William shirer biography

Primary Sources

(1) William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich ()

At eighteen, several thousand of the girls in the Bund Deutscher Mädel (they remained in it until 21) did a year's service on the farms - their so-called 'Land Jahr', which was equivalent to the Labour Service of the young dock. Their task was to help both in the house and in the fields. The girls lived sometimes in the farmhouses and often in small camps in rural districts from which they were taken bygd truck early each morning to the farms.

Moral problems soon arose. Actually, the more sincere Nazis did not consider them moral problems at all. On more than one occasion I listened to women leaders of the Bund Deutscher Mädel lecture their young charges on the moral and patriotic duty of bearing children for Hitler's Reich - within wedlock if possible, but without it if necessary.

(2) William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich ()

Despite his äga

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William L. Shirer

Born

in Chicago, Illinois, The United States

February 23,

Died

December 28,

Genre

History, Nonfiction, Memoirs

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William Lawrence Shirer was an American journalist and historian. He became known for his broadcasts on CBS from the German capital of Berlin through the first year of World War II.

Shirer first became famous through his account of those years in his Berlin Diary (published in ), but his greatest achievement was his book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, originally published by Simon & Schuster. This book of well over pages is still in print, and is a detailed examination of the Third Reich filled with historical information from German archives captured at the end of the war, along with impressions Shirer gained during his days as a correspondent in Berlin. Later, in , his work The Collapse of the Third Republic drew William Lawrence Shirer was an American journalist and historian. He became known for his broadcasts o

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William L. Shirer

Early Career

Born in Chicago in , Shirer grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he attended Coe College.  After graduating in , he worked his way to Europe on a cattle boat, intending to become a journalist. By , the Chicago Tribune had hired him as a correspondent in its Paris bureau. In , he reported on the Nazi Party Rally in Nuremberg for the New York Herald Tribune.

Shirer joined William Randolph Hearst’s International News Service (INS) in , but was soon laid off.  The same day, he received a telegram from Edward R. Murrow of CBS News Radio asking him to dinner at the Adlon Hotel in Berlin, where foreign correspondents often gathered. By the end of the meal, Murrow had offered Shirer an audition.

Covering the Nazi Regime

Murrow was convinced that the momentous developments in Europe needed to be reported to Americans by journalists who could also give them critical analysis of the events. He assembled a group of young reporters, inc