amandawoodruff's review against another edition
5.0
The tenth volume in what is considered a modern German classic, Swansong 1945 is the only volume to be published in English. This volume covers four dates during the last two months of the war: Hitler's birthday, the meeting of the Americans and Russians at the Elbe river, Hitler's suicide, and the German surrender. It is a stunning piece of work and an absolutely fascinating read of first-hand accounts of WWII. Kempowski has done the world a favor with his tireless compilation of these documents.
hellohannahw's review against another edition
4.0
Obviously this book took me like two months to read so it appears that I must have found it boring in some way. In actual fact I really enjoyed this book. It provided such an in depth look at a tiny window of history. I did, however, find it difficult to have long sessions reading the book because without a narrative through-line or whatever it could get quite heavy and repetitive. The book also contained some disturbing topics (rape, death etc.) which wasn't the happiest to read about. Part of me wants to suggest that there should have been some sort of commentary so the book felt more consistent but I think that would have ruined the fact that this book had no biases, no commentary and no conclusions. Overall I enjoyed the book and it very much extended my knowledge of the period but I am also very glad to be able to read something else now.
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