A British soldier took home a damaged German book in 1945. For years, that book remained with his family and was more recently found and translated, providing insight into the propaganda that helped Adolf Hitler gain power.

Content of the book, which was published in the new "The Rise of Hitler Illustrated,"  gives "a photographic record of Hitlers' rise to power from when he was born in 1889, as he took over the hearts and minds of the German people, and his eventual arrival at the top," publisher Pen and Sword states on its website.

Among those images that were originally in "Deutschland Erwache" are some the Daily Express reported Hitler didn't want people to see:

Among the most comical images in the book are those of Hitler posing in short trousers.

Perhaps stumped for words, von Schirach wrote simply: "In der kurz'n" (in shorts).

Hitler later decided that such photographs were deeply undignified and humiliating, banning further publication.

Hitler the halfwit: Propaganda magazine makes Führer look like laughing stock http://t.co/BL7qDvNFlM

— FTSN Mainstream News (@ftsnnewsdeskm)

April 15, 2015

If you're shorts aren't high waisted, then what are they? Ugh -Adolf Hitler 1933 pic.twitter.com/eligmj5ZAS

— Rob Garzkowski (@robergarza2) April 9, 2015

The book's editor, Ron Wilkinson, described the book to the Express as a "sycophantic document of the day gives us a clue as to how even an extraordinarily wicked person can be made to look saintly."

Check out more images from the book in the Express' full report.

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Front page image via the Library of Congress.