In the late summer of 1942 Hitler ordered that stenographers take down every word that was uttered during the twice-daily military conferences. Of the more than 103,000 pages recorded less than 1,000 pages survived destruction in May 1945 and make up the material of this book. A truly definitive work, it also contains those conferences discovered after the original 1962 German publication that are included here for the first time. As the tide turned dramatically after Stalingrad and following D-Day, the Fuhrer never wavered, pulling Germany down with him, step by step into the abyss. The total effect of these pages goes far beyond adding powerfully to the military record. The human tragedy also takes on gigantic proportions when countless thousands of victims were often the result of each day of decision-making. Several of these conferences were introduced at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal as evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity and they also contain some of the very rare references to the Holocaust in Hitler's own words.