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The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler’s Germany, 1944–1945

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.

Ian Kershaw

История18+

Ian Kershaw
THE END
The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler’s Germany, 1944–1945

List of Illustrations

1. Martin Bormann, c. 1942 (photograph: akg-images)

2. Heinrich Himmler, c. 1943 (photograph: Scala, Florence/Walter Frentz Collection)

3. Joseph Goebbels, 1942 (photograph: Scala, Florence/Walter Frentz Collection)

4. Albert Speer, 1942 (photograph: Scala, Florence/Walter Frentz Collection)

5. Captured German prisoners near Falaise, September 1944 (photograph: Topfoto)

6. German civilians evacuate Aachen, October 1944 (photograph: Bettmann/Corbis)

7. Wilhelm Keitel (undated) (photograph: Scala, Florence/Walter Frentz Collection)

8. Alfred Jodl, 1944 (photograph: Ullsteinbild/Topfoto)

9. Heinz Guderian, 1944 (photograph: Ullsteinbild/Topfoto)

10. Karl Dönitz, c. 1943 (photograph: Scala, Florence/Walter Frentz Collection)

11. Digging a trench near Tilsit, September 1944 (photograph: Scala, Florence/BPK)

12. Erich Koch on inspection in East Prussia, August 1944 (photograph: Ullsteinbild/Topfoto)

13. German soldiers viewing corpses, Nemmersdorf, October 1944 (photograph: akg-images)

14. The Ardennes offensive, December 1944 (photograph: Heinz Rutkowski (Scherl)/Bundesarchiv, Koblenz)

15. Walter Model, 1941 (photograph: akg-images/Ullsteinbild)

16. Georg-Hans Reinhardt, 1939 (photograph: Scala, Florence/BPK)

17. Ferdinand Schörner, 1942 (photograph: Scala, Florence/BPK)

18. Gotthard Heinrici, 1943 (photograph: Scala, Florence/Walter Frentz Collection)

19. Volkssturm

men on the eastern front, October 1944 (photograph: Ullsteinbild/Topfoto)

20. Volkssturm men march past Goebbels, November 1944 (photograph: Bundesarchiv, Koblenz)

21. Arthur Greiser, 1939 (photograph: Scala, Florence/BPK)

22. Josef Grohé, 1944 (photograph: Scala, Florence/BPK)

23. Karl Hanke, c. 1942 (photograph: Ullsteinbild/Topfoto)

24. Karl Holz (undated) (photograph: Bundesarchiv, Koblenz)

25. Refugees crossing the Frisches Haff, February 1945 (photograph: Vinzenz Engel/ Scala, Florence/BPK)

26. Abandoned wagon in East Prussia, January 1945 (photograph: Mary Evans/ Suddeutscher Verlag)

27. Flying court-martial, location unknown, probably 1944/5 (photograph: Ullsteinbild/Topfoto)

28. Hanged German officer, Vienna, April 1945 (photograph: akg-images/Interfoto/AWKZ)

29. Overcrowded boat from Pillau crossing the Baltic Sea, March 1945 (photograph: akg-images)

30. Dresden, February 1945 (photograph: Scala, Florence/BPK/Walter Hahn)

31. Nuremberg, March 1945 (photograph: Scala, Florence/Walter Frentz Collection)

32. Young Germans cycling to the front, February 1945 (photograph: Scala, Florence/BPK)

33. Berlin, April 1944 (photograph: Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin (Inv.-Nr.: F 66/911))

34. Photograph from a series taken by the US Army immediately after the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp, Weimar, April 1945 (photograph: ITS Archives, Bad Arolsen (Exhibit B-1, Numbers 1-28, Set No 5, Picture No. 2))

35. Prisoners on a death march from Dachau, April 1945 (photograph: private collection, courtesy KZ Gedenkstätte Dachau)

36. Germans surrender to the Red Army, Königsberg, April 1945 (photograph: Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin (Inv.-Nr.: F 61/1661))

37. Houses display white flags in Worms, March 1945 (photograph: Scala, Florence/BPK)

38. Heinrich von Vietinghoff, 1944 (photograph Scala, Florence/BPK)

39. Karl Wolff, 1942 (photograph: Scala, Florence/Walter Frentz Collection)

40. Keitel signs the complete German capitulation, 8 May 1945 (photograph: Bundesarchiv, Koblenz)

41. An angel on the spire of Freiburg minster, 1946 (photograph: Scala, Florence/Walter Frentz Collection)