfather's past makes for a compelling and unsettling tale . . . [A] thoughtful and affecting book. -- Dominic Sandbrook
Praise for The Perfect Nazi: Fascinating . . . Davidson has pulled together an account which is compelling and yet, at times, tantalizingly incomplete . . . this is an important book for anyone interested in the moral climate which led to the Holocaust and the other crimes of the Third Reich, and I can highly recommend it. -- Adrian Weale Evening Standard
Praise for The Perfect Nazi: Riveting. The Times
Praise for The Perfect Nazi: Fascinating, scrupulously researched, compelling. The Sunday Times
Praise for The Perfect Nazi: Brave, engrossing, shocking. Herald
In this highly original work, Martin Davidson expertly drills into the dark core of the Nazi catastrophe. He locates the dynamic of the regime in Hitler's virulent hatreds: no Hitler, no Holocaust. -- Chris Hale, author of Deception: How the Nazis Tricked the Last Jews of Europe

Martin Davidson is an author who held multiple roles during his thirty-year television career, primarily for the BBC, as well as Channel 4, ZDF, History and Discovery Channel. His directing, producing and commissioning, which spans both factual and drama programming, has received multiple BAFTAs and RTS Awards. His work on two series presented by Simon Schama - A History of Britain and The Story of the Jews - were critically and commercially acclaimed. Other series he has worked on include Wipers Times, The Eichmann Show, 37 Days and many more. Most recently, he completed work on ZDF's The Abyss, which recounts the rise and fall of the Third Reich, and the RTS-winning three-part series, The Lost Home Movies of Nazi Germany. He lives in France.

Praise for The Perfect Nazi : 'Absorbing, highly readable and painstakingly researched' NIALL FERGUSON 'Unforgettable, haunting reading' SIMON SCHAMA 'A fascinating and extraordinary journey into the banality of evil at the heart of Nazism' BEN MACINTYRE 'Riveting' THE TIMES 'Fascinating, scrupulously researched, compelling' SUNDAY TIMES In this radical new perspective on the Holocaust, Davidson challenges popular understanding and existing histories of the Holocaust. He does this in three main ways. Firstly, he describes the way in which German policy developed and was enacted in new and compelling detail, providing a road map to the 'long and twisting road to Auschwitz', skilfully dramatising those twists and turns, many of which are not generally included in conventional narratives. Secondly, he allows us to hear from new voices, notably female perpetrators, resisters and victims. These provide individual human perspectives on the unfolding events, without which true understanding is impossible; from planning and implementation, to knowledge - and its opposite, denial - all the way to its final reckoning, then and now.And finally, he provides a reappraisal of the moral perspective that drove the Holocaust, getting beyond the conventional notion of 'evil' as a catch-all rationale, to examine why anti-Jewish vitriol was such a powerful motivator for so many Germans, who used arguments and self-justifications that are more resonant today than they have been for decades. Never more so than in the use of the idea of suffering - how 'our' supposed suffering justifies 'theirs'.His focus is very much on the mindset that brought about the Holocaust, the desire to 'make Germany great again' and to make Germany's perceived enemies suffer. Again, this story of dreams of national greatness, and racially-targeted redemptive malevolence could not be more resonant today. Davidson foregrounds the stories of women, in part to illustrate the mindset of Nazi true believers - the German wife stationed in Poland, for example, who found a group of Jewish children who had escaped a mass execution, and shot them herself. He also describes the particular horror experienced by female inmates of the camps, who, as mothers, were the first to be killed alongside their children, and who were among the bravest of German resisters to the crimes being committed in their name - like twenty-one-year-old Sophie Scholl, whose leaflets listing and denouncing Nazi crimes resulted in her execution, in October 1943.The Holocaust forces us to understand that it wasn't the power of a single malevolent leader wh

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