Thoroughly researched and detailed, the book Berlin: The Downfall 1945 by Antony Beevor doesn't fall into the trap of becoming boring. It's a compelling, readable historical work that brings us to the heart of the raging Soviet army, mercilessly marching toward Berlin. What always fascinates me is the lack of clear strategic thinking of Soviet marshals, who sacrificed their men to appease Stalin. The Red Army won because of sheer numbers and its soldiers' will for revenge. During the fighting for Berlin and already inside Berlin, Soviet forces killed almost as many of their own men as they did the Germans due to the confusion and desire to be the first to get to Hitler.

Nobody wants to remember the ugly side of WW2 (and any other war, like the war in Ukraine right now), neither the perpetrators nor the victims. Looting, even of such small items as hand watches, was widespread, but also was the rape of women, girls, and older women. Antony Beevor distinguishes three 'stages' of rape as the Red Army moved westward: the most vicious, beastly in East Prussia, more moderate in Berlin during the battle (when soldiers didn't assault any women but chose according to their preferences), and the third stage when soldiers picked German mistresses and formed a pretense of a family. The acts of generosity were scarce. And while Berlin and Germany burned, Hitler's minions were fighting for the throne. Much scarier was the fact that the Allies, knowing about the atrocities committed by the Red Army, still clung to diplomatic decisions and let Stalin devastate Eastern Europe.

Nothing has changed in the mentality of authoritarian rulers since WW2.

I think my politics are already pretty transparent so let's dive in with what occupies my mind at the moment. It is frustrating that you cannot compare Trump to Hitler without being dismissed as making an argument that isn't the one you're making. It isn't the simple transitive, Hitler bad, Trump bad, therefore Trump like Hitler. Instead, it's the whole barrel of specific rotten qualities: the thin-skinned self-aggrandizement, the insistence on expertise in impressive-sounding subjects about which he actually knows nothing (especially military matters--at least Hitler served!), the fetishization of the military, a weird arrogance about himself as a savvy judge of character, the chaotic management style, a "one-way concept of loyalty" (331) and desire to punish rejected former favorites, the continuously ill-timed alternation between waffling and then blundering decisively in some totally wrong direction, and not being able to discern the difference between actual power and shows of power.

I could go on. Anyway, the reason I read this book was that I bought it at a library book sale a while back and eventually got around to it. But it's a vivid tour through a point I've been thinking about, namely that the collapse of Nazism went very, very badly for expressly the people it originally sought to promote. That is to say, if you can't be talked out of Nazism on moral or rational grounds, you might at least take into account how catastrophically they lost.

This is the first book I've read by this author but I thought his writing had great texture in addition to being serious in his research (his sources are in German, Russian, English, and French). He tracks military objectives at a level of granularity that I found very readable and concisely portrays the landscape (bridges, forests, rubble) and its challenges. He highlights the experiences of soldiers and leaders on all sides as well as German civilians, but for the most part he doesn't ask you to keep track of the personal stories of a huge cast of characters.

You could say that the very end of WWII was an awfully hot start to what eventually became the Cold War, a period when the Allies and the Soviet Union contended over the smoldering remains of Europe before settling into what became their positions for the next few decades. Beevor shows how the Russians and Americans passive-aggressively concealed their objectives and plans for advancing on Berlin from each other, while Germans desperately attempted to find their way into American hands. Some reviewers have said Beevor portrays the Russians negatively but I'm not sure I agree--he certainly portrays some of them negatively, but others not. As for the Germans, he doesn't give in to the idea that they are victims, but he does show the terrible bind that civilians were in, being shot at while queuing at a pump or watching their young sons pointlessly sent to the front on bicycles.

Beevor focuses on the problem of mass rape and identifies several distinct phases in how it was rationalized. First, an "extreme onslaught" of nominally revenge-motivated gang rape, an excuse undercut by the victimization of freed Russian and Jewish prisoners. Next a period of "unaggravated rape" justified as "satisfying a sexual need after all their time at the front" (326). Finally, implied coercion to avoid starvation and a "strange form of cohabitation" (414). He describes the gallows humor and survival strategies of German women in their own words.

Overall, I found this book complete, readable, and relevant. I'll look for his book on Stalingrad in the future.

Ez a könyv nem annyira a hadászati kérdések miatt érdekes – hadtudományi szempontból ugyanis meglepően kevés információval bír egy szétesőben lévő, anyaghiánnyal küszködő, biciklis kiskamaszokkal és ötvenéves, fegyvertelen parasztokkal feldúsított kései Wehrmacht küzdelme minden idők talán legnagyobb és legjobban gépesített szövetséges hadserege ellen. Legfeljebb annyival, amennyi a sportszakmai jelentősége a kiöregedett nógrádi vasutasok focimeccsének a spanyol válogatottal. Lehetnek persze szép pillanataik a mozdonyvezetőknek és a krampácsolóknak is – mondjuk egy sistergős húszméteres bomba, ami eltalálja a labdaszedő srácot a kapu mögött –, de a kétszámjegyű vereség mégis borítékolható. Az is lyukra fut, aki ebben a könyvben a németek hősies küzdelmére akar példákat találni – a bátorság ugyanis nem önmagában való erény, némi józan belátás híján például igen-igen hasonlít az ostobaságra. Ráadásul ebben az esetben a hősiesség alighanem félelem is, félelem a vereségtől, a fogolyléttől, saját katonai rendőrségünktől vagy épp az elszámoltatástól, ilyen értelemben pedig alkalmasint nem sokkal több, mint eufemizmus a gyávaságra.

Ami ezt a könyvet érdekessé teszi, az az összeomlás pszichológiája – a civilek, a hadsereg, de legfőképpen a nácik esetében. A szürreális idiotizmus, ahogy Hitler és közvetlen környezete értelmezte ezeket az utolsó hónapokat. A náci „félisteneknek” ebben a végső periódusban már semmi, de semmi kapcsolata nem volt a valósággal, nem létező hadosztályoknak adtak egyre fantáziadúsabb elnevezéseket (Suleika! Harem! hát az Ezeregyéjszakában vagyunk?), Hitler pici lelkét pátyolgatták, és halálbüntetéssel fenyegették a magukat megadókat – miközben nekik alkalmasint már ott volt a belső zsebükben a hamis személyazonossági irat, amivel készültek megpattanni az ostromlott városból*. Mindehhez pedig asszisztált a porosz katonai drillen nevelkedett, és az SS által megfélemlített szakértő tábornokok kara, akik ugyan mind pontosan látták, hová vezet az út, mégsem voltak képesek semmit sem tenni ellene. Van egy kép e könyv fotómellékletében: Hitler arcán pajkos mosollyal egy 14? 15? éves srác fülét cibálja kedvesen – ezt a fiút vélhetően egy órán belül ugyanő odaküldte egy T-34-es lánctalpai alá. Szerintem mi sem illusztrálja jobban, hogy a legfelső vezetés számára a háború ekkor már nem volt több, mint kísérlet egy újabb, egy utolsó tömeggyilkosságra – csak ezúttal a németeket akarták kiirtani, hogy ha már nekik veszniük kell, hát vesszen a nemzet is, írmagja se maradjon**.

A kötet másik érdekes, a németektől független eleme a Berlinért folytatott versenyfutás nyugatiak és szovjetek között. Ehhez a témához Beevor több új adalékkal is szolgál, ami mindenképpen árnyalja a közszájon forgó változatokat. Ebben a játszmában Sztálin és Eisenhower tulajdonképpen teljesen más pályán mozogtak – előbbi számára Berlin a jól megérdemelt gesztenyepüré volt a lakoma végén, amiért megdolgozott és amit nem kívánt megosztani senkivel, utóbbi számára viszont a német főváros csak egy stratégiailag nem túl fontos földrajzi helynek minősült, amiért esze ágában sem volt kivéreztetni saját hadseregét. A briteknek persze számított, hogy Berlin, amit Európa kulcsának tekintettek, ne szovjet kézen legyen a béke pillanatában, de az amerikaiakat nem különösebben érdekelte a háború utáni kontinens hatalmi felosztása – vagy legalábbis kevésbé, mint a tény, hogy nekik még Hitler bukása után le kell játszaniuk egy másik meccset is Ázsiában. Úgyhogy érthetően nem vonzotta őket a gondolat, hogy összekülönbözzenek a jogos koncra áhítozó oroszokkal. Persze mindez ott és akkor még nem volt teljesen világos, nem csoda, ha Sztálin minden eszközzel igyekezett megtéveszteni szövetségeseit (sikerrel), akiket (magából kiindulva) alávaló cselszövőknek látott, akik bármelyik percben különbékét köthetnek a nácikkal, hogy ölükbe pottyanjon a főnyeremény. Nem így történt, de történhetett volna akár így is, mert ’45 tavaszán az amerikaiak valóban dinamikusabban nyomultak előre, mint Zsukov – naná, ki ne adta volna meg magát szívesebben az amcsiknak, mint a szovjeteknek. Hogy ekkor mi történt volna, az persze a történelmi utópiák tárgykörébe tartozik – ahogy az is, hogy ki nyerte volna meg Nyugat és Kelet apokaliptikus csatáját, ha sor kerül rá. Örüljünk inkább annak, hogy nem került.

* Nehéz válaszolni arra, hogy az ember az olyan fanatikusokat utálja-e jobban, mint a hat gyerekét halálba küldő Goebbelst, vagy az opportunistákat, akik az első ágyúdörgésre elásták a pártjelvényeiket és civil gúnyát öltöttek, hogy aztán később vezető pozíciókban tűnjenek fel az NSZK (vagy akár az NDK) bíróságain és rendőrségein… Az előbbieket legalább könnyű kiszűrni, viszont az utóbbiak időnként gyávaságból még jót is cselekedtek.
** Nyilván meg kell jegyezni, hogy ebben tökéletes partnerre leltek a szovjet hadseregben, akik maguk sem tudták még eldönteni, akarnak-e élő németet látni az általuk elfoglalt területen.

The Fall of Berlin is not going to make the permanent shelf. It took a fair amount of time to get through it and, in the end, it was not a particularly riveting account. Nor was it a well-constructed account. It seemed to jump around with no connecting thread. From the soldier or civilian caught in the battle to the high levels of command, nothing really stands out. Except the Red Army’s revenge, retribution and rape of the German lands and people. That is covered in great detail throughout.

Beevor does come up with some good anecdotes and scenes on both sides:

Berliners, gaunt from short rations and stress, had little to celebrate at Christmas in 1944. Much of the capital of the Reich had been reduced to rubble by bombing raids. The Berlin talent for black jokes had turned to gallows humour. The quip of that unfestive season was, ‘Be practical: give a coffin!

Witness’s saw women shouting at the officers and NCOs marching a column of German soldiers through the streets, ‘Let our husbands come home! Make the Golden Pheasants [senior Nazis] fight instead!’ General staff officers in their uniforms with thick red stripes down their trousers started to attract cries of ‘Vampire!’ when spotted by civilians. But this did not mean that revolution was in the air, as in 1918, the year which so obsessed the Nazis. The Swedish military attaché observed that there would be no revolt before the food ran out. This was acknowledged in a popular Berlin saying, ‘The fighting will not stop until Goering fits into Goebbels’s trousers.’

Red Army sappers, on the other hand, needed to take risks, often to make up for the shortage of supplies. They took pride in recycling the contents of unexploded shells and German mines lifted by night. Their private motto remained ‘One mistake and no more dinners.’

Instead of miracle weapons, many of the Volkssturm and other improvised units received weapons that were useless, such as the Volkshandgranate. This ‘people’s hand grenade’ was simply a lump of concrete around a small explosive charge and a No. 8 detonator. It was more dangerous to the thrower than to the target. One detachment of officer cadets facing a Guards tank army received rifles captured from the French army in 1940 and just five rounds each. It was typical of Nazi corporate bluster that they continued to create impressive sounding units whether the Sturmzug, which lacked the weapons to storm anything, or the Panzerjadgkompanie, which was supposed to stalk tanks on foot.

Overall, a 3 Star book that should have been so much better with his greater access to material not previously available. On the positive note, he gives you battle maps up front which are pretty decent. Also good selection of photos that I had not seen before.

The Red Army's invasion of Berlin in January 1945 was one of the most terrifying examples of fire and sword in history. Frenzied by terrible memories of Wehrmacht and SS brutality, the Russians wreaked havoc, leaving hundreds of thousands of civilians dead and millions more fleeing westward. Drawing upon newly available material from former Soviet files, as well as from German, American, British, French, and Swedish archives, bestselling author Antony Beevor vividly recounts the experiences of the millions of civilians and soldiers caught up in the nightmare of the Third Reich's final collapse. The Fall of Berlin 1945 is a heartrending story of pride, stupidity, fanaticism, revenge, and savagery, yet it is also one of astonishing human endurance, self-sacrifice, and survival against all odds.

Anthony Beevor's "The Fall of Berlin 1945" is a solid mostly military account of the final months of World War 2 as it built toward the final moments of the battle for the capital, resulting in the death blow for Nazi Germany. Beevor weaves together many accounts from various players of the battle, mostly through balanced German and Russian perspectives, which I really appreciated. Bravo to Beevor for not being tempted to only explain this story from only one side's view. While Beevor provides few accounts from the regular citizen's point of view in history, most of this book centers around the military evolution of the battle, especially that which involves the key decision makers, including a comprehensive view of the final weeks of Hitler's life in the bunker where he played out the end of his war. As one failing, in my view, Beevor missed out in creating a comprehensive account of this history of the battle for Berlin through not including more about the people's story of this horrific event. I found this disappointing, especially during the first quarter of the book because I expected to see more of this, as the book was billed being more like that. However as I came to realize this wasn't that type of book, I got caught up in the crescendo of events that Beevor outlined in his compelling style. The sheer horror of the end of the war, as played out by both sides, was something Beevor recounted brilliantly. One is riveted by the spiraling climax of events as one military force sought to destroy another in a shattering ferocity of violence that perhaps was unprecedented in military history. Beevor didn't directly explore the psychology of what would cause soldiers to act as they did, but clearly the unbearable tension of total war played out in the minds of soldiers committed to a chilling climax of this most critical of European battles of the war. That beyond all else was what sticks in my mind as I walk away from this book. While I am no stranger to the history of World War 2, Beevor has succeeded in writing an accessible and and compelling history to one of the most horrifying moments in human history, capturing the death throes of one empire (Nazi Germany), while witnessing the birth of another of the Soviet Union.

When I was writing my novel, Skeletons at the Feast, I read a great many histories about the end of the Second World War in Europe -- and the final collapse of Nazi Germany. I'm currently involved with a possible TV series adaptation of that novel, and so I have been returning to that literature. Anthony Beevor's The Fall of Berlin is one that I missed in 2007. It's brilliantly researched and captures the horror of the winter and spring of 1945 on the Eastern Front: the relentless sacrifice of Russian soldiers (and the politics in the Kremlin); the German old men and boys sent out to stop them; the despicable, soul-crushing Nazi crimes (and the madness inside Hitler's bunker in Berlin); the rape and abuse of the German woman at the hands of the Russian soldiers, violence that was at least in part a retaliation for the horrors the Nazis inflicted on Russians. This isn't an easy book to read, but it is a profoundly important history of that horrific moment in time.

During World War II, some of the most savage fighting took place between the Germans and the Russians on the Eastern Front. Not only was it a war of ideology between National Socialism and Communism, it was often a war of annihilation as well. This book is a fascinating read about the last days of the Third Reich, with lots of focus on the German and Soviet high commands, as well as the trials and tribulations of the German civilians caught up in the maelstrom of war. If you're looking for a book which details all the units and armies in the fighting, this isn't the book for you. Beevor's main focus seems to be on the experiences of those who were there as civilians, members of the various High Commands, and ordinary soldiers. Descriptions of the savage fighting make up part of the book, but aren't the primary focus. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in the end of war in Europe in World War II. A truly fascinating read.

In this book Beevor covers in detail the final offensives into Eastern Germany. He does a masterly job of describing the events from the leadership level down to the individuals experience in the final 6 months of the war. For the size of the book Beevor covers an incredible range of topics. He explores not just the military aspects of this period but also the social impacts and changes wrought by the war. He additionally frames the Eastern Front by covering at a high level the progress of the war on the other European fronts and their impact on the Eastern actions.

If evil exists in people this period displays it. From the callous treatment of deserting German soldiers by their own military to the virtual death sentences given to civilians by Gauleiters who refused to evacuate their towns and cities ahead of the advancing fronts. From the officers who encouraged their troops brutal rape and murder of these civilians to the torture and execution of rescued POW’s for the crime of surrendering. The execution of prison inmates so they cannot be rescued by the advancing Allies. This is made real by countless individual accounts of daily existence of the people and the experiences they endured. At the same time there are also a few moments of good shining through on both sides as the combatants regain moments of humanity, even if it just the sharing of food with civilians.

An excellent book, 5 stars

Ένα βιβλίο που θα πρέπει να διαβασει καθε ανθρωπος,αν θελει να καταλαβει πραγματικά την φρίκη του πολέμου.

Soviet soldiers hoist the red flag over the Reichstag in May 1945

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/world...

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisf...

The grramazon description is a naff affair, I shall find proper information on a better site:

Berlin: The Downfall 1945 (aka The Fall of Berlin 1945 in the US) is a narrative history by Antony Beevor of the Battle of Berlin during World War II. It was published by Viking Press in 2002, then later by Penguin Books in 2003. The book achieved both critical and commercial success. It has been a number-one best seller in seven countries apart from Britain, and in the top five in another nine countries. Together with Beevor's Stalingrad, first published in 1998, they have sold nearly three million copies.

The book revisits the events of the Battle of Berlin in 1945. The book narrates how the Red Army defeated the German Army and brought an end to Hitler's Third Reich, as well as an end to the war in Europe. The book was accompanied by a BBC Timewatch programme on his research into the subject. Wiki sourced

n"I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest." Churchill

This is an excellent history of the last months of Nazi Germany with a focus on Berlin and the Soviet advance. While much of it concerns day-by-day dispositions of military units, accompanied by maps, enough consists of personal accounts to allow those of us who are not military historians to enjoy this substantial book.

A major--and controversial--theme, recurring repeatedly, is that of the rape of women. According to Beevor this was wholesale, despite rules of engagement forbidding the practice, rules only occasionally enforced by officers. While all Allied forces abused women--and stole and practiced wanton destruction--the Soviets were, by far, the most undisciplined.

Beevor concludes his book with a too-brief but perspicacious account of German attitudes immediately after the war, noting that the denial of guilt and responsibility has since been transformed into its opposite.