Berlin: The Downfall 1945: The Number One Bestseller by Antony Beevor (PDF)

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THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER ON THE LAST DAYS OF THE THIRD REICH’Recounts, in harrowing detail and with formidable skill, the brutal death-throes of Hitler’s Reich at the hands of the rampaging Red Army’ Boyd Tonkin, Independent’An irresistibly compelling narrative, of events so terrible that they still have the power to provoke wonder and awe’ Adam Sisman, Observer__________________ The Red Army had much to avenge when it finally reached the frontiers of the Reich in January 1945. Political instructors rammed home the message of Wehrmacht and SS brutality. The result was the most terrifying example of fire and sword ever known, with tanks crushing refugee columns under their tracks, mass rape, pillage and destruction. Hundreds of thousands of women and children froze to death or were massacred because Nazi Party chiefs, refusing to face defeat, had forbidden the evacuation of civilians. Over seven million fled westwards from the terror of the Red Army.Antony Beevor reconstructs the experiences of those millions caught up in the nightmare of the Third Reich’s final collapse, telling a terrible story of pride, stupidity, fanaticism, revenge and savagery ­- but also one of astonishing endurance, self-sacrifice and survival against all odds.__________________’Makes us feel the chaos and the fear as if every drop of blood was our own . . . compellingly readable, deeply researched, and beautifully written’ Simon Sebag Montefiore, Spectator’Brilliant. Combines a soldier’s understanding of war’s realities with a novelist’s eye for detail’ Orlando Figes, Sunday Times’Startling, chilling, compelling. Beevor’s writing burns like a torch at night in a landscape of ruins’ Literary Review’Powerful, diligently researched and beautifully written . . . even better than Stalingrad’ Andrew Roberts, Mail on Sunday

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Having read Stalingrad by Beevor earlier, I knew what I was in for. Like Walter Issacson, and David McCullough, Beevor’s books tend to be long and you think they will never end. But when they do, you’ve been exposed to the history they cover in a way that makes you feel like you understand what it was like to be there. And you’re both relieved and disappointed that you’ve completed the book. This book was no different. The story focuses on the period between Christmas, 1942 when rumors were first heard of the German troops surrounded in Stalingrad by the Russians and the Christmas of 1944, when circumstances had changed so much and the Russians were on the borders of Germany. The book necessarily focuses on Hitler and Stalin and their Armies, as capturing Berlin had become an obsession of Stalin’s as a retribution for the Germans capturing Stalingrad. The role of the American and British Armies are antecedent here because even though Churchill recognized what the significance would mean politically and strategically to the Allies in negotiating after the war he failed to convince General Eisenhower. Ironically, Eisenhower, the General, would have to deal with the consequences of that shortsightedness only a few years later as President. The Soviet offensive began in January of 1945. From the beginning the Soviet’s strategy was to drive for Berlin and by encircling it, both prevent any American or British attempts to reach the city first and to capture as many Germans as possible. The did this by subterfuge and lying to Eisenhower about their plans. Stalin even kept some of his own front line Generals in the dark as to his ultimate plans, and would frequently change orders at the last minute for them. Ultimately the plan worked and Hitler was caught within a plan of his own making. Even his suicide and attempt to make it impossible to identify his body failed. The Russian political authorities found it within days, but did not let the world know until years later. Both the Germans and the Russians committed great atrocities against each others’ Armies and civilians during the war, but as this book focuses on the Soviet invasion of German territory much of the book is about the utter destruction, rape, gang rape, and annihilation of the people, villages, towns and cities on their way to Berlin. They were particularly brutal to those living in the former Prussian areas of Germany. Not only to the Germans, but the Poles and even captured Soviets used as slave labor. Both sides were brutal to their own troops as they would shoot or hang stragglers not on the front lines. The book brings out much that did not know about the closing days of the war and the utter brutality with which it was waged. Two dictators bringing destruction to almost all countries of the world to satisfy their own egos.

⭐Okay, nobody expected this to be a happy read.In 1941, the Germans treated the conquered Russian territories and people horribly. And now, in 1945, the Russians were expecting to deliver their payback to the Germans. Understandable from a brutality viewpoint, perhaps. But rumors and stories of Russian atrocities coming out of Eastern Prussia simply resulted in longer, harder battles because most German soldiers were highly motivated to fight against the Russian advance. The Germans might surrender to the Americans, but surrendering to the Russians would mostly occur only after they were surrounded and out of ammunition. Especially since surrendering to the Russians meant being sent east to the Russia slave labor camps for about 10 years.It was odd to read about members of the Nazi upper echelons maneuvering to become the Hitler’s successor (in anticipation of Hitler death). A brief moment of Nazi glory before their inevitable and imminent collapse, I guess.But I think I’ll stop reading about historical battles for a while as I simply can’t retain all the names of the numerous cities where battles took place – as well as the names of all the innumerable lieutenants, commanders and generals who commanded their troops in battles.Bottom line: The book did great job conveying what the misery of life was like in Berlin and eastern Germany as the war in Europe was approaching its violent and bloody end. The battle’s strategies and tactics (on both sides) were also well covered.Hopefully understood issue: Discussion of American fighting was minimal in this book since the battle for Berlin was a fight between German and Russian forces.

⭐Throughout history many, many accounts of savagery and brutality has existed in war. At the end of World War II in Europe this occurred on a wide scale by both the German and Soviet Armies. Anthony Beevor in this outstanding book describes the brutality of war upon the citizens of both the USSR and Germany in “The Fall of Berlin 1945”. When the Soviet Army entered former German territory, they unleashed a “revenge brutality” upon German citizens whether they were die-hard NAZI’S or plain civilians who happened to live in the territories. A “they did it to us, so we will do it to them” mentality was enforced and encouraged for Soviet soldiers to commit countless acts of brutality, rape, pillaging, torture, and murder on a scale not easily imagined. When the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS troops invaded the Soviet Union in 1940, there were massive accounts of destroying villages, soldiers raping Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian, and other ethnic Russian women on a wide scale, murdering wounded disabled soldiers, and other atrocities on a massive scale.The Soviet Army felt it was time for “payback”. Mr. Beevor, from interviews with former Soviet officers, records, archival reports brings the “ugly side” of liberating Germany by the Soviets into a full account. When both the Soviet and German empires are run by total psychopathic, egomaniacal, tyrants as Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin were, this massive brutality by both armies will occur. These ‘leaders” allowed the “raping and destruction of Europe” to commence with approval by the senior officers on both sides. As a result, the men and women of Europe felt the wrath. Not only civilians were killed and brutalized, but prisoners of war. When a Soviet Soldier was “liberated” by the Soviet Army, they were considered traitors and weak to be allowed to be captured. They were often sent to the “Gulags” and forced into hard labor. Such great treatment of soldiers isn’t it by the “glorious Soviet Army”. NAZI Germany was in its “death throws” and Adolf Hitler and his henchmen militarized every able bodied man from the age of 15 to 55 and older to be sent to the front to defend Germany. Often this proved disastrous to these civilians turned soldiers. The Soviets showed NO MERCY to anyone caught with a weapon. There are numerous accounts of brutality and raping in this well researched book.Mr. Beevor is presenting the facts, and they are sobering to say the least. He has been criticized by many of today’s Russian historians for being “pro-NAZI” and spreading vicious lies and how “dare” he criticize the liberators of NAZI Germany? Mr. Beevor is just showing the facts of history. By providing the interviews, records, great research, and archival reports from the former USSR he has shown he definitely does NOT have an anti-Russian bias. The NAZI regime, army, and Waffen-SS were just as guilty (the holocaust, the destruction of entire cities and villages, the raping and killing of millions by the SS and Wehrmacht.This is WHAT HAPPENS when to truly evil empires fight one another, millions upon millions will be killed, brutalized, and raped.The end of World War II in Europe was a short era of countless evil acts by the Soviets and NAZI Germans and the whole of Europe suffered from it since the beginning of the war. May we NEVER FORGET the lessons from this terrible time, lest we repeat it (and unfortunately and undoubtedly we will). This is a World War II history book that is a MUST read for those who want to know what happened realistically to the millions who perished under the leadership of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin.

⭐It is hard to define what makes Antony Beevor so good in his writings on the great Second World War battles. I am not a fan of ‘Battle Books’ in general as I much prefer a broader context to my history and Battle stories, although they usually come with some background introduction and an epilogue are usually unsatisfying in this respect. Beevor doesn’t make much of an effort in this regard, granted the book begins in December 1944 and ends with the disposal of Hitler’s body in 1970, but nearly all of the intervening 400 odd pages describe events in just March and April of 1945, with nearly all events described taking place between the rivers Vistula and Elbe.For all of you who take my initial description at face value and are enthused by the possibility that this is a day by day, minute by minute description of the race for Berlin (by which I mean the race between Soviet Generals, not between the Soviets and the Western allies – Beevor makes clear the Americans were never in a race) I must warn you that this is not that book. As with

⭐Stalingrad

⭐, Beevor somehow manages to make a cohesive, flowing narrative by piecing together short vignettes about individuals or small groups of people (rather than events).For any of you who take my last statement at face value and are enthused by the possibility that this is a literary version of one of those (in my opinion) awful 1970’s disaster movies where we are eternally tortured by flashbacks to the banal romantic past of individuals facing imminent doom… this is a million miles away from that. Each vignette is relevant to the event occurring within the overall narrative of the battle, in fact each vignette makes up a part of that narrative with remarkably little visible linking material.What struck me reading ‘Berlin’, and I now realise this is equally true of ‘Stalingrad’, is how cold and rational Beevor is when telling these harrowing stories of personal tragedy. This is not a criticism, Beevor’s approach of focussing on individual tragedy would be almost unbearable (or worse maudlin) if he was not so cold. As it is some of the stories are intense but do not overwhelm, allowing emotion to be balanced with an understanding of the events.So to enter the wider debate: which is better ‘Berlin’ or ‘Stalingrad’?‘Stalingrad’: but it is an incredibly close run race. I guess to equate to the race for Berlin mentioned above, ‘Stalingrad’ would (appropriately) be Zhukov, ‘Berlin’ Konev and

⭐Arnhem

⭐Rokossovsky.

⭐My parents both served in the RAF during the war, both were fortunate to have done so on home soil. I heard stories of course, but not of any fighting. Recently I have become curious about what other nations went through (oddly, Brexit has brought this up) and I read Stalingrad and followed up with this, Berlin. Can’t say that I have enjoyed either book, but they have certainly been very interesting. Prisoners of Geography has also explained much, especially regarding Russia. Am about to read Willful Blindness – I hope the world is not indulging in that – the consequences are simply too awful to contemplate.For someone like myself, who is not particularly interested in war books but for whatever reason would like to know a little more about what happened, I can recommend this book. For someone who is a war history fan, I should think they would find it excellent.

⭐I started to read this on the commemoration of VE Day this year to understand the other side of the story. I had heard a lot about the fall of Nazi Germany, but wanted to read an account that described the events from eye witness accounts. This is it, very readable and compelling, much of it I read with a horrified fascination. The small comments were some of the most interesting, such as the man telling the other people in the train carriage that given how brutally the Germans had treated other nations they would be lucky to get any mercy themselves. The ordinary citizens appeared to have very little idea of what had been happening. It was interesting to read how Hitler wanted to protect the German women from war as their roles were homemakers and mothers. Tragically, they suffered the most as the Soviet army took such a terrible revenge for the savagery shown by the German army towards their own women and children. Those accounts were the hardest to read.I had heard that Hitler lost the war due to his own incompetence and ego. This was clearly the case, otherwise Germany may have won if he hadn’t turned against the Soviet union. A chilling thought. Also a lesson to be learned, don’t get taken in by prospective leaders with big mouths who promise the earth…

⭐A good account of one of the most significant events in modern history. However not the compelling read that I hoped for, the extensive research undertaken is evident but often appears as a collection of eclectic facts. The book is most disappointing in the failure to use maps, diagrams throughout the course of the book to explain the progress of the conflict and the people, location and armaments involved. This is a great pity as this would have done so much to bring the story alive.

⭐I read this account of the fall of Berlin after reading Vasily Grossman’s account of the 1941 invasion and the hellish Siege of Stalingrad. I also read Svetlana Alexievich’s Last Witnesses which recounts in personal testimonies the Russian children’s memories of invasion, murder, vile tortures, starvation and loss of parents, families and friends.All of these three books have the same remorseless, driving intensity. On top of all the noise, destruction and bloodshed, both the Germans (SS, Waffen SS) and the Soviets (NKVD, SMERSH) had political fanatics filling their lives even more full of dread of instant execution and extreme punishments.The Soviet push to Berlin was dictated by Stalin – all other subordinate Generals had to get agreement from him before taking action. His paranoia and ego pushed him to play games with his senior commanders, sometimes to the detriment of campaign progress. Some of Stalin’s ideas succeeded but others caused huge numbers of unnecessary casualties for no result.Hitler behaved in a very similar way – pessimism followed by manic optimism informed his decision-making – Anthony Beevor’s Berlin is extremely insightful on Adolf’s state of mind.The battle is very lucidly laid out, especially considering the vast forces in motion and the complexity involved in not just entering Berlin, but encircling it, so that the Allies couldn’t claim any glory – the prize had to belong exclusively to Comrade Stalin.The final collapse was every bit as anarchic as you might expect.Having behaved disgustingly and sadistically in Russia, German forces were keen to cross Berlin in order to surrender to the more civilised Americans and British. This didn’t help German women who were brutally gangraped in revenge for their men’s appalling atrocities in Russia.It was commonplace, when I was growing up, for the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe to pass the blame onto their SS and Gestapo comrades. Between these three volumes, the myth of military innocence is discredited forever.The aftermath of the peace in Europe contained no joy, bonuses or improvements for Soviet soldiers. Stalin’s Terror reasserted itself even before the last shots were fired. Huge numbers spent upwards of a decade in Siberian gulags for suspicions of idealogical impurity or fear of Western cultural contamination. Or being Jewish, despite Soviet Jews’ part in victory. Anthony Beevor covers this last act with barely contained fury. Quite right too.

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