The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1944-1945/Book Review

Ian Kershaw (Author)

Hardcover: 592 pages

Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The (September 8, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1594203148

ISBN-13: 978-1594203145

Editorial Reviews

"Kershaw's comprehensive research, measured prose, and commonsense insight combine in a mesmerizing explanation of how and why Nazi Germany chose self-annihilation."

-Publishers Weekly

"[A]superb examination of the final defeat of Hitler's tyranny...an excellent portrait of the regime's death throes."

-Booklist

"This is an astonishing story well told by the reigning English-speaking master of Third Reich history...A carefully considered and powerfully told saga."

-Kirkus

Description

From the preeminent Hitler biographer, a fascinating and original exploration of how the Third Reich was willing and able to fight to the bitter end of World War II.

Countless books have been written about why Nazi Germany lost World War II, yet remarkably little attention has been paid to the equally vital question of how and why it was able to hold out as long as it did. The Third Reich did not surrender until Germany had been left in ruins and almost completely occupied. Even in the near-apocalyptic final months, when the war was plainly lost, the Nazis refused to sue for peace. Historically, this is extremely rare.

Drawing on original testimony from ordinary Germans and arch-Nazis alike, award-winning historian Ian Kershaw explores this fascinating question in a gripping and focused narrative that begins with the failed bomb plot in July 1944 and ends with the German capitulation in May 1945. Hitler, desperate to avoid a repeat of the "disgraceful" German surrender in 1918, was of course critical to the Third Reich's fanatical determination, but his power was sustained only because those below him were unable, or unwilling, to challenge it. Even as the military situation grew increasingly hopeless, Wehrmacht generals fought on, their orders largely obeyed, and the regime continued its ruthless persecution of Jews, prisoners, and foreign workers. Beneath the hail of allied bombing, German society maintained some semblance of normalcy in the very last months of the war. The Berlin Philharmonic even performed on April 12, 1945, less than three weeks before Hitler's suicide.

As Kershaw shows, the structure of Hitler's "charismatic rule" created a powerful negative bond between him and the Nazi leadership- they had no future without him, and so their fates were inextricably tied. Terror also helped the Third Reich maintain its grip on power as the regime began to wage war not only on its ideologically defined enemies but also on the German people themselves. Yet even as each month brought fresh horrors for civilians, popular support for the regime remained linked to a patriotic support of Germany and a terrible fear of the enemy closing in.

Based on prodigious new research, Kershaw's The End is a harrowing yet enthralling portrait of the Third Reich in its last desperate gasps.

Review

When Extremists Rule the Government,

By 

C. W. Emblom "Bill Emblom" (Ishpeming, Michigan USA)

Historian Ian Kershaw has written a very well researched account of World War II from the time of the attempt on Adolf Hitler's life in July of 1944 through the post Germany surrender in May of 1945. Kershaw attempts to answer the question why the Germans chose the course of action they did when the war was hopelessly lost.

The big four below Hitler were Martin Bormann, Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels, and Albert Speer each responsible for their own area of "expertise." Each province or region had its own governor referred to as a gauleiter that ruled with an iron fist over their specific area. Oaths were required to follow Hitler under all circumstances.

This is a book on pain and suffering, and Author Kershaw relates in considerable detail the hardships ordinary Germans suffered when they were being squeezed in by the Americans and British from the west and the Russians from the east with capitulation to the west preferable to surrender to the Soviets.

Hitler's underlings stressed the importance of dying in battle to surrender to the enemy while they, themselves, often were planning their own exit from Germany. A few die hard loyalists such as Admiral Karl Donitz and Joseph Goebbels remained loyal to their Fuhrer to the end. I found it interesting to see the rivalry and even outright hatred some of Hitler's henchmen had for each other. Martin Bormann was able to create a misunderstanding between Hitler and Hermann Goring that caused Goring's ouster from the party.

Hitler's popularity was waning even though an individual faced execution if caught expressing negative views. The German populace was sick of war and wondered where these so-called "miracle weapons" were that were supposed to deliver them from the enemy. Many also claimed ignorance regarding atrocities that had taken place such as the concentration and extermination camps that existed. They didn't mind producing weapons in the early stages of the war as long as those weapons rained down on the enemy, but it was another story when their own historic cities were being destroyed in retaliation.

I found it interesting that author Kershaw pointed out that had the Claus von Stauffenberg bomb attempt on Hitler's life in July of 1944 succeeded, and a peace treaty signed one-half of the German soldiers who died in the war would have lived. This, of course, assumes the treaty would have been agreed on by both fronts attacking from the east and the west.

This book aptly illustrates what can happen when extremists take hold of a country with government degraded and replaced by those with an agenda suited to their own selfish interests.