Crossing Hitler: The Man Who Put the Nazis on the Witness Stand | 
| Author: Benjamin Carter Hett
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
List Price: $27.95
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Rating:  33 reviews
Sales Rank: 547833
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 0195369882
Dewey Decimal Number: 943.086092
EAN: 9780195369885
ASIN: 0195369882
Publication Date: September 18, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Hardcover with dustjacket, Oxford University Press, 2008. Brand-new. Shipped immediately.
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Product Description
During a 1931 trial of four Nazi stormtroopers, known as the Eden Dance Palace trial, Hans Litten grilled Hitler in a brilliant and merciless three-hour cross-examination, forcing him into multiple contradictions and evasions and finally reducing him to helpless and humiliating rage (the transcription of Hitler's full testimony is included.) At the time, Hitler was still trying to prove his embrace of legal methods, and distancing himself from his stormtroopers. The courageous Litten revealed his true intentions, and in the process, posed a real threat to Nazi ambition.
When the Nazis seized power two years after the trial, friends and family urged Litten to flee the country. He stayed and was sent to the concentration camps, where he worked on translations of medieval German poetry, shared the money and food he was sent by his wealthy family, and taught working-class inmates about art and literature. When Jewish prisoners at Dachau were locked in their barracks for weeks at a time, Litten kept them sane by reciting great works from memory. After five years of torture and hard labor-and a daring escape that failed-Litten gave up hope of survival. His story was ultimately tragic but, as Benjamin Hett writes in this gripping narrative, it is also redemptive. "It is a story of human nobility in the face of barbarism."
The first full-length biography of Litten, the book also explores the turbulent years of the Weimar Republic and the terror of Nazi rule in Germany after 1933. [in sidebar] Winner of the 2007 Fraenkel Prize for outstanding work of contemporary history, in manuscript. To be published throughout the world.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 28 more reviews...
 Insightful Study of Hans Litten and the German Legal System of 1930s in Turmoil. October 29, 2008
mirasreviews (McLean, VA USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
"Crossing Hitler: The Man Who Put the Nazis on the Witness Stand" is a biography of Hans Litten, a crusading German lawyer whose life ended prematurely at Dachau concentration camp in 1938, seven years after he pressed Adolf Hitler into a fit of rage on the witness stand at the Eden Dance Palace Trial. A recent revival in interest and regard for Litten in Germany has led to some sanitizing of his character and politics, which author Benjamin Carter Hett attempts to dispel. He presents a picture of a complex and radical man, a champion of the downtrodden, intolerant and inflexible, anti-Weimar Republic, anti-Nazi, anti-democratic, sympathetic to Communists but not one of them, who believed in the law, which he used to advance social and political consciousness in the volatile last years of the Weimar Republic.
Hett doesn't dedicate much space to Litten's personal life, if, indeed, he had a personal life. He was an obsessive man for whom everything revolved around the goals he pursued in the courtroom. There is detailed coverage of Litten's role and Hitler's difficulty in the 1931 Eden Dance Palace Trial in which four Nazi stormtroopers were accused of the attempted murder of three people at a Berlin party, a trial that may have sealed Litten's fate years hence. A year later, Litten was expelled from court for politicizing another trial of Nazi stormtroopers, this time for a violent clash with the communist Combat League Against Fascism. The book then follows Litten's movement through a series of prisons and concentration camps as a political prisoner after he was arrested in 1933.
Hans Litten is an interesting, if not likeable, man who had an important career at a pivotal time and place in history. But I found "Crossing Hitler" most illuminating when discussing the legal climate in Germany in the years just before and after the Nazi party came to power. The author goes beyond the idea that the Weimar judicial system was simply soft on the political right to present a broader picture of a varied legal system that was in the throes of upheaval in the early 1930s, yet managing still to function. The tireless efforts of Hans Litten's friends Max and Margot Furst and his mother Irmgard to free him from prison reveal a bureaucracy in the grasp of Nazi power but not yet entirely subdued by it. "Crossing Hitler" is an insightful and sometimes eloquent look at how a legal system behaved in the midst of political turmoil, through he experiences of a revolutionary lawyer.
 Wrestling with a Complex Man October 5, 2008
Michael W. Perry (Seattle, WA United States)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a biography of Hans Litten (1903-1938), a talented German lawyer and a fierce opponent of Nazism during its rise to power. His greatest success came in 1931 when he forced Adolf Hitler to give testimony at the Eden Dance Palace trial of four of the party's storm troopers, who were charged with attempted murder. At that time Hitler was playing a dangerous double-game, trying to convince Germans that his party intended to gain power only by legal means, while at the same time placating party members who wanted violent action. Much of the trial revolved around whether the party covertly approved of "rollo commandos," a term from the front lines of World War I that had come to refer to small groups of men whose task was to kill party opponents.
Few historians have mentioned Hans Litten. Ingo Mueller's Hitler's Justice makes no mention of him, nor does Louis Snyder's Hitler's German Enemies, or Peter Hoffmann's 847-page The History of the German Resistance 1933-1945. And despite the fury Litten provoked in Hitler, he isn't in the index of John Toland's two-volume biography, Adolf Hitler. In English, the only biography of him before this was by his mother, Irmgard Litten (A Mother Fights Hitler in UK, Beyond Tears in the US).
Why has one of Hitler's boldest early opponents been so woefully neglected? First, Litten was arrested just after the Reichstag fire, less than a month after Hitler took power, so virtually all his opposition to Hitler came during the rise to power, when opposition to Hitler was safer and more common. Confined to prison until his death by suicide in early 1938, he never had a chance to voice opposition to the regime. That's precisely what Hitler intended.
Second, even if a historian were to notice Litten, the very complexity of the man's character defies easy analysis. Benjamin Hett does his best to explain Litten, but even he leaves the reader confused. Litten's mother saw him as a devout descendant of the Protestant pastors on her side of the family, and yet at times he seems almost Catholic in his interest in Mary, and at other times he stressed a Jewish ancestry that came from a father he loathed. He believed intensely in many things without making an effort to reconcile their differences.
Most important of all, his opposition to Nazism suffers from a double taint. He was also a fierce critic of the Weimar Republic, which for all its flaws was the only thing standing between the German people and a dictatorship of the far right (Nazism) or far left (Communism). He sarcastically called it an "enormous comedy," and a friend noted that, "At that time, at the end of the Weimar Republic, we were against democracy."
What was he for politically? Although his exact intentions aren't clear, he seems to have wanted Germany to become communist. His battle with Nazism was closely linked to his courtroom defense of communist agitators whose behavior was often as violent as Nazi brownshirts. Friends may have claimed that his legal activities flowed from a deep desire to help the underdog, but in early 1930s Germany, there were many far more deserving underdogs than the communist thugs he defended.
Hett perhaps comes closest to making sense of Litten when he suggest that both Litten and Nazism share a "quintessentially German" attraction to ideas over reality:
"In his magisterial biography of Adolf Hitler, the historian Joachim Fest speculates that the most quintessentially German quality of the National Socialist movement was its perverted idealism; its uncompromisingly radical embrace of the power of an idea over reality, and its consequent hostility to reality. Though he dwelt at the opposite end of the political spectrum, Litten shared these qualities."
This isn't an easy book to read and, in the end you may feel, like me, that you've still not come to understand what drove Litten to live the life he lived. But perhaps that's for the best. There are some things we're not meant to understand.
--Michael W. Perry, editor of Chesterton on War and Peace: Battling the Ideas and Movements that Led to Nazism and World War II
More insight into Hitler's madness October 20, 2008
Steve Ruskin (Colorado, United States)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Hett's very interesting account of the life of Hans Litten focuses on Litten's prosecution of Adolf Hitler and other members of the Nazi party in the years before they came to full power. The aftermath of Hitler's retaliation against Litten is sobering, and as horrifying as any of the multitude of atrocities committed under the direction of the Nazis. To his credit, Hett notes that Litten was no angel, that his egotism and relentlessness in pursuit of his ideals (which could even turn off those closest to him) were both his greatest strengths and weaknesses.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the book is the lengthy (translated) transcription of Litten's cross-examination of Hitler. Fascinating.
A somewhat heavy, but well researched biography of Hans Litten October 25, 2008
Luke Waygood (Jamestown, NY United States)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
To be honest, I usually read fiction, especially sci-fi/fantasy and occasionally thrillers with WWII links (Enigma, Black Cross, The Shadowman). Enigma was a work of pure fiction, based on the premise that the Third Reich had expanded, survived and become a permanent fixture on the European landscape.
My apologies for mentioning another book. However, the reason why I do so, is because Crossing Hitler is a biography of Hans Litten, who put Hitler on the witness stand in the Eden Dance Palace trial of 1931. What few realize is that Litten's questions had the potential to cause Hitler to pejure himself (thus throwing him in jail) and fracture the Nazi party. Indeed, it takes little imagination for an "alternative history" sci-fi reader such as I, to wonder what would have happened if such a thing had come to pass? How many lives would have been spared? How much destruction avoided? How different would the world now be?
This is the concept that intrigued me into deviating into the realm of non-fiction.
The book really delves into Hans Litten's personality, beliefs and motivations. It looks closely at his life both from childhood right up to his death in Dachau concentration camp - the ultimate price paid for humiliating Hitler. Likewise, it looks closely at those who surrounded Litten, and the consequences of their association with him. To give him credit, Hett (the author) did a fantastic amount of research for the book, basing the arguments he provides largely on documented historical fact, backing it up with notes at the end citing the exact references.
Likewise, while the author clearly is familiar with other biographies of Hans Litten, he strives to fully understand this brave lawyer and uses historical facts to justify his views.
Personally, I found the book rather heavy, and would have enjoyed it more if more time had been devoted to Hitler's time on the witness stand.
In all, though, I recommend this well researched book.
Cross examining the madness of the Nazi party October 28, 2008
Wayne Klein (My Little Blue Window, USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
In 1931 the Nazi party hadn't gained complete control of Germany and Hitler's mad shadow hadn't begun to complete plunge Germany in darkness. Han Litten had the Nazi party on the stand when four of Nazi stormtroopers were accused and tried for attempted murder and assault. Litten did what would in retrospect be unthinkable by many people--he put Hitler on the stand. Hitler desperately sought the support of the German middle class and decided to distance himself from some of the more extreme behavior from the Nazi party. Hitler wanted to be seen as someone who was using the political and legal system properly to deal with issues within his party and outside of it. Litten knew differently. The prosecuting attorney called proceded to grill Hitler on the stand about his association with the Nazi party, what he knew and condoned managing to make the future Furher furious with Litten. Bravery has its cost even when we don't see the outcome of our actions or others.
Litten who esposed left wing political causes and embraced his Jewish heritage found himself in constant conflict with the Nazi party and what they were attempting to do in Germany. The result once Hitler took power was that Litten was thrown into Dachau first as a political prisoner and, later, because of he was a Jew. Hitler had Litten tortured, humiliated and tried to defeat him. All the while Litten held on to the knowledge of that he was on the side of right and that eventually Hitler would get his due.
A fascinating biography, Crossing Hitler is well researched and written by Benjamin Carter Hett. Hett knows his history--he is an Associate Professor of History at Hunter College and also knows the law having practiced as a former trial lawyer. His background gives us unique insight into Germany just as the country was turning the corner from the devestation of the first World War only to be plunged into darkness by the Hitler and the Nazi party. The only flaw with the book is that sometimes Hett lets the pacing lag a bit. Given that this book operates as both biography and history focusing on the trial where Litten put Hitler on the stand, I expected the book to open with that trial and work in details backwards from there. Perhaps it was my expectation but a chronological detailed account of Litten's life while important should have been bookended by the trial and its aftermath. To Hett's credit, he isn't pedantic and his style immediately involves you in the events he describes.
Hett gives us a unique portrait of Litten through interviews and correspondence that reveals a complex man who while a hero could be every bit as human and frail as you or me. Once the moment of bravery has past, it's how you deal with the consequences of that bravery that gives us a sense of the character. This is an extremely well written book that despite some minor flaws should be read particularly by those who felt that all Germans didn't oppose Hitler, the Nazi party and their transformation of Germany from a rising nation to a butcher shop that tore apart the country as it needlessly took human lives.
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