Book Description
An astonishing find-the landmark journal of a woman living though the Russian occupation of Berlin-which has already earned comparisons to diaries by Etty Hillesum and Victor Klemperer For six weeks in 1945, as Berlin fell to the Russian army, a young woman, alone in the city, kept a daily record of her and her neighbors' experiences, determined to describe the common lot of millions.Purged of all self-pity but with laser-sharp observation and bracing humor, the anonymous author conjures up a ravaged apartment building and its little group of residents struggling to get by in the rubble without food, heat, or water. Clear-eyed and unsentimental, she depicts her fellow Berliners in all their humanity as well as their cravenness, corrupted first by hunger and then by the Russians. And with shocking and vivid detail, she tells of the shameful indignities to which women in a conquered city are always subject: the mass rape suffered by all, regardless of age or infirmity. Through this ordeal, she maintains her resilience, decency, and fierce will to come through her city's trial, until normalcy and safety return.At once an essential record and a work of great literature, A Woman in Berlin not only reveals a true heroine, sure to join other enduring figures of the twentieth century, but also gives voice to the rarely heard victims of war: the women.
Customer Reviews:
History Is Still Going On!.......2007-10-14
A few months ago the city fathers in Talinn, Estonia, moved a World War II era statue of an angry-looking Red Army soldier which had been placed in a military cemetary in the city. The statue was supposed to depict the rage the soldier felt as he contemplated all of his fallen comrades.
Not all Estonians saw it that way. Local wags dubbed the statue the "Monument to the Unknown Rapist" and it was moved to a less prominent location. This outraged the Russians. Their army still wears the Red Star insignia to comemorate their hard won victory in what Soviet authors call "the Great Patriotic War" (World War II to the rest of us.)
Russia lodged official, menacing protests and Lithuania and Latvia responded with official support to Estonia. This diplomatic shoot-out is still percolating along. History isn't over. It's still going on around us.
The conduct of the Red Army toward civilians, especially women, has been a hot button issue since 1944 when Nemmersdorf, East Prussia, was briefly occupied, then abandoned to the Wehrmacht. Goebbels propaganda machine immediately accused the Red Army of spectacular atrocities including mass rape of women and girls and nailing some of them to barn doors and farm wagons as if they'd been crucified. Goebbels' documentary was shown to terrified audiences throughout Germany.
Intended to spur the Volkssturm, and other last-ditch home guards, to fight harder, the films panicked those who realized that they were on the Red Army's line of march into Berlin. They also started a controversy about the cruelties visited upon women by Red Army liberators.
Anonymous' excellent diary, A WOMAN IN BERLIN, gives a balanced insight into their conduct in Berlin when it fell in 1945. Available in several translations and editions, the author is sometimes thought to have been Marta Hiller, a prominent Berlin journalist who passed away in 2001.
Her account avoids melodrama. It is straightforward and describes what she experienced in matter-of-fact tones. She is raped herself. She sees it happen to others.
Yet, some Red Army soldiers are humane and helpful. The Red Army does not try to exterminate the battered population of Berlin as she feared they might in retaliation for Nazi attempts to exterminate the Slavs in some areas they'd occupied.
She learns that the conquerors can be decent, but that Red Army soldiers can also be brutal and dangerous when they are drunk. Nights become times of great danger for her, and other Berlin women.
Her account is one of survival in a time of catastrophic defeat. It is interesting to compare this memoir to Alexandra Orme's COMES THE COMRADE! which was written a few years later and deals with the Red Army's occupation of Hungary, an Axis ally. Orme's treatment of the Red Army strives for humor in the face of unavoidable adversity. Her treatment of the Red Army is much more sympathetic than most other accounts and it shows low long the Red Army's conduct has been an issue.
A WOMAN OF BERLIN is well-written and available in a number of editions and translations. If you're interested in World War II, the Red Army, or accounts of survival in desperate situations, you'll want to read this book. I gave it five stars because of the quality of the author's writing.
A subtle reminder..........2007-10-01
Not just a woman in Berlin at the end of WWII, but in any city, at any time, under armed conflict, this book reminds us of the atrocities derived out of human incomprehension, irracionality, ambition, etc. as anonymous as the author is, the actors are too, given the fact, they're all gone today, but not so their legacy... which has stayed with us (and hopefully with future generations). Interestingly, the way the author describes every infamous episody will make you notice the way things have changed too, for even physical abuse under war circumstances had certain brush of "decency" inexistent among today's savagery.
A just in time wake up call you can't afford to miss...
Powerful but Uplifting.......2007-08-08
I read this book together with An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiographies) in anticipation of a trip to Berlin. They are both relatively short reads, and the combination of the two seemed especially powerful.
I thought that "A Woman in Berlin" might be too harrowing to endure (it _is_ a relation of the plight of defenceless women facing a conquering, vengeful, rapacious (yeah, like, RAPE) male army. However the author's determination to survive and to make the best of what quickly becomes her powerfully oppressive circumstances salves the reader. It's an enlightening description of what happens to an advanced western civilization when completely reduced for a time to life and death armed confrontation.
The author has interesting observations on the 'feminization' of Berlin _in extremis_ -- all the able-bodied men were at the fronts. Other than women of all ages, there were only disabled or very old men and children left in Berlin. [Of course there were also a few remaining men of the rapidly crumbling elite ruling class and their camp followers buried in Berlin bunkers who were utterly irrelvant to life in Berlin in April/May 1945.]
A Woman in Berlin confronts female / male sex in the context of armed male oppresssion and a woman's enlightened understanding of how to maximize her limited opportunities under very straightened circumstances.
An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiographies)celebrates male homosexual sex in the context of unimaginable oppression and tragedy. The author's exuberance about his sexual encounters and conquests in the face of this oppression and tragedy lightens what might otherwise be a harrowing read -- this book is part of a series celebrating the lives of gays and lesbians, after all, and so may not have been intended for the general heterosexual reader -- worth it, nevetheless.
I can't put into words the impact on me of reading in close proximity these two stories of "sex in wartime Berlin". I still ponder that impact.
Raw, Ragged Reality.......2007-07-11
Some books appeal to your intellect, others to your heart. This one hits you hard right in the gut. The author's shock, fear, suffering and revulsion are delivered relentlessly through her perceptive eyes, with poetic expressiveness and biting wit.
Along with the horrific experiences she recounts, some of the most searing passages are the reflections of her heart and soul. In the original German, they are particularly touching and thought-provoking. Her character, humanity and indomitable spirit transcend the pages that she wrote.
At the end of the nine-week period covered in the diary, I was struck by this true "Triumph des Willens" - the will to survive.
stepping into her shoes.......2007-07-03
perhaps because this is a diary, it is raw and allows one to step into the shoes of the author. It gives one a first hand look at what life was like for the German citizens living in Berlin immediately prior to and during the Soviet troops occupation. Although hard to read it times, it is as though one is right there. Very true first-hand look. A book one can't put down, and leaves one thinking about the suffering of the masses.
Amazon.com
By December 1944, many of the 3 million citizens of Berlin had stopped giving the Nazi salute, and jokes circulated that the most practical Christmas gift of the season was a coffin. And for good reason, military historian Antony Beevor writes in this richly detailed reconstruction of events in the final days of Adolf Hitler's Berlin. Following savage years of campaigns in Russia, the Nazi regime had not only failed to crush Bolshevism, it had brought the Soviet army to the very gates of the capital. That army, ill-fed and hungry for vengeance, unloosed its fury on Berlin just a month later in a long siege that would cost hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides. But as Beevor recounts, the siege was also marked by remarkable acts of courage and even compassion. Drawing on unexplored Soviet and German archives and dozens of eyewitness accounts, Beevor brings us a harrowing portrait of the battle and its terrible aftermath, which would color world history for years to follow. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
The Red Army's invasion of Berlin in January 1945 was one of the most terrifying examples of fire and sword in history. Frenzied by terrible memories of Wehrmacht and SS brutality, the Russians wreaked havoc, leaving hundreds of thousands of civilians dead and millions more fleeing westward. Drawing upon newly available material from former Soviet files, as well as from German, American, British, French, and Swedish archives, bestselling author Antony Beevor vividly recounts the experiences of the millions of civilians and soldiers caught up in the nightmare of the Third Reich's final collapse. The Fall of Berlin 1945 is a heartrending story of pride, stupidity, fanaticism, revenge, and savagery, yet it is also one of astonishing human endurance, self-sacrifice, and survival against all odds.
Customer Reviews:
Understanding what, and who you are reading.......2007-09-04
The Publisher Weekly review is unfair in that it critiques "The Fall of Berlin" from the wrong standpoint. This is not a book, and Anthony Beevor is not the type of author, that strives to provide ground-breaking analysis on political thought. Beevor's point and power is reconstructing military strategy and battle scenarios. His analysation of political figures is simply a backdrop to the actual drama that unfolded on the battlefields. With attention to detail, Beevor describes the advance of the Soviets and the havoc that was wreaked on both the German forces and civilians. His prose is rather engaging, and puts to good use both soldier and civilian diaries.
If you're looking for a window into the minds of leading political figures like Hitler and Stalin, continue your search. But if it is a human story you seek, filled with strife and tragedy, or a comprehensive depiction of military tactics, look no further. This book reads very well as a follow up to "Stalingrad."
very good book.......2007-07-31
I thought that Beevor's book was excellent and fair.It showed a veyr nuanced look at what the Soviet soldiers did,and presents a balance in the way it is presented. I would probably give four and a half stars if I could, only because I had just read Toland's last 100 Days,which I thought gave some details not present here.I like Beevor and Toland as writers.
Gotterdamnerung .......2007-07-17
Excellent historical work about the last 5 months of the German Reich in WW2. From January to May, 1945, the once vaunted German Third Reich was systematically destroyed. Mr. Beevor takes both the long and short look at this catastrophe. He viewed the ultimate defeat of the German nation as both self-inflicted and caused by an Allied coalition that was simply too strong. Much of the book examines the brutal Eastern Front as the dying German forces fought against an ever growing Russian military. Outnumbered, outgunned, and simply out-Generaled in many cases, the Germans fought on with heroic bravery only to eventually collapse under the weight of the Russian Bear. Hitler's descent into madness aided by his sycophantic General Staff was well chronicled by Mr. Beevor. Most of the front line fighting generals and common soldiers fought with bravery, but were simply let down by the German political and military leadership. Toward the end, Hitler and his clownish General staff were simply moving empty military pieces around a map board. For the soldiers on the front it was every man for himself in the end. Sadly the civilians paid the price for this German misadventure as the Russian army was brutal and memories of German atrocities in Mother Russian ran deep.
Excellent overview of the final months of WW2 in Europe. Good maps to aid the reader in following the final days. Mr. Beevor does a good job of both looking at the overall picture and also highlighting specific events to give the reader a flavor for the times. Rather than delve into the psyche of why the Germans fought to the end, Mr. Beevor spent most of the book as a chronicle of troop movements and battles. For more specifics there are a plethora of books today that deal with the individual Generals, battles, events, and soldiers. I enjoyed The Fall of Berlin 1945 and recommend it to anyone interested in this part of WW2. Not light reading so be ready for a history lesson.
EXCELLANT READ.......2007-03-07
Have read several books on this subject and this is by far one of the best .
Even for the casual reader it has a broad scope flows easily and is hard to put down . It has some great insights into the Allies relationships and how the Americans in particular underestimated Stalin and his motives ...Particularly interesting is why Stalin really wanted to get to Berlin first. It's also is satisfying too see what the Russians did once they entered Germany get a much broader audience , since a lot of western scholarship hasn't really scratched the surface ...
Excellent Account of Total War.......2007-01-08
Antony Beevor's "The Fall of Berlin 1945" is an excellent account of not only the Battle for Berlin but the Red Army's 1945 Winter Offensive. The book is written in the spirit Cornelius Ryan, Stephen Ambrose, and even Max Hastings, by weaving first-person accounts into the story of the large-scale battles between the opposing armies.
Through Beevor's narrative, one can read about the utter ineptness of the Nazi leadership during its final days; about the cunning Stalin playing his best two marshals (Zhukov and Konev) against each other (Beevor is also surprisingly critical of many of Zhukov's decisions); and about the struggles of the individual soldiers on both sides. One can also read about the sheer hell that the civilians experienced in East Prussia, Pomerania, and Berlin at the hands of the conquering invaders.
Cornelius Ryan has already told this story in "The Last Battle," but Beevor's work is certainly worth reading. While "The Last Battle" tells only the story of the two-week Battle of Berlin, Beevor's book puts the Battle of Berlin into the context of the larger Soviet offensive through Poland and into Germany. The actual attack on Berlin does not begin until the midway point of the book. Also, Beevor offers more analysis than Ryan did in "The Last Battle," which focuses more on the individuals involved in the fighting.
Beevor's book is very well-written and would be of interest to anyone interested in World War II or who wanted to see how brutal total, unadulterated war can be.
Book Description
The focus of this book are the author's vivid memories of service as a company commander in a Red Army officers' penal battalion on the Eastern Front 1944-45.
During this time, he and his unit participated in the 1944 Soviet summer offensive Operation 'Bagration', the Vistula-Oder operation into eastern Germany, and the final assault on Berlin.
The stories of penal companies and battalions in the Red Army gave birth to legends about men who rushed to the attack across minefields against German machine-guns with one rifle per three men. The author of this book knows from his own experience what a penal battalion is. A common threat during the war, "I will send you to a penal battalion!" meant nothing to him. He was there.
He was a platoon commander and later a commander of an officers' penal company. He was a senior lieutenant having a degraded regiment commander as a second-in-command. He and his company had to carry out the most difficult and dangerous operations in order to break through the enemy defenses. With more than 80% of the men lost his company succeeded in completing their missions. The horrors of war, the hand-to-hand fights with a desperately struggling enemy are described in this book along with a story of a strong feeling between the young officer and a hospital nurse Rita. Thanks to Alexander Rita was appointed a nurse in the penal battalion. She saved dozens of soldiers, carrying them from the battlefield under enemy fire. It was Rita who saved Alexander Pyl'cyn from death, when he was badly wounded near Berlin. She became his wife in the last months of the war. The author is brilliant at detailing the way of life and personal relations in the war. In this horrible slaughter cowardice and treason went side by side with friendship and heroism. In these inhuman conditions people remained as they were: they lived, they laughed, they loved.
Key sales points: High-quality memoirs from Soviet soldiers who served on the Eastern Front are rare - rarer still are firsthand accounts of the Red Army's penal battalions / The author's intense and exciting style produces a fluid and highly-readable account of the brutal reality of war in the East during its most bitter final phase / Includes the author's experiences during the storming of Berlin 1945, and his battlefield romance with Rita, the battalion's nurse, and his future wife.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Account of a Red Army Penal Battalion at War.......2007-03-25
As a lieutenant, the author in December 1943 was assigned to lead a platoon in a Red Army "Officer Penal Battalion". He describes the organization, training, equipment of his battalion, and the personalities he recalls, in great and fascinating detail. Essentially, Officer Penal Battalions were shock troops used to infiltrate through or breach holes in German defensive lines. The "Officer Prisoners" fought to redeem their honor and freedom after being arrested and convicted of crimes against the State. If the officer prisoners survived and fought with honor, they were often freed and reinstated to officer status, depending on the personality and quirks of the commander of the army to which the penal battalion was attached. The author was not a convicted offender; he was part of the cadre assigned to lead this unit into combat. As a platoon leader, his deputy in one battle was a lieutenant colonel who had commanded an infantry regiment with distinction before running afoul of the State. He freely admits his unit sometimes captured, interrogated, and executed German prisoners of war, because when operating behind enemy lines in his words, "What else could we do?" This is a harsh book on the nature of close in infantry combat and the soldiers who wage it. Mercy is an alien concept when you are outnumbered and slugging it out with pistol, submachine gun, grenades, and entrenching tool against German soldiers at night inside an enemy trench. Readers interested in Soviet accounts of the infantryman's war during the last years of WWII will find this one of the best books on the subject. The author tells a candid story, one chock full of fascinating details and chilling memories, quite well. Heroism, cowardice, and luck fill the pages. This book is so well written, one can almost smell the cordite and hear the sounds of the advancing German assault guns as the author and his comrades fight like lions to repulse counterattack after counterattack in the Narev Bridgehead, October 1944.
Excellent reference about a fairly obscure topic.......2007-01-24
This book was written by a man who experienced life in a penal unit firsthand, and offers a unique perspective. He debunks several misconceptions about such units, while simultaneously providing an excellent account of daily life as an officer leading a unit of Shtrafniks. Pyl'cyn displays great personal bravery on a number of occasions. The only downside to this book is that, as the memoir of a junior officer, it does not give a big-picture perspective of the role of penal units in the war. I think it would be greatly aided by a companion piece written as a scholarly study of such units.
The Only WWII Red Army Memoir on Punishment Units.......2006-12-11
This interesting and insightful book is the only War World II memoir written by an officer of the Soviet Army's World War II penal or punishment formations.
Some 422,700 Red Army soldiers served in punishment battalions during World War II. Few survived service in such formations, which one specialist of the Soviet Army described as "forlorn," "deadly," and "soul destroying."
Alexander Pyl'cyn served as a platoon commmander and deputy commander of the 8th Independent Penal Battalion. He and his battalion fought in Byelorussia, Poland and Germany, ending the war in Berlin. Wounded three times during the war, Pyl'cyn's description of life and death in a penal battalion is powerful. He and his company carried out the most difficult and dangerous missions on any sector to which they were assigned and were frequently in the lead of Red Army breakthroughs of the German lines. Suffering casualty rates of some 80 percent, he and his men usually accomplished their mission.
"Penalty Strike" is not an easy read, though it is very well written. The text is dense and packed full of people, places, and battles. Still, the author manages to clearly and powerfully convey to the reader what it meant to be a Soviet soldier on the Eastern Front in World War. II. And many parts of the story are moving, especially when dealing with close friends killed in battle or Pyl'cyn's courtship with a Red Army nurse, whom he later married.
Those interested in the Red Army or the Eastern Front in World War II will find this book an important contribution to the literature.
Rssential for any researching the Soviet military experience during the second world war........2006-11-07
Alexander V. Pyl'cyn's PENALTY STRIKE: THE MEMOIRS OF A RED ARMY PENAL COMPANY COMMANDER, 1943-45 is also essential reading for any who would understand the WW2 experience from the Soviet participant's viewpoint: again a participant's vivid memories are plumbed: this time from a company commander's viewpoint. The author and his unit participated in the 1944 soviet summer offensive program and the final assault on Berlin: his accounts of penal companies and battalions offer vivid insights into the foundations of a penal battalion's operations. Both are essential for any researching the Soviet military experience during the second world war.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
worth it for EF junkies .......2006-05-04
I have read the Russian version of the book - it is reasonably well written memoir which dispels a whole lot of legend about Soviet penal units (big bad commissars with revolvers shooting every one at the slightest hint of fear, sanding people without the weapons in battle etc). Well worth the money.
Average customer rating:
- The evidence? The Truth?
- 100% in personal evidence, 0% in archive evidence
- Packed with information, the real story.
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The Last Days of Hitler: The Legends, the Evidence, the Truth
Anton Joachimsthaler
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Customer Reviews:
The evidence? The Truth?.......2000-06-13
If you are looking for something new and interesting on this subject, this is not the book for you. The author has cobbled together a great deal of previously published material from which he endeavors to garner the 'Truth' by the simple process of the vote system. Ergo, if two witnesses say one thing and a third says otherwise, then the two witness statement must be right! Always assuming that the two witnesses are in accordance with his ;feeling; on the subject.
The author spends many pages on the subject of the exact thickness of the bunker roof which, whilst mildly interesting, is of no great historical import.
Perhaps the only 'new' material which he introduces in the closing chapter is his hypothesis on the subject the love affair between Eva Braun-Hitler and Hermann Fegelein. Any credence which might be given to this is somewhat marred by the fact that his 'evidence' is mainly attributed to statements by Hitler's youngest secretary Frau Junge. Throughout the main body of his book the author has discounted all statements by Frau Jung as being 'unreliable'. Yet, suddenly, the reader is being asked to accept statements by the same witness as gospel.
There is nothing new here. Buy O'Donnell's The Bunker or Trevor Ropers The Last Days of Adolf Hitler. The former for entertainment and a host of fact. The latter for pure fact written very shortly after the events.
100% in personal evidence, 0% in archive evidence.......1998-03-11
With many details in Hitler's life and death, there are scores of myths, half-truths, and surmises. His death has its share of all three. Joachimsthaler does the best job I've seen in presenting and analyzing the evidence of personal testimonies of those involved with Hitler in his last days. However, he totally writes off the archival evidence from Moscow. To discover the full truth about Hitler's death, one must, at the very least, compare this book and the one by Ada Petrova and Peter Watson.
Packed with information, the real story........1997-10-22
Anton Joachimsthaler is clearly one of the most knowlegeable authors on this subject! The depth of his research is evident in his foot notes. All of his information and facts are backed- up by documentation. This is just one of his many books on WWII Germany.
Book Description
This is one of the most vivid accounts of destruction and hopelessness we have ever seen. It is a 17-year-old German conscript's experiences in the defense of Berlin during the spring of 1945 - the last desperate days of Berlin - annotated and illustrated to show his part in the overall picture.
Altner's account covers in detail recruit training on the front line after only ten days in barracks, the execution of deserters and action against the Red Army and turncoat German 'Seydlitz' Troops.
He tells of the retreat back to Berlin with full kit, escaping capture time after time and the annihilation of nearly all his company in just one action.
He gives detailed descriptions of house to house fighting in the Spandau sector of Berlin, the battle for the Olympic Stadium, the sacrifice of Hitler Youths, fighting in the city's subway tunnels and the disastrous attempt at a breakout to the west, culminating in his final capture.
This is an account of war at its most basic and brutal level, of the collapse of everything familiar and the hopelessness of imminent defeat.
Customer Reviews:
Soldier's View - chaotic and confused.......2005-08-18
As a career soldier, one must first remember that soldiers are people, mostly young people that may or may not be students of history or burning with a passion for all things military. Soldiers join the colors for many reasons. Anybody who knows what "Bismarks" are, understands what "pacific" means, or gone searching for squelch oil understands this. So, if a young soldier is basically confused and clueless over grand strategy and small details that some affcionados desire, that is the way it is in all armies at all times. It is the experience of being a soldier. While to some it may seem distracting that young men are more in tuned with details of meals and sex, well, we have to remember that they are young men. Furthermore, this is something they know unlike the confusing world of soldiering and combat. This is a great story about the experience of war in Berlin in 1945. It is a microcosm. To understand the larger pitcure try Tieke or Ryan.
Chaos of the Reich's Last Days.......2005-05-21
Many of stories like this never got told, surviving the last days of the Soviet steamroller on the Oder line and then again in Berlin surely was a chancy bet. A studied and thorough military history, Berlin Dance of Death is not. It is a stunning personal account of a young soldier in the desperate last days of the Third Reich. Altner's story reflects the crushing of the East Front, the harrowing retreat, Soviet encirclement, retreat into Berlin, the battle for the city, his escape, and final capture. He brings all this to the reader on a very immediate level.
A 17 year old induction in the German Army........2004-05-15
Altner was a seventeen year old German when he was inducted into the German Army and fought for five weeks in the defense of Berlin. This book is the story of those five weeks. As a previous reviewer has noted, Altner is not very careful in his descriptions of arms, tanks, aircraft, etc. Footnotes are provided that fill in much of this information. What is a seventeen year old interested in....food and sex, and so some of the story focuses on these two items at the expense of others. Altner also focuses on the traumatization of war, seeing a friend without his nose and eyes, walking past a wounded soldier without stopping, watching wounded soldiers be run over by tanks.
One gets a pretty vivid portrait from this seventeen year old kid of what war is like.
Although an interesting read, there are better stories out there such as Sajer's The Forgotten Soldier. Altner's experience was only five weeks, so perhaps it was not a complete picture of the war on the Eastern Front.
Unbelievable first-person account!.......2003-12-03
These are the experiences of a 17 year-old conscripted in the last couple months of the war where training was "on the job". Unbelievable accounts of fighting in Berlin where chaos reigns. Very detailed, very graphic. Every male from 14 to 60 gets pressed into service, or shot by the SS. Many don't have useable weapons, very little food and no rest from the hell of war. Civilians carry their few remaining possessions as they flee before the Russians. The flight of the remaining military and civilians as they try to break out of the Russian encirclement of the city and reach the western front is described graphically. The author is one of only a few survivors of a company of 150 17 year-olds. Probably the most enthralling first-person account of the many I've read, if only because it was written by a youth and covers only the last few months of the war when there was no longer any glory left to fight for--only survival.
Berlin Dance of Death.......2003-07-10
Very detailed and factual. Slow moving. If you like daily military unit reports you will find this interesting. Floyd McRae
Book Description
THE CLASSIC ACCOUNT OF THE FINAL OFFENSIVE AGAINST HITLER'S THIRD REICH
The Battle for Berlin was the culminating struggle of World War II in the European theater, the last offensive against Hitler's Third Reich, which devastated one of Europe's historic capitals and marked the final defeat of Nazi Germany. It was also one of the war's bloodiest and most pivotal battles, whose outcome would shape international politics for decades to come.
The Last Battle is Cornelius Ryan's compelling account of this final battle, a story of brutal extremes, of stunning military triumph alongside the stark conditions that the civilians of Berlin experienced in the face of the Allied assault. As always, Ryan delves beneath the military and political forces that were dictating events to explore the more immediate imperatives of survival, where, as the author describes it, "to eat had become more important than to love, to burrow more dignified than to fight, to exist more militarily correct than to win."
The Last Battle is the story of ordinary people, both soldiers and civilians, caught up in the despair, frustration, and terror of defeat. It is history at its best, a masterful illumination of the effects of war on the lives of individuals, and one of the enduring works on World War II.
Customer Reviews:
History review.......2007-01-10
Excellent how so manay different events were put in such a good sequence.
Historical Masterpiece.......2005-02-04
Cornelies Ryan ceases to amaze me with his meaningful and destinct historical details of some the 20th century's most important events. This book achieves what most histories fail to do. It gives great amounts of information without becoming dry and repititious.
Ryan drags you through the last days of the third reich, through the good the bad and the ugly. This non-partisan view is an achievemewnt in itself. If you have any remote interest in history you will find Ryans books fasinating and the sources of his information astounding. Modern historians write books based mostly on second hand knowledge but all of what Ryan puts down on paper is straight from the horses mouth and is verified.
The cliched phrase "The movie doesnt do the book justice" Applies in every sence. Read it today!
Very well written.......2003-12-13
I orginally bought all three of Ryan's books at the same time since his book "The Longest Day" was the basis of the movie "The Longest Day", and the reviews of all three books were very good. I decided to read "The Last Battle" first, since my strong interest in WWII is dealing with the Americans, British, & Germans; the Russians have held little interest to me. With that in mind, I figured this book would be the least interesting to me of the three books.
Boy, was I in for a surprise! "The Last Battle" was a very interesting and very well written book about the battle for Berlin. The book takes turns telling the story from all sides; the Americans, the British, the Germans, & the Russians. The book is so very well written that it just keeps flowing, very smoothly. The book is hard to put down. Inaddition to telling the story of the military side, you also get the horrible stories of what it was like to live in Berlin as a civilian, during its final battle.
If you read some other reviews for this book, they all say the same thing: this is a great book, very well written. You wiil not be disappointed!!
The way history should be presented........2003-12-06
In The Last Battle, Cornelius Ryan presents the battle of Berlin in shocking, realistic detail. Rather than the usual broad stroked, glossed over version of history that we usually get in movies and textbooks. Rather Ryan shows the events unfold through the stories of individuals that were there. From civilians to foot soldier, politicians to high ranking command officers. All sides are presented to the reader. This the real nitty gritty of the events, not just history told from one point of view or perspective. A must have for any serious World War II reader and a highly recommended read for anyone else!
The End of the Reich and Start of Cold War.......2003-07-09
The Last Battle, the second book of Cornelius Ryan's World War II trilogy, is a vivid and haunting account of the last days of Hitler's Third Reich and the fall of Berlin. As in The Longest Day (1959) and A Bridge Too Far (1974), Ryan weaves his narrative tapestry with meticulous research and eyewitness accounts of military and civilians on all sides who were caught up in the cataclysmic events of that terrible spring of 1945.
It is April, 1945, and Germany is tottering at the edge of defeat. On the Western Front, General Dwight D. Eisenhower's Allied armies have crossed the Rhine, the Reich's last natural defense against invasion from the west. Now, sensing that victory is near, American, British, Canadian and other Allied divisions are racing for the Elbe River and beyond - with Berlin as the long expected prize.
In the East, millions of Soviet soldiers have swept into Germany from the Baltic states and Poland, storming into the Nazi heartland with blood and fire. Urged on by their thirst for revenge and the orders of Red dictator Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Army also races west toward the German capital. Here the dying Third Reich will stand or die in its last battle.
Ryan deals here not only with the fall of Berlin, but he also explores in detail the very complicated political and military issues behind Eisenhower's most controversial decision of the War: the Western Allies would not cross beyond the Elbe River to capture Hitler's capital. Though Ryan's tone is impartial and he delves deeply into the wrangling between President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Premier Stalin, the reader is still left with the impression that the plans dealing with Germany's postwar fate sowed the seeds of the Cold War which followed V-E Day.
The Last Battle, although longer and far more complex than The Longest Day, is a very human story that keeps the reader involved. One feels the suspense of the frantic Allied advance eastward, cheering the "Amis" (as the Germans nicknamed the Americans) on even though it will be the Red Army that gets to Berlin first. The German participants, military and civilian alike, are depicted fairly and without the expected "victor's triumphal" tone that would have painted all the Germans as Nazi villains. Indeed, one can feel sympathy for Berliners who - with the exception of Hitler and his most loyal followers - would rather be at the mercy of the British and Americans rather than fall to the feared Russians. It must be said, however, that although Ryan wrote this book during the Cold War, he is fair and balanced in his reporting of the Soviet advance to Berlin.
Book Description
Concise history of the Allied campaign to liberate Northwest Europe during World War II
Places the campaign in the war's broader context
Casts new light on some familiar subjects and recounts many neglected issues
This study describes not only what happened from the D-Day landings in June 1944 to the surrender of Germany eleven months later, but also why it happened. While an enormous amount has been written about this campaign, most of it focuses on a single army or an individual battle. Levine stresses a truly integrated approach that combines both strategy and tactics and covers the land, sea, and air efforts of both Allies and Axis. Levine deals extensively with the German side, particularly morale issues, and he includes the role played by Canadian forces--a topic usually neglected in American accounts.
Customer Reviews:
Solid historiography.......2007-08-03
Alan J. Levine's `From the Normandy Beaches to the Baltic Sea: The Northwest Europe Campaign, 1944-1945' is an solid synopsis of the year the Western Allies spent in NW Europe at the end of the Second World War. Levine provides not only historically correct information but also insightful commentary where controversy or question still lingers. This is a fine piece of historiography worthy of a read not only by `academic types' but also those who want a good primmer to this period of WWII. `From the Normandy Beaches to the Baltic Sea' is not flowery or `popular' style writing; while Levine is clearly a solid writer. If you want your history a la Ryan or Ambrose style, this is probably not for you. If you're looking for first-person accounts; this is not the book for you. If you want small unit history; this is not the book for you. However, if you want a good top-down (to mid level command) look at the progress of the war in NW Europe (with connected political events and Soviet coordination of events on the eastern front) this is probably a book worth tracking down. Praeger Press is an academic press that really targets libraries rather than mass populace, thus purchasing a copy of `From the Normandy Beaches to the Baltic Sea' is probably not an option for most. However, this is a book worth tracking down a copy of at your local library or via an interlibrary loan. At just over 200 pp. of formal text, Levine's book is a 4.5 star effort, great for the serious, and good for the casual reader.
[This review is based on the original Praeger Press printing of this Stackpole production]
Book Description
From the pomp and glitter of the 1936 Olympics to the apocalyptic battle to capture the ruined capital of the Nazi Empire, The Fall of Berlin presents a kaleidoscopic portrait of one of the world's greatest cities caught between the lunacy and cruelty of its leaders and the brutal determination of encircling Soviet armies. The authors have delved into archival research, diaries, and memoirs, and conducted numerous interviews to recreate through brilliantly detailed vignettes the story of Berlin and its resilient inhabitants: the soldiers and ordinary citizens pounded by Allied bombing but maintaining their gallows humor; the endless procession of refugees; the 5,000 Jews who foiled the Nazi's rabid attempt to "purify" the capital; people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer who gave their lives in heroic anti-Nazi resistance while film stars and the well-connected lived in precarious luxury; the Third Reich's leaders jockeying for power in Hitler's underground bunker even as a ragged army of children, invalids, and old men confronted Soviet tanks in the rubble above; and of course, Hitler himself, trapped beneath a city he hated, waiting for the miracle promised him in horoscope readings. Not since Is Paris Burning? has a book so vividly evoked the daily struggle for survival and dignity in the nightmarish center of total war.
Customer Reviews:
The war from the perspective of Berliners........2006-03-06
This is a superb book. I read it in a single (long!) day, found its narrative totally absorbing. So many facts, observations and recollections of life in Berlin both before and during the war. Such a book could have been a dry listing of events, but the authors do the subject credit and make it an excellent read. I remember visitng East Berlin in the late 70's and seeing the still ruined Imperial Capitol buildings. Just like the war had ended yesterday. Its all fixed up now (I assume; haven't been back there since the wall fell), but this book answered many questions I had from that time as to what life there must have been like during wartime. This book proves that good historical scholarship does not have to be boring.
Absorbing must read.......2005-07-03
This is a must read. It gives you a real feel of what is was like for Berliners. The writers take into account the stories of a lot of people who were living in Berlin and their stories of survival. As you keep reading you can almost feel the noose tightening around Berlin and it's inevitable fall to the Russians.
A Wonderful Read.......2003-03-26
I think what I appreciate most about this book was that it didn't focus only on the battles of World War II or the major personalities, but it examines the lives of everyday Berliners and those who lived through the city's triumphs and tragedies. The book containes the narratives of Berliners from all walks of life; the factory workers, socialites, refugees, soldiers, Jews, etc. The book examines the War through the eyes of those who experienced it first hand, but whose voices have been muted in the presence of the big names in history. This certainly isn't an earth shattering revelation, but the book is a nice addition to anyone's historical knowledge.
The Fall of Berlin.......2003-01-28
Starting with the Olympics of 1936, authors Read and Fisher chronicle the history of Berlin during the years prior to World War II and ending with the Battle of Berlin. Focusing not only on the known historical players such as Hitler and Goebbels, but including excerpts from diaries of every day Berliners, the book reads almost like a novel with a cast of thousands. At first, Berliners are stunned that Hitler is able to conqueror most of continental Europe through sheer bravado alone. The general consensus seems to be that eventually the world will see Hitler and the Nazis for what they really are and sanity will once again prevail. But of course, we can now look back in hindsight and realize that the complacency of the general population and the other world leaders is precisely what led to Hitler wreaking havoc on the world.
Most of the chapters are very short, no more than 3-4 pages long. This help keeps the pace of the book from bogging down into too much detail. Much information is given on the daily life of Berliners, how ration cards worked, etc. In addition, the authors do an excellent job of describing how different groups, Jews, immigrants, forced laborers, Hitler Youth, etc. reacted to the changing world as eventually Berlin spiraled into chaos. The innumerable bombings, which nightly rocked the city, are described in detail and how the city reacted, as first stunned and then eventually immune to the terror. The first 200 pages of the book cover the years from 1936 until March, 1945 while the remaining 250 pages detail the Battle of Berlin. Through complicated political considerations, the Soviets are allowed to conquer the city while the British and American troops hold back. Because the Soviet Union suffered so much during the war, especially the siege of Stalingrad, it is deemed only fitting that they make the first attempt on the city. The first wave of soldiers were professionals while the second wave of soldiers-former prisoners of the Germans, took out their hatred in raping, looting and pillaging. In the first 8 weeks after the fall of Berlin, over 90,000 German women had seen doctors due being raped by the Soviet soldiers. How many never reported this crime cannot even be estimated.
I would highly recommend this book to any student of World War II history who wants a good grasp of the social and political effects of war on a major industrialized city. Well written and well documented, the book allows readers to relive one of the most horrific time periods in modern history. It also allows the reader to better understand how the Nazis maintained their power until the very end over an educated populace. Hopefully lessons such as these will not go unheeded for future generations.
A Great Epic Novel.......2002-05-02
This is a wonderful book. I'm really surprised there hasn't been a movie or mini-series made of this story. This may bring back the TV mini-series if marketed properly.
Little tidbits that I hadn't known about before. The attitude of the people of Berlin during the bombings; the story about Goering(?) going down to the subways during the bombing and making jokes; the description of Zossen; the Zoo flak tower; the last dyas of Hitler, etc. A very interesting read for a long, detailed novel.
Average customer rating:
- A Look Inside The Last Hole of the Third Reich
- Fascinating, Carefully-Researched, Unforgettable
- The definitive book on the Fuhrerbunker
- Interesting read......if taken with a grain of salt
- Interesting but leaves you wondering....
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The Bunker
James P. O'Donnell
Manufacturer: Da Capo
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Binding: Paperback
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The Last Days of Hitler
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Inside Hitler's Bunker: The Last Days of the Third Reich
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Until the Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary
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Downfall
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The Bunker
ASIN: 0306809583
Release Date: 2001-02-19 |
Book Description
A compulsively readable account of Hitler's last days, written by one of the first Americans to enter Hitler's bunker after the fall of Berlin Here is an unforgettable, graphic account of the final days in the Führer's headquarters, deep under the shattered city of Berlin as World War II in Europe drew to a close. From James P. O'Donnell's interviews with fifty eyewitnesses to the madness and carnage-everyone from Albert Speer to generals, staff officers, doctors, Hitler's personal pilot, telephone operators, and secretaries-emerges an account that historian Theodore H. White has hailed as "superb. . . quite simply the most accurate and terrifying account of the nightmare and its end I have ever read."
Customer Reviews:
A Look Inside The Last Hole of the Third Reich.......2007-09-30
This book is a look inside the bunker on the last months of the life of the Third Reich. It gives stories taken from interviews of the surviving members of the group that lived in or visited the bunker in those days. It focuses on both the major and minor players in the drama around Hitler's last days.
The author describes his visit to the bunker at the close of the Second World War and describes what the bunker looked like at that point before going back to start his narrative of the things that happened there during the previous months. He has spent years tracking down the survivors and getting their stories. There were several stories which were completely new to me and really added to my enjoyment of the book.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the last days of the Reich along with anyone who is interested in the Hitler court since it shows the personalities which surrounded Hitler in his final days.
Fascinating, Carefully-Researched, Unforgettable.......2007-05-22
I haven't seen the movie, but my father gave me an old, pre-film copy of this book, which I have not been able to get out of my mind. Not only is this incredibly researched, with copious, original interviews and substantive document analysis, Mr. O'Donnell is an gifted writer with a keen feel for observation and mood.
The last days of Hilter's Reich come chillingly alive, as Adolf descends into the bunker below Berlin for the very last time. Images and passages are unforgettable, and ominous -- Speer's abandoned plot to poison Hitler through the vent shaft; Magda Goebbels bringing her six children into the bunker, with the impending promise of certain death; Hitler kissing Eva on the lips at a staff meeting in the very last moments, as bombs and air raid sirens signal the end.
Impossible to put down, this is a must-read for any WWII buff.
The definitive book on the Fuhrerbunker.......2007-04-26
"The Bunker" is simply the most detailed and fascinating account of the events in the Berlin Fuhrerbunker I've yet read. Written in 1978, long after the last witnesses were released from Soviet captivity, O'Donnell managed to interview almost all of the surviving actors from the Bunker tragedy. The only people he didn't meet were Johann Rattenhuber, who died in 1966, and Johanna Wolf, who never told anyone anything because she considered it a private secretary's duty to remain private. However, he spoke extensively with all the rest of the surviving people who witnessed Hitler's last days with their own eyes: Speer, Bauer, Guensche, Misch, Mohnke, Axmann, Schenk, Junge, et al. With this wealth of primary sources, their experiences are almost palpable as O'Donnell brings you down into the bunker for Hitler's last days and out onto the streets of burning Berlin for the final breakout. Though I've never read Joachim Fest's "Inside Hitler's Bunker" (which, because it was only published in 2002, after most of the witnesses were dead, I can't imagine has much new information to offer), O'Donnell's "The Bunker" is at least far superior to Trevor-Roper's revered history. I believe it is the best book written on the subject.
I really can't understand the criticisms of this book. So-called "academic" historians chide its "journalistic" approach, a term which means- I suppose- that O'Donnell actually spoke to witnesses and did original research as opposed to writing a book based completely on other historians' previously published works. Such incestuous shuffling and borrowing is actually considered a virtue in the rarified world of the court-historians' guild, where a historian's worth is judged solely by the length of his bibliography and the depth of his conformity to establishment opinion. I'll take the "journalistic" approach any day, thank you very much. David Irving earned the scorn of the court historians for much the same reason- his industriousness in digging up previously un-discovered or ignored witnesses and documents. Even though O'Donnell had a bone to pick with Irving, they both embarrassed the historians of WWII who never stepped foot out of their library and whose "research" amounted to mere regurgitation.
Similarly, I really don't understand some of the objections put forth by lay reviewers on amazon and elsewhere. It's doubtful whether some of them even read the book. For instance, O'Donnell never speculated on Bormann's survival; he stated flat-out that his body was found and positively identified. He also never said that Bauer had orders to fly Hitler to Asia, but did verify that it was technically possible. I'm also confused at these reviewers' objections to O'Donnell's account of Speer's assassination plans. O'Donnell devotes a mere 5 or 6 pages to Speer's admittedly unverifiable, but historically significant, plan to assassinate Hitler. It would have been negligent to have omitted such a claim. As for "Mata O'Hara", the fact is that there_was_a leak in the Hitler court. The Germans confirm it and the British confirm it. O'Donnell speculates that "Das Leck" was Fegelein's mistress, but he doesn't pretend that his theory is the final word. Who_are_these naysayers and what have they been smoking? It's standard practice that criticism should be based on fact. Until someone proves otherwise, this is the definitive book on the Bunker.
Interesting read......if taken with a grain of salt.......2006-08-31
To be fair, O'Donnell did do tons of research and interviewed pretty much every living person who was in the Bunker when he was writing this book. Still, as one other reviewer pointed out, many parts of this book are either pure fiction or are taken farther than they should. The best example is O'Donnell spending many pages discussing Speer's attempt to poison Hitler with gas. Even Speer later admitted this never went beyond the thinking about it stages. O'Donnell plays up some other things, such as a female spy, that cannot be verified. Still, the book does a much better job than some other bunker books detailing lots of the other characters in the bunker besides Hitler. It also contains many first-hand accounts of the goings on inside the bunker. It is also very readable and a page turner. And, to be fair to the author, some of the facts (such as the fact that Martin Bormann was killed and did not escape) were not actually proven until after this book was published nearly 30 years ago. Overall, a easy read and worth a look as long as you realize that some of the "facts" aren't really facts at all.
Interesting but leaves you wondering...........2003-03-03
From all I have learned, THE BUNKER seems to rely heavily on conjecture and dramatization--the information is almost TOO meticulous. In spite of that, it reminds very interesting reading most of the way. History buffs will not be disappointed by the read, although it should not be considered the definitive resource on Hitler's bunker life.
Book Description
There is nothing in recent history that comes close to the cataclysmic events of the spring of 1945. Never before has the defeat of a nation been accompanied by such monumental loss of life, such utter destruction. Author Joachim Fest shows that the devastation was the result of Hitler's determination to take the entire country down with him; he would make sure that his enemies would find only a wasteland, where once there was a thriving civilization.
Fest describes in riveting detail the final weeks of the war, from the desperate battles that raged night and day in the ruins of Berlin, fought by boys and old men, to the growing paranoia that marked Hitler's mental state--his utter disregard for the well being of both soldiers and civilians-- to his suicide and the efforts of his loyal aides to destroy his body before the advancing Russian armies reached Berlin. Inside Hitler's Bunker combines meticulous research with spellbinding storytelling and sheds light on events that, for those who survived them, were nothing less than the end of the world.
Customer Reviews:
the dark, nihilistic end of the Thousand Year Reich .......2007-02-27
Fest's haunting description of the last days of the Third Reich is a magnificent accomplishment. Despite its brevity, Fest manages to weave larger historical issues into a narrative full of surreal, compelling details about the Nazis' end. There are the evocative stories of Berlin in turmoil: SS patrols summarily hanging whoever they felt was a shirker, citizens struggling to survive in the shelled-out ruin of a city, the Soviet encirclement growing ever closer. Meanwhile, inside the Hitler's bunker, the story of delusion and denial grew ever more fantastical -- Hitler commanding generals to counterattack the Russians with army units existing in his imagination, and growing more and more furious with their "betrayals" as the Russian advance still came on.
The story arrives ultimately at the Russian approach to the bunker and the suicides of Hitler, Eva Braun, and the inner circle. Their grimly nihilistic end, burned in a trashheap, paralleled their desire for the same fate for Germany. Hitler wanted Germany to go down with him. That so many in Berlin actually did follow him in suicide, or fighting the Russians to the end against suicidal odds, seems now almost too bewildering to believe. Fest's book is bleak, but in a straightforward journalistic style argues why the end in the bunker was the culmination of Hitler's theatrical, nihilistic vision.
Not a Worthwhile Text.......2007-01-12
I wish that I had read the negative reviews of this book and avoided it. This is a very poorly done account of Hitler's final days in the bunker. The book is poorly written, lacks linear progression, and provides an erratic treatment of the subject. The text itself is cobbled together in piecemeal fashion from other books on the subject - there seems little original here. Quotes about Hitler are often made without attribution leaving the reader to wonder whose opinion was being posited. Fest writes pages and pages of filler material consisting of his own amateur psychoanalysis of Hitler which adds nothing to the record and further sidetracks this work.
If you wish to read an engaging and informative account of Hitler's final days, skip Fest's book and read instead the book written by Hitler's secretary Traudle Junge's or Ian Sayer and Douglas Botting's book The Women Who Knew Hitler which chronicles Hitler's last days extremely well.
Brief look at Hitler's last days.......2006-08-31
While not as thorough as Anton Joachimstahler's or James P. O'Donnell's works on Hitler's last days, Fest provides a good introduction to the last month of Hitler and Nazi Germany's lives. The book somewhat bounces around between Hitler, the Soviet onslaught, and conditions in Berlin, but Fest does a pretty good job of balancing these and writing a readable book. Again, not the most detailed of accounts, but a good intro.
Interesting (Brief) Look at Hitler's Last Days.......2006-08-05
Basic facts and figures about the Third Reich are good data, but nothing can really help you understand the Hitler/Nazi phenomenon so well as reading his own words, and the words of the people who made his regime possible - in the volatile environment of Hitler's bunker in April, 1945.
Though the book is short, there is a lot to digest in it. I personally didn't feel that it was overly dry, or boring (at all!), particularly in comparison to your average history, but I was a little disappointed in the lack of bibliographical notes.
All in all, it's a good place to start, a good book to point you in the direction of the right questions to ask, to lead you to more in-depth information.
Brief, Dry and Disappointing.......2006-06-11
Mr. Fest is a competent writer, but his account here is dry, brief and for those with prior knowledge of the facts, this book is very disappointing.
For a period with such plots and subplots this book is surprisingly colorless.
For an excellent book on a decisive turning point in Third Reich history, I most warmly recommended `Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943'
By Antony Beevor.
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