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A review by fourtriplezed
The Fall of Berlin 1945 by Antony Beevor
4.0
I do have issues with some of the text not being footnoted in a manner I find useful but there is a fine bibliography and a section of interviews, diary and unpublished accounts.
In the end though an interesting read on the appalling fall of Berlin that showed that the enemies each had no idea as to the humanity of each other. Propaganda by the opposing sides was always fierce and in the end with the Eastern Front being probably the most brutal event in history this book bought to the fore the never ending question of man’s inhumanity to man and how propaganda can cause appalling events to happen.
As the Red Army crossed into East Prussia and had seen German wealth in comparison to their own homes, towns and cities Senior Lieutenant Klochkov said he could not understand why Germany had attacked them and risked such a prosperous life. Zhukov’s divisional commander General Maslov said “What was surprising was that they were crying in exactly the same way as our children cry" as he watched these children weeping for their lost parents. Revenge propaganda had convinced its citizens that all Germans were ravening beasts wrote the author. The same was true of the Nazi’s propaganda.
The Nazis use of “soft faced children” in the final battle was an utter indictment on their moribund ideology and latter attempts to blame the Nazis by Wehrmacht officers holds no water with this reviewer. The final toll of rape, as well as the death and destruction, that the eastern front was from the start to the fall of Berlin is not pretty reading in this very competent telling.
Gertraud "Traudl" Junge once said of Nazism after WW2 had ended “………..at that moment I actually sensed that it was no excuse to be young and that it would have been possible to find things out.” Quite.
In the end though an interesting read on the appalling fall of Berlin that showed that the enemies each had no idea as to the humanity of each other. Propaganda by the opposing sides was always fierce and in the end with the Eastern Front being probably the most brutal event in history this book bought to the fore the never ending question of man’s inhumanity to man and how propaganda can cause appalling events to happen.
As the Red Army crossed into East Prussia and had seen German wealth in comparison to their own homes, towns and cities Senior Lieutenant Klochkov said he could not understand why Germany had attacked them and risked such a prosperous life. Zhukov’s divisional commander General Maslov said “What was surprising was that they were crying in exactly the same way as our children cry" as he watched these children weeping for their lost parents. Revenge propaganda had convinced its citizens that all Germans were ravening beasts wrote the author. The same was true of the Nazi’s propaganda.
The Nazis use of “soft faced children” in the final battle was an utter indictment on their moribund ideology and latter attempts to blame the Nazis by Wehrmacht officers holds no water with this reviewer. The final toll of rape, as well as the death and destruction, that the eastern front was from the start to the fall of Berlin is not pretty reading in this very competent telling.
Gertraud "Traudl" Junge once said of Nazism after WW2 had ended “………..at that moment I actually sensed that it was no excuse to be young and that it would have been possible to find things out.” Quite.