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Os Últimos Dias de Hitler
Terminada a Segunda Guerra Mundial, havia um grande mistério a resolver: o que teria acontecido a Adolf Hitler? O seu perturbador desaparecimento alimentava rumores de uma possível fuga, promovidos pelos soviéticos. A inteligência britânica resolveu então contratar Hugh Trevor-Roper, um jovem oficial e historiador, para investigar os últimos dias do Führer e produzir um relatório definitivo sobre a sua morte.
Este livro é o resultado dessa investigação, publicada pela primeira vez em 1947 e continuamente reeditada e enriquecida com novos testemunhos, revisões e descobertas. Considerada um clássico fundamental para compreender o funcionamento e a estrutura do regime nazi e as suas figuras mais marcantes, esta obra histórica reconstrói os últimos momentos do Terceiro Reich, marcados pela dicotomia nazi entre a vitória total ou a aniquilação: o encontro de Hitler com os seus generais, a traição de Himmler, o fim de Goebbels e a família, o casamento com Eva Braun, o testamento e o suicídio.
Este livro é o resultado dessa investigação, publicada pela primeira vez em 1947 e continuamente reeditada e enriquecida com novos testemunhos, revisões e descobertas. Considerada um clássico fundamental para compreender o funcionamento e a estrutura do regime nazi e as suas figuras mais marcantes, esta obra histórica reconstrói os últimos momentos do Terceiro Reich, marcados pela dicotomia nazi entre a vitória total ou a aniquilação: o encontro de Hitler com os seus generais, a traição de Himmler, o fim de Goebbels e a família, o casamento com Eva Braun, o testamento e o suicídio.
328 pages, Paperback
First published March 17, 1947
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3158 people want to read
About the author
Hugh Trevor-Roper
121 books59 followersHugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton, was an English historian. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford.
Trevor-Roper was a polemicist and essayist on a range of historical topics, but particularly England in the 16th and 17th centuries and Nazi Germany. In the view of John Philipps Kenyon, "some of [Trevor-Roper's] short essays have affected the way we think about the past more than other men's books". This is echoed by Richard Davenport-Hines and Adam Sisman in the introduction to One Hundred Letters from Hugh Trevor-Roper (2014): "The bulk of his publications is formidable ... Some of his essays are of Victorian length. All of them reduce large subjects to their essence. Many of them ... have lastingly transformed their fields." On the other hand, his biographer Adam Sisman also writes that "the mark of a great historian is that he writes great books, on the subject which he has made his own. By this exacting standard Hugh failed."
Trevor-Roper's most commercially successful book was titled The Last Days of Hitler (1947). It emerged from his assignment as a British intelligence officer in 1945 to discover what happened in the last days of Hitler's bunker. From interviews with a range of witnesses and study of surviving documents, he demonstrated that Hitler was dead and had not escaped from Berlin. He also showed that Hitler's dictatorship was not an efficient unified machine but a hodge-podge of overlapping rivalries.
Trevor-Roper's reputation was "severely damaged" in 1983 when he authenticated the Hitler Diaries shortly before they were shown to be forgeries.
Trevor-Roper was a polemicist and essayist on a range of historical topics, but particularly England in the 16th and 17th centuries and Nazi Germany. In the view of John Philipps Kenyon, "some of [Trevor-Roper's] short essays have affected the way we think about the past more than other men's books". This is echoed by Richard Davenport-Hines and Adam Sisman in the introduction to One Hundred Letters from Hugh Trevor-Roper (2014): "The bulk of his publications is formidable ... Some of his essays are of Victorian length. All of them reduce large subjects to their essence. Many of them ... have lastingly transformed their fields." On the other hand, his biographer Adam Sisman also writes that "the mark of a great historian is that he writes great books, on the subject which he has made his own. By this exacting standard Hugh failed."
Trevor-Roper's most commercially successful book was titled The Last Days of Hitler (1947). It emerged from his assignment as a British intelligence officer in 1945 to discover what happened in the last days of Hitler's bunker. From interviews with a range of witnesses and study of surviving documents, he demonstrated that Hitler was dead and had not escaped from Berlin. He also showed that Hitler's dictatorship was not an efficient unified machine but a hodge-podge of overlapping rivalries.
Trevor-Roper's reputation was "severely damaged" in 1983 when he authenticated the Hitler Diaries shortly before they were shown to be forgeries.
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November 25, 2023
This is a difficult book to review. It was originally written immediately after WWII when not all of the information about the last days of Hitler was known. This is the 6th edition, which contains prefaces that correct or add facts to the original book, such as the fate of Bormann, the location of Hitler and Eva's remains, and the veracity of some eyewitnesses. Since this final edition was written in 1987, there may be additional information that has been discovered but, if so, it is in the possession of Russia which does not choose to share it.
The author was appointed by British Intelligence in 1945 to investigate the conflicting evidence surrounding Hitler's final days and was given access to counter-intelligence files and interviewed German prisoners. He depended quite a bit on the interviews with Albert Speer, the highest ranking Nazi that he was allowed to interview and one of the few of Hitler's inner circle who were still alive. I feel that Speer was probably less than honest since he was trying to avoid the hangman (and was successful) and,of course, the author knew this and sifted through some of the less than believable "facts".
It is a lucid and beautifully written history of what was happening in the bunker beneath the streets of Berlin as the Russians were reducing the city to ruins and Hitler was slipping into total madness. Many myths surround these days but this book is probably as much as we will ever know about the environment in which the tyrant and the Third Reich died. I highly recommend it.
The author was appointed by British Intelligence in 1945 to investigate the conflicting evidence surrounding Hitler's final days and was given access to counter-intelligence files and interviewed German prisoners. He depended quite a bit on the interviews with Albert Speer, the highest ranking Nazi that he was allowed to interview and one of the few of Hitler's inner circle who were still alive. I feel that Speer was probably less than honest since he was trying to avoid the hangman (and was successful) and,of course, the author knew this and sifted through some of the less than believable "facts".
It is a lucid and beautifully written history of what was happening in the bunker beneath the streets of Berlin as the Russians were reducing the city to ruins and Hitler was slipping into total madness. Many myths surround these days but this book is probably as much as we will ever know about the environment in which the tyrant and the Third Reich died. I highly recommend it.
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February 1, 2021Conspiracy theory is not a recent invention. It has been around as long as humans have been alternatively gullible or deceitful; or as long as we've had crazies. Which is to say forever.*
No sooner had Hitler killed himself than myths were sprouting like so many Spring crocuses. He was alive! He was in Argentina!
None of this was helped by the fact that Russians were first in the Chancellery, and they weren't sharing.
So, four months after Hitler's demise, Hugh Trevor-Roper, a British intelligence officer, was assigned the task of finding what happened to the Führer. And he did so, largely based upon the statements and testimonies of those who were in attendance at the end. Hitler had shot himself, and Eva Braun, whom he had just married, poisoned herself. On Hitler's pre-suicide order, their bodies were taken outside and burned so they would not suffer indignities.
With government permission, Trevor-Roper turned his findings into this book. The book thickened up a bit with an extensive Introduction to the Third Edition, which includes the testimonies of German soldiers and assistants finally released from Russian prisons in 1956, testimonies which largely corroborated Trevor-Roper's original findings. (Dental records have finally settled the matter. I think.)
Anyhow, this is the story of the last days of Hitler, and it's a gripping tale, even as we already knew who won the war. And it - the Book, a Preface, and an Introduction - are a sufficient reading journey.
But there was an Epilogue. And the Epilogue tried to make some sense about how this all could have happened, how a people could have let this happen. Or, as the author asks: how power came into the hands of such a set of monkeys.
Because, like conspiracy theories, there have always been monkeys. And still are.
On the Nightly News, the model-pretty anchors ask preferred academics whether certain labels apply: Racist? Fascist? But these are, it seems to me, useless verdicts. I would prefer the question raised in this Epilogue: How did we let this happen?
_________
*Many men saw Nero die, yet soon enough there were "false Nero" sightings. Paul is dead . . . but Elvis is alive. The Moon landing was staged in a television studio. 9/11 didn't happen or was done by Americans to sow hatred of Muslims. Jewish space lasers are responsible for the California brush fires. It was the Mafia that killed Kennedy; or the CIA; or LBJ. And now the 2020 U.S. Presidential election was stolen from the rightful winner.
No sooner had Hitler killed himself than myths were sprouting like so many Spring crocuses. He was alive! He was in Argentina!
None of this was helped by the fact that Russians were first in the Chancellery, and they weren't sharing.
So, four months after Hitler's demise, Hugh Trevor-Roper, a British intelligence officer, was assigned the task of finding what happened to the Führer. And he did so, largely based upon the statements and testimonies of those who were in attendance at the end. Hitler had shot himself, and Eva Braun, whom he had just married, poisoned herself. On Hitler's pre-suicide order, their bodies were taken outside and burned so they would not suffer indignities.
With government permission, Trevor-Roper turned his findings into this book. The book thickened up a bit with an extensive Introduction to the Third Edition, which includes the testimonies of German soldiers and assistants finally released from Russian prisons in 1956, testimonies which largely corroborated Trevor-Roper's original findings. (Dental records have finally settled the matter. I think.)
Anyhow, this is the story of the last days of Hitler, and it's a gripping tale, even as we already knew who won the war. And it - the Book, a Preface, and an Introduction - are a sufficient reading journey.
But there was an Epilogue. And the Epilogue tried to make some sense about how this all could have happened, how a people could have let this happen. Or, as the author asks: how power came into the hands of such a set of monkeys.
Because, like conspiracy theories, there have always been monkeys. And still are.
On the Nightly News, the model-pretty anchors ask preferred academics whether certain labels apply: Racist? Fascist? But these are, it seems to me, useless verdicts. I would prefer the question raised in this Epilogue: How did we let this happen?
_________
*Many men saw Nero die, yet soon enough there were "false Nero" sightings. Paul is dead . . . but Elvis is alive. The Moon landing was staged in a television studio. 9/11 didn't happen or was done by Americans to sow hatred of Muslims. Jewish space lasers are responsible for the California brush fires. It was the Mafia that killed Kennedy; or the CIA; or LBJ. And now the 2020 U.S. Presidential election was stolen from the rightful winner.
May 3, 2011
While their foul subject was fresh, the first post-war English historians, in early before the smoke had cleared, smelt the Devil. (Clive James)
I liked reading The Last Days of Hitler (1947) much more than I liked watching Downfall. Trevor-Roper’s reunion of English historical styles—Gibbon’s irony, Strachey’s titter, Carlyle’s bilious verve, if not his love of strongmen and Germany—makes even the flatulent fug of the Führerbunker, its Sardanapalan delirium, enjoyable to read about:
Trevor-Roper was a young Oxford don given wartime leave to assist the intelligence services. He studied radio intercepts and tracked the turf wars of German Army Intelligence and the SS. After the war, to forestall a posthumous Hitler cult, on one hand, and to refute Soviet claims that Hitler was alive and being secretly rehabilitated by the Western Allies for a renewed anti-Soviet crusade, on the other, Trevor-Roper was assigned, in September 1945, to establish the facts of Hitler’s last days and death. His mission entailed the pursuit, arrest and interrogation of fugitive members of the Fuhrer’s entourage; he also dug up a copy of Hitler’s will buried in a garden, and shadowboxed with the stony Soviet authorities who had recovered Hitler’s corpse but kept mum on Stalin’s orders. “Conceivably,” he writes in the introduction to the 1956 edition, “when we remember the narrow and recondite fronts upon which inter-Bolshevik struggles are fought, the question of Hitler’s death, and the official doctrine about it, may have been the symbol of some deeper tension in Russian politics.” Part of what I like in this book is its origin as an intelligence report, the survey of a world in which Hitler wasn’t yet a memory; even the 1956 introduction is far from confident that Nazism will never rise again. Trevor-Roper sees the Soviets sharing the West's fear of Nazi revival, but dispelling Hitler’s ghost with a distinctive political exorcism. For instance, even when the Soviets did admit Hitler’s death, they mentioned only the poison-taking, denying his “soldier’s death” by pistol:
I liked reading The Last Days of Hitler (1947) much more than I liked watching Downfall. Trevor-Roper’s reunion of English historical styles—Gibbon’s irony, Strachey’s titter, Carlyle’s bilious verve, if not his love of strongmen and Germany—makes even the flatulent fug of the Führerbunker, its Sardanapalan delirium, enjoyable to read about:
Pacing up and down in the Bunker…he would wave a road map, fast decomposing with the sweat of his hands, and explain to any casual visitor the complicated military operations whereby they would all be saved. Sometimes he would shout orders, as if himself directing the defenders; sometimes he would spread the map on the table, and stooping over it, with trembling hands he would arrange and rearrange a set of buttons, as consolatory symbols of relieving armies. In the tropical climate of a court, emotions and beliefs quickly change their direction. No one except Hitler still believed in Wenck’s army, but no one disagreed with his reassurances; and in a moment of time the chorus which had been chanting lamentoso, the dirge of despair and suicide, would suddenly break out allegro vivace, with a triumphant welcome for the army of Wenck.
Trevor-Roper was a young Oxford don given wartime leave to assist the intelligence services. He studied radio intercepts and tracked the turf wars of German Army Intelligence and the SS. After the war, to forestall a posthumous Hitler cult, on one hand, and to refute Soviet claims that Hitler was alive and being secretly rehabilitated by the Western Allies for a renewed anti-Soviet crusade, on the other, Trevor-Roper was assigned, in September 1945, to establish the facts of Hitler’s last days and death. His mission entailed the pursuit, arrest and interrogation of fugitive members of the Fuhrer’s entourage; he also dug up a copy of Hitler’s will buried in a garden, and shadowboxed with the stony Soviet authorities who had recovered Hitler’s corpse but kept mum on Stalin’s orders. “Conceivably,” he writes in the introduction to the 1956 edition, “when we remember the narrow and recondite fronts upon which inter-Bolshevik struggles are fought, the question of Hitler’s death, and the official doctrine about it, may have been the symbol of some deeper tension in Russian politics.” Part of what I like in this book is its origin as an intelligence report, the survey of a world in which Hitler wasn’t yet a memory; even the 1956 introduction is far from confident that Nazism will never rise again. Trevor-Roper sees the Soviets sharing the West's fear of Nazi revival, but dispelling Hitler’s ghost with a distinctive political exorcism. For instance, even when the Soviets did admit Hitler’s death, they mentioned only the poison-taking, denying his “soldier’s death” by pistol:
Why then did the Russians expurgate the revolver from their version of Hitler’s death? There is a perfectly rational explanation which, though conjectural, may well be true. The Russians may well have concealed the manner of Hitler’s suicide for precisely the same reason for which Hitler chose it: because it was a soldier’s death. I myself suspect that this was their reason. After all, it is in line with their general practice. Previous tyrannies of the spirit have sought to crush defeated but dangerous philosophies by emphatic, public executions: the gibbet, the block, the bloody quarters exhibited in terrorem populi. But such spectacular liquidations, however effective at the time, have a habit of breeding later myths: there are relics of the dead, pilgrimages to the place of execution. The Russian Bolsheviks have therefore preferred in general a less emphatic method: their ideological enemies have slid into oblivion in nameless graves at uncertain dates and no relics of them are available for later veneration. I have already suggested that it was for this reason, and in accordance with this philosophy, that they concealed the circumstances of Hitler’s death, hid his bones, and destroyed the scene of his suicide and Nordic funeral. It may well be that when such total concealment was no longer possible and they decided to admit the facts, there was one fact which they thought it expedient to alter. The soldier’s death might seem to the Germans heroic. Suicide by poison might well seem to the Russians a more expedient version.
If this is so, it raises an interesting general question. For my book was also written, in the first place, for exactly the same reason which made the Russians frown on it: to prevent (as far as such means can prevent) the rebirth of the Hitler myth. It would thus seem that we and the Russians, in this matter, seek exactly the same end by diametrically opposite means: they by suppressing the evidence, we by publishing it. Which of these two methods is the more effective is arguable. I will only say that I personally believe in my own. For when has the suppression of the truth prevented the rise of a myth, if a myth is wanted? When has the absence of genuine relics prevented the discovery of false relics, if they are needed? When has uncertainty about a true shrine prevented pilgrimages to a false one? And besides, there seems to me in the Russian argument, if I have correctly described it, a somewhat sinister implication. If they fear the truth, does it not seem that they believe in its power: that they think that Hitler’s reign really was inspiring, that his end really was glorious, and that secrecy is necessary to prevent the spread of such a view? It is a view which I do not share. It seems to me, having perhaps too naïve a faith in human nature and human reason, that Hitler’s reign was so evil, his character so detestable, that no one can be seduced into admiring him by reading the true history either of his life or of his melodramatic and carefully stage-managed end.
October 3, 2020
I was pleasantly surprised at how vivid and immediate this book came across, even though it was written so long ago. Perhaps it is because it was written right at the end of the war, when the author was commissioned to explore and write-up all the known facts regarding Hitler's death in Berlin at the last days of WWII.
Some critics have written that better and more accurate information has since come to light after Trevor-Roper's investigations in 1945-6, but I think these are somewhat minor details in an amazing story of the strange, terrible characters who surrounded The Fuhrer in the closing months and days of the war. Is it really a deal-breaker if the author was wrong in that Hitler shot himself in the temple rather than in the mouth on the afternoon of April 30, 1945? The overall result was very much the same.
I think the author did an incredible job of making the reader feel like a spectator, a fly-on-the-wall, who is able to survive the bomb-plot of July 1944 along with Hitler, watching as he thanks Keitel for reviving him in the moments after the blast, all the way to the Reich Chancellery garden cremation observed by guards from a concrete tower just above the acrid smoke. Along the way, we meet the politically astute and always-correct Goebbels, the effete pompous Goebbels, the waffling Himmler, the too-late convert Speer, runaway General Fegelein, and so on. This is more than just a chronology of dates and events, even though they are accurately marked, but an illuminating peek into the weird menagerie of Nazi power.
For those less familiar with WWII history and the personas of the Nazi Party, this may be a bit of a dive off the deep end, but for a more serious reader of those times, I heartily recommend this account of the end of the Third Reich.
Some critics have written that better and more accurate information has since come to light after Trevor-Roper's investigations in 1945-6, but I think these are somewhat minor details in an amazing story of the strange, terrible characters who surrounded The Fuhrer in the closing months and days of the war. Is it really a deal-breaker if the author was wrong in that Hitler shot himself in the temple rather than in the mouth on the afternoon of April 30, 1945? The overall result was very much the same.
I think the author did an incredible job of making the reader feel like a spectator, a fly-on-the-wall, who is able to survive the bomb-plot of July 1944 along with Hitler, watching as he thanks Keitel for reviving him in the moments after the blast, all the way to the Reich Chancellery garden cremation observed by guards from a concrete tower just above the acrid smoke. Along the way, we meet the politically astute and always-correct Goebbels, the effete pompous Goebbels, the waffling Himmler, the too-late convert Speer, runaway General Fegelein, and so on. This is more than just a chronology of dates and events, even though they are accurately marked, but an illuminating peek into the weird menagerie of Nazi power.
For those less familiar with WWII history and the personas of the Nazi Party, this may be a bit of a dive off the deep end, but for a more serious reader of those times, I heartily recommend this account of the end of the Third Reich.
October 23, 2024
What really happened in the last week or so in the Führerbunker ?
Between the double crosses of Soviet Archives holding Hitler's remains, Bormann's disappearance (which we can write off as: made his acquaintance with shellfire) & the final words of his last bodyguard & several secretaries, some clarity has been added since '47.
Still, the big picture remains unchanged. The fun in Trevor's classic account is the then-fresh hunt, crisscrossing the former territory of Greater Germany by jeep, for survivors in hiding and their characteristic blend of amnesia.
Between the double crosses of Soviet Archives holding Hitler's remains, Bormann's disappearance (which we can write off as: made his acquaintance with shellfire) & the final words of his last bodyguard & several secretaries, some clarity has been added since '47.
Still, the big picture remains unchanged. The fun in Trevor's classic account is the then-fresh hunt, crisscrossing the former territory of Greater Germany by jeep, for survivors in hiding and their characteristic blend of amnesia.
September 10, 2021
The movie DOWNFALL was not based on this book. But that only makes the written account of Hitler's last days more fascinating! The movie version was made in modern Germany, with attractive young German actors, and inevitably the weak-willed generals and frightened secretaries come across more as Germans want to remember them -- as basically decent people held captive by a monster.
Take the case of Fegelein. The book and the movie both tell the story of the dashing young SS officer who was married to Eva Braun's sister, who lost his head and went AWOL just before the end. Both agree that Hitler flew into a typical rage and had the young officer executed shortly before his own death. But the differences are intriguing. According to Hugh Trevor Roper, when Fegelein was captured and dragged back into the bunker, all of Hitler's followers -- including Eva Braun -- openly jeered at the young man and insisted that Hitler had been "betrayed" by Fegelein.
But the movie invents an entirely different scene, where Eva Braun throws herself at Hitler's feet and tearfully begs him to show mercy to her sister's new husband. It's a scene that really has mythic power, with the beautiful helpless woman showing all her gentleness and tenderness and her monstrous master showing all his coldness and cruelty. It's like Pocohontas pleading for the life of Captain John Smith! But why invent such a scene? It's not to make Hitler look good. No, the real point is to let everyone else off the hook. Eva Braun comes out smelling like a rose. She's Germany, see. She may be loyal, loyal unto death, but in her heart she never becomes really evil. Is that what Germans really want to believe? If so, it's still important that books like this remain in print.
Take the case of Fegelein. The book and the movie both tell the story of the dashing young SS officer who was married to Eva Braun's sister, who lost his head and went AWOL just before the end. Both agree that Hitler flew into a typical rage and had the young officer executed shortly before his own death. But the differences are intriguing. According to Hugh Trevor Roper, when Fegelein was captured and dragged back into the bunker, all of Hitler's followers -- including Eva Braun -- openly jeered at the young man and insisted that Hitler had been "betrayed" by Fegelein.
But the movie invents an entirely different scene, where Eva Braun throws herself at Hitler's feet and tearfully begs him to show mercy to her sister's new husband. It's a scene that really has mythic power, with the beautiful helpless woman showing all her gentleness and tenderness and her monstrous master showing all his coldness and cruelty. It's like Pocohontas pleading for the life of Captain John Smith! But why invent such a scene? It's not to make Hitler look good. No, the real point is to let everyone else off the hook. Eva Braun comes out smelling like a rose. She's Germany, see. She may be loyal, loyal unto death, but in her heart she never becomes really evil. Is that what Germans really want to believe? If so, it's still important that books like this remain in print.
November 4, 2024
I teach one section of a European history survey each year and thought I’d brush up on fascist themes for the spring semester. So I first watched a pretty good documentary called The Meaning of Hitler, then read this classic book by Hugh Trevor-Roper. It was fairly simple and somewhat dated but very good. The introduction also gave Trevor-Roper’s overall analysis of Hitler and his cronies. I then proceeded to read Alexander Kluge’s more ambitious, and more literary, attempt to make sense of the overall collapse of Nazism, called 30 April 1945, the day Hitler died. (I’d read Jahner’s excellent book, Aftermath, not so long ago too). Soon I’ll try Susan Neiman’s Learning from the Germans. Not sure where I’m going with all this. I suppose it’s all about finding the big lessons of the fascism which I guess probably emerge most clearly in Hitler’s pathetic end and the destruction of Germany. But I’m also reading Julia Boyd’s Travelers in the Third Reich to remind myself what people who visited Germany in the run up to the war missed.
August 3, 2017
Was commissioned and used as the official British intelligence report of death of Hitler and has stood up to the test of time when Russia released its imprisoned Nazis as was verified by many witnesses. A harrowing account of the madness that happened as the Allies closed in- Highly recommended for history buffs.
January 14, 2017
It must be such fun to write about Nazis because you can be an absolute bitch and what's anyone going to say?:
"Himmler himself, everyone is agreed, was an utterly insignificant man, common, pedantic, and mean. ... Hitler himself, in one sense, was not a Nazi, for the doctrines of Nazism, that great system of teutonic nonsense, were to him only a weapon of politics ... but to Himmler they were, every iota of them, the pure Aryan truth. ... With such a narrow pedantry, with such black-letter antiquarianism, did Himmler study the details of this sad rubbish. ... He gave Speer the impression of being 'half schoolmaster, half crank'."
Schwerin von Krosigk "did not attempt to answer this question; no doubt he was satisfied that the posing of it alone would impress posterity with his philosophical profundity."
"The letter from Eva Braun does not survive. It was, says Hanna Reitsch, 'so vulgar, so theatrical, and in such poor, adolescent taste' that its survival could only do harm; and she tore it up. In those qualities Hanna Reitsch preferred to remain without a rival."
"As Samuel Butler says, 'the advantage of doing one's praising for one's self is that one can lay it on so thick, and exactly in the right places.'"
"Narrow-minded and fanatical though he was, Donitz at least had some of the ordinary common sense of the practical man. If he was politically ignorant, at least he was not politically silly."
"Himmler himself, everyone is agreed, was an utterly insignificant man, common, pedantic, and mean. ... Hitler himself, in one sense, was not a Nazi, for the doctrines of Nazism, that great system of teutonic nonsense, were to him only a weapon of politics ... but to Himmler they were, every iota of them, the pure Aryan truth. ... With such a narrow pedantry, with such black-letter antiquarianism, did Himmler study the details of this sad rubbish. ... He gave Speer the impression of being 'half schoolmaster, half crank'."
Schwerin von Krosigk "did not attempt to answer this question; no doubt he was satisfied that the posing of it alone would impress posterity with his philosophical profundity."
"The letter from Eva Braun does not survive. It was, says Hanna Reitsch, 'so vulgar, so theatrical, and in such poor, adolescent taste' that its survival could only do harm; and she tore it up. In those qualities Hanna Reitsch preferred to remain without a rival."
"As Samuel Butler says, 'the advantage of doing one's praising for one's self is that one can lay it on so thick, and exactly in the right places.'"
"Narrow-minded and fanatical though he was, Donitz at least had some of the ordinary common sense of the practical man. If he was politically ignorant, at least he was not politically silly."
June 15, 2019
Το βιβλίο του αξιωματικού που ερεύνησε για λογαριασμό της Αγγλικής κυβέρνησης τι απέγινε το πτώμα του Χίτλερ.Γενικά,ξεκινάει ως ένα πολλά υποσχόμενο βιβλίο τ' οποίο είναι σωστά δομημένο και καλά ομαδοποιημένο.Αλλά σε τελική ανάλυση δεν πρόσφερει κάποια πληροφορία για τις τελευταίες μέρες του Χίτλερ εκτός απο τις ήδη γνωστές.Καλό βιβλίο για να περάσεις όμορφα την ώρα σου αλλά ως εκεί.
July 17, 2024
Fünf Sterne für die literarische Qualität, natürlich ist fehlerfreie Recherche keine Messlatte für eine Pionierleistung, gerade Kronzeuge Speer hat seitdem enorm an positiver Wahrnehmung verloren. Aber die, auch von Speer massiv kritisierten, ineffektiven Parallelstrukturen hat TR großartig aufgezeigt.
Speer war wohl, wie noch bei Fest, Hauptquelle dieser ersten Analyse des Dritten Reichs, auf deren wirschaftliche und organisatorische Basis sich Kershaw noch einmal zurückzog, als sein Hitler-Myth geplatzt war.
Ausführliche Rezi später.
Speer war wohl, wie noch bei Fest, Hauptquelle dieser ersten Analyse des Dritten Reichs, auf deren wirschaftliche und organisatorische Basis sich Kershaw noch einmal zurückzog, als sein Hitler-Myth geplatzt war.
Ausführliche Rezi später.
October 22, 2020
'You will', David Cox assured me 'learn more about Hitler, and the nature of Nazism, from reading this 200 page book than you will from ploughing through the two long volumes of Ian Kershaw's biography...' This is true and I only wish someone had told me before I'd read Kershaw's offering.
There is a remarkable story behind the book, which is itself a contribution to Cold War history, and it tells a story that has become familiar. partly through Anthony Beever's book on Berlin, and partly through the film Downfall. This book leaves both of those two accounts in the shade. It captures the insanity of a brutal court in decline with the same asperity Gibbon brings to the decline of the Roman Empire.
I think I've not given it five stars because the formality of the prose, which reaches back to the great historians of the C18th and C19th will deter some readers, and because occasionally the author lapses into a discussion of the peculiarities of the German mind, with its fondness for metaphysics. Generalizations about nationalities were surely part of this whole problem.
There is a remarkable story behind the book, which is itself a contribution to Cold War history, and it tells a story that has become familiar. partly through Anthony Beever's book on Berlin, and partly through the film Downfall. This book leaves both of those two accounts in the shade. It captures the insanity of a brutal court in decline with the same asperity Gibbon brings to the decline of the Roman Empire.
I think I've not given it five stars because the formality of the prose, which reaches back to the great historians of the C18th and C19th will deter some readers, and because occasionally the author lapses into a discussion of the peculiarities of the German mind, with its fondness for metaphysics. Generalizations about nationalities were surely part of this whole problem.
July 7, 2020
A valuable read for a number of reasons.
First, this is the earliest systematic attempt to reconstruct the events in the Führerbunker. Trevor-Roper, a trained historian, was an agent of British intelligence during World War II and it was his unenviable task to discover, as far as was possible in the immediate aftermath of the war, what had happened to Hitler. This entailed trips in and out of the American, British, and finally Russian zones of occupation and at least one trip into the abandoned bunker. He conducted months of interrogations and interviews and tracked down some incredibly important documents, like two of the signed triplicate copies of Hitler’s last will and testament, which had been smuggled out of Berlin following the Russian encirclement at the end of April 1945. (I have thought for a while that Trevor-Roper’s story would make an excellent war/detective movie.) This book is the result, and it is meticulously put together from the available material.
Available is a crucial word there, and that’s another part of what makes this book a good read. Many of the survivors of the bunker had been captured by the Russians, who were not forthcoming with interviews, documentation, or even admissions of who they had in captivity. As a result, Trevor-Roper had to rely heavily on the partial witness of those who had ended up in American or British custody.
He is frank about this. For example, portions of his reconstruction of the scene of Hitler’s suicide are based on the testimony of Hitlerjugend leader Artur Axmann as well as that of Otto Günsche, one of Hitler’s SS adjutants, as reported by Axmann. Günsche’s information is secondhand because Günsche was held in Russian captivity until the late 1950s, and it was not even clear at the time of Trevor-Roper’s writing that Günsche was still alive. Other examples abound—to cite one, Rochus Misch, one of the ordinary blokes assigned to the bunker to man the phones, and whose eyewitness testimony is indispensable in accounts of the fall of Berlin now, is missing entirely from this reconstruction, for the same reasons.
That Trevor-Roper could gather, assess, and order this amount of material into a coherent narrative in the time in which he did is remarkable, as is the fact that, excepting those places where new information has emerged with the release of prisoners or the discovery of new material, the narrative holds up.
And that’s the final valuable thing about reading this book. New material has come to light since Trevor-Roper published the first edition, and so the book is dated in its way. But Trevor-Roper lived until 2003, and revised the book several times. The version I read is the seventh edition, and includes three prefaces bringing the reader abreast of updated information and changes to the body of the text. What these prefaces—especially that to the seventh edition, the longest of the front matter—offer the reader is a glimpse of the historical process and the historian at work. Trevor-Roper lived long enough to have to explain the genesis of the book to entirely new generations of readers, and does so at length, giving insight into his work both as an intelligence officer and an historian and how he gathered and weighed evidence.
The result is not just a well-written (and it is elegantly written) account of the rot and collapse of the “court” of Adolf Hitler and its final ruination in the Führerbunker, but a layered case study in historical method. If I taught any kind of upper level historiography class I’d have this on the syllabus—along with Luke Daly-Groves’s Hitler’s Death—for sure.
If I have any criticisms or words of caution, it is that: 1) the narrative that forms the main body of the book has been revised, sometimes substantially (eg Hitler did not shoot himself in the mouth but in the temple, Albert Speer probably made up the story about his plan to flood the bunker with nerve gas, and a number of small issues of time, date, and sequence have become clearer), since the late 1940s, so don’t read this book without reading Trevor-Roper’s prefaces and notes; 2) while elegantly and sometimes even beautifully written, Trevor-Roper sometimes lets his urbanity and education get away from him, purpling his descriptions with arch imagery drawn from myth which threatens to undo the otherwise excellent job he does of bringing Hitler and his inner circle down to the level of real human beings; and 3) relatedly, his utter contempt for many of the figures in this drama—while more than justified, all things considered—is abundantly clear, and could cast doubt on his objectivity.
That said, despite its age and the incompleteness of its sources in its original form and the few niggling criticisms I’d recommend being aware of, The Last Days of Hitler is still a good place to go for the title story, and, unlike a lot of other Hitler books from the same early pre-war period suffering from similar handicaps, still has value far beyond historical curiosity.
Recommended.
First, this is the earliest systematic attempt to reconstruct the events in the Führerbunker. Trevor-Roper, a trained historian, was an agent of British intelligence during World War II and it was his unenviable task to discover, as far as was possible in the immediate aftermath of the war, what had happened to Hitler. This entailed trips in and out of the American, British, and finally Russian zones of occupation and at least one trip into the abandoned bunker. He conducted months of interrogations and interviews and tracked down some incredibly important documents, like two of the signed triplicate copies of Hitler’s last will and testament, which had been smuggled out of Berlin following the Russian encirclement at the end of April 1945. (I have thought for a while that Trevor-Roper’s story would make an excellent war/detective movie.) This book is the result, and it is meticulously put together from the available material.
Available is a crucial word there, and that’s another part of what makes this book a good read. Many of the survivors of the bunker had been captured by the Russians, who were not forthcoming with interviews, documentation, or even admissions of who they had in captivity. As a result, Trevor-Roper had to rely heavily on the partial witness of those who had ended up in American or British custody.
He is frank about this. For example, portions of his reconstruction of the scene of Hitler’s suicide are based on the testimony of Hitlerjugend leader Artur Axmann as well as that of Otto Günsche, one of Hitler’s SS adjutants, as reported by Axmann. Günsche’s information is secondhand because Günsche was held in Russian captivity until the late 1950s, and it was not even clear at the time of Trevor-Roper’s writing that Günsche was still alive. Other examples abound—to cite one, Rochus Misch, one of the ordinary blokes assigned to the bunker to man the phones, and whose eyewitness testimony is indispensable in accounts of the fall of Berlin now, is missing entirely from this reconstruction, for the same reasons.
That Trevor-Roper could gather, assess, and order this amount of material into a coherent narrative in the time in which he did is remarkable, as is the fact that, excepting those places where new information has emerged with the release of prisoners or the discovery of new material, the narrative holds up.
And that’s the final valuable thing about reading this book. New material has come to light since Trevor-Roper published the first edition, and so the book is dated in its way. But Trevor-Roper lived until 2003, and revised the book several times. The version I read is the seventh edition, and includes three prefaces bringing the reader abreast of updated information and changes to the body of the text. What these prefaces—especially that to the seventh edition, the longest of the front matter—offer the reader is a glimpse of the historical process and the historian at work. Trevor-Roper lived long enough to have to explain the genesis of the book to entirely new generations of readers, and does so at length, giving insight into his work both as an intelligence officer and an historian and how he gathered and weighed evidence.
The result is not just a well-written (and it is elegantly written) account of the rot and collapse of the “court” of Adolf Hitler and its final ruination in the Führerbunker, but a layered case study in historical method. If I taught any kind of upper level historiography class I’d have this on the syllabus—along with Luke Daly-Groves’s Hitler’s Death—for sure.
If I have any criticisms or words of caution, it is that: 1) the narrative that forms the main body of the book has been revised, sometimes substantially (eg Hitler did not shoot himself in the mouth but in the temple, Albert Speer probably made up the story about his plan to flood the bunker with nerve gas, and a number of small issues of time, date, and sequence have become clearer), since the late 1940s, so don’t read this book without reading Trevor-Roper’s prefaces and notes; 2) while elegantly and sometimes even beautifully written, Trevor-Roper sometimes lets his urbanity and education get away from him, purpling his descriptions with arch imagery drawn from myth which threatens to undo the otherwise excellent job he does of bringing Hitler and his inner circle down to the level of real human beings; and 3) relatedly, his utter contempt for many of the figures in this drama—while more than justified, all things considered—is abundantly clear, and could cast doubt on his objectivity.
That said, despite its age and the incompleteness of its sources in its original form and the few niggling criticisms I’d recommend being aware of, The Last Days of Hitler is still a good place to go for the title story, and, unlike a lot of other Hitler books from the same early pre-war period suffering from similar handicaps, still has value far beyond historical curiosity.
Recommended.
July 16, 2024
An excellent and extremely well documented study - especially that it was written shortly after Hitler's demise - about der Führer's death, but creating a larger context of those complicated last days of the Third Reich.
Although the author is far from being objective, his analysis stands the test of time, as it is one of the most compelling ant pertinent that I have ever read about the topic.
Although the author is far from being objective, his analysis stands the test of time, as it is one of the most compelling ant pertinent that I have ever read about the topic.
February 24, 2020
Excellent read.
Informative, eloquent and written only shortly after the history it describes, this 'freshness' works in the book's favour for a modern reader in ways its author might not have wholly anticipated. The events in the bunker happened seventy-five years ago (writing this in 2020) and they seem both contemporary and weirdly ancient, as does Trevor-Roper's style and treatment of it.
Great history both for the book itself and the window it gives us onto the immediate post-war spirit.
Informative, eloquent and written only shortly after the history it describes, this 'freshness' works in the book's favour for a modern reader in ways its author might not have wholly anticipated. The events in the bunker happened seventy-five years ago (writing this in 2020) and they seem both contemporary and weirdly ancient, as does Trevor-Roper's style and treatment of it.
Great history both for the book itself and the window it gives us onto the immediate post-war spirit.
August 14, 2020
The story of Hitler’s final days is well told, the pages go by quickly. Trevor-Roper is free with his condemnations and judgements, which makes the reading of the thing all the easier (“objective” historians are so very dull).
February 4, 2018
Not my usual reading material, this volume filled blanks on two different reading challenges: one for a book published in the year you were born and one for a book about Hitler. This thoroughly researched and well-reasoned examination of Hitler's last days is fascinating, and I appreciate Trevor-Roper's snipes at some of Hitler's compadres. For example, he says that Schellenberg and Schwerin von Krosigk "form a perfect pair, the Tweedledum and Tweedledum of pretentious German sillines" (139) and comments of Himmler, "facts do not trouble the bigot and the crank" (74). Although rare, Trevor-Roper does find an admirable quality or two in some of Hitler's closest circle, but laments their being mesmerized into the Fuehrer's nihilistic program. Needless to say, I learned a LOT about Nazism and about the demise of the Third Reich.
December 30, 2016
A really interesing book considering its over 70 years old and I am tired of reading about WW2. Hugh T-Roper was an MI6 agent sent into Berlin in the Summer of 1945 to figure out WTF happened to Hitler. The war had been over for months and Adolf's ultimate fate was a mystery with the Soviets accusing the West of harboring him or letting him go into exile in Spain. Roper was given the unenviable task of going to Berlin under an assumed name and finding out what happened even though the key people, places and evidence were either dead, destroyed or in Soviet hands.
All those obstacles in mind, Roper still produced in a mere 200 or so pages a chronicle of Hitlers last days that after 70 years and a bajillion books later, still got the bulk of the story in its main points right. The Soviets after 2 years of playing dumb to Hitler's fate admitted that they had dug up his charred remains from outside the Reichs Chancellory days after the war. The basic timelines of who came and went from The Bunker when are still what Roper spelled out. Roper, who went on to be one of Britain's premier post-WW2 historians made an effort to update future editions of the book as new evidence came out. So when the Soviets released the bulk of the German POWs in the mid-1950s Roper was able to add the details learnt from that event. When some skeletons uncovered during construction in the 1970s appeared to include the bones of Martin Bormann, Roper could deem that mystery solved. Roper continued to update his book until 1995, but only in the minutae.
The more interesting insights Roper has were (1) The Nazi state was not really a totalitarian one. Murderous, criminal, oppressive and evil as it was, it never acted as a fully integrated whole. HItler's Germany is best seen in Roper's eyes as a Royal Court with Hitler as king and all his key lieutenants like Himmler, Bormann, Goebbels, Speer, Goerring etc etc as princes with their own little fiefdoms, private armies and competing agendas. (2) Hitler was not the most Nazi of the Nazis since he never seemed to really buy into some of the zanier Nordic mysticism that Himmer and some of the others did. (3) In Hitler's eyes WW2 played out the opposite of WW1 because as he laid out in Mein Kampf the glories and success of the German General staff had been betrayed by the politcians in WW1 and now in WW2, Hitler and his politcal allies were betrayed by the Generals. The July 20 1944 bombing attempt tore the German state apart in ways I did not appreciate and from then on Hitler leaned more and more on his Naval and Air Force staff (even though both were becoming increasingly non-existent).
In the end Hugh T-Roper sees the end of the 1000 year Reich as being an evil and depraved Mad Hatter's Tea Party that right up until the end was crazy delusional. Even with Berlin in flames, shells landing atop The Bunker and Hitler a smoldering corpse, his surviving Capos like Bormann and Himmler were hoping to join Adm Donitz near the Danish border and negotiate a separate piece with the US and UK to preseve the Nazi State. Hitler thought that FDR's death would deliver him a divine change of fortune that would tear apart the Allies.
I have to admire a book that one would think would eventually fade into obscurity to hold relevance this long. To this day it is considered one of the best non-fiction books in the English tongue (The Guardian's Top 100 List)
All those obstacles in mind, Roper still produced in a mere 200 or so pages a chronicle of Hitlers last days that after 70 years and a bajillion books later, still got the bulk of the story in its main points right. The Soviets after 2 years of playing dumb to Hitler's fate admitted that they had dug up his charred remains from outside the Reichs Chancellory days after the war. The basic timelines of who came and went from The Bunker when are still what Roper spelled out. Roper, who went on to be one of Britain's premier post-WW2 historians made an effort to update future editions of the book as new evidence came out. So when the Soviets released the bulk of the German POWs in the mid-1950s Roper was able to add the details learnt from that event. When some skeletons uncovered during construction in the 1970s appeared to include the bones of Martin Bormann, Roper could deem that mystery solved. Roper continued to update his book until 1995, but only in the minutae.
The more interesting insights Roper has were (1) The Nazi state was not really a totalitarian one. Murderous, criminal, oppressive and evil as it was, it never acted as a fully integrated whole. HItler's Germany is best seen in Roper's eyes as a Royal Court with Hitler as king and all his key lieutenants like Himmler, Bormann, Goebbels, Speer, Goerring etc etc as princes with their own little fiefdoms, private armies and competing agendas. (2) Hitler was not the most Nazi of the Nazis since he never seemed to really buy into some of the zanier Nordic mysticism that Himmer and some of the others did. (3) In Hitler's eyes WW2 played out the opposite of WW1 because as he laid out in Mein Kampf the glories and success of the German General staff had been betrayed by the politcians in WW1 and now in WW2, Hitler and his politcal allies were betrayed by the Generals. The July 20 1944 bombing attempt tore the German state apart in ways I did not appreciate and from then on Hitler leaned more and more on his Naval and Air Force staff (even though both were becoming increasingly non-existent).
In the end Hugh T-Roper sees the end of the 1000 year Reich as being an evil and depraved Mad Hatter's Tea Party that right up until the end was crazy delusional. Even with Berlin in flames, shells landing atop The Bunker and Hitler a smoldering corpse, his surviving Capos like Bormann and Himmler were hoping to join Adm Donitz near the Danish border and negotiate a separate piece with the US and UK to preseve the Nazi State. Hitler thought that FDR's death would deliver him a divine change of fortune that would tear apart the Allies.
I have to admire a book that one would think would eventually fade into obscurity to hold relevance this long. To this day it is considered one of the best non-fiction books in the English tongue (The Guardian's Top 100 List)
January 9, 2010
The conclusions of what is surely THE definitive investigation into the demise of Hitler - that conducted by the author at the behest of the Four Power Intelligence Committee in 1945. This is not conjecture or self-indulgent fantasy, but a clear enunciation of the facts as they can best be established, with the necessary caveats and considerations blatantly laid bare. But not just the facts: the spurious alternatives too, along with well-researched and authoritative descriptions of events and key players, with the occasional surprising burst of character from the author ("If posterity concludes that Schwerin von Krosigk was a ninny, he has only himself to blame....")
Always interesting, sometimes disturbing, frequently insightful, this is history such as I haven't read in a long time.
Favourite quote: It was an appropriate death, as appropriate as the barbaric funeral of Hitler and the silent, secondary death of Goebbels; appropriate to his character - for it was squalid and delayed - and appropriate to the functions which he could no longer exercise. The terrible high-priest of Hitler, who has once served the altar, expounded the mysteries and presided over the human sacrifices with such undeviating devotion, having once yielded to doubt, had become a mere wandering shadow, a ghostly sacristan, fitfully haunting the shrine he could no longer tend. Now the god himself had perished; the temple had been utterly destroyed; the faithful had been scattered, or converted; and the suicide of the exiled priest is the natural end of a chapter in history: the history, it seems, of a savage tribe and a primitive superstition.
Always interesting, sometimes disturbing, frequently insightful, this is history such as I haven't read in a long time.
Favourite quote: It was an appropriate death, as appropriate as the barbaric funeral of Hitler and the silent, secondary death of Goebbels; appropriate to his character - for it was squalid and delayed - and appropriate to the functions which he could no longer exercise. The terrible high-priest of Hitler, who has once served the altar, expounded the mysteries and presided over the human sacrifices with such undeviating devotion, having once yielded to doubt, had become a mere wandering shadow, a ghostly sacristan, fitfully haunting the shrine he could no longer tend. Now the god himself had perished; the temple had been utterly destroyed; the faithful had been scattered, or converted; and the suicide of the exiled priest is the natural end of a chapter in history: the history, it seems, of a savage tribe and a primitive superstition.
Read
July 22, 2009My current reading of Haffner's The Meaning of Hitler moved me to pick up an audio edition of Trevor-Roper's book today. I first read the book more than 20 years ago, perhaps as many as 30 years ago. I remember a fair amount about Hitler's last days but don't remember much about Trevor-Roper's book. I'm curious to learn whether Haffner's book will give me some fresh insights into Hitler's final days.
After many interruptions, I've finally finished Trevor-Roper's book. It's not quite what I remembered reading years ago. I was expecting the book to focus closely on the last handful of days that Hitler spent in his bunker before he committed suicide. I suspect my memories of the book may have been influenced by the film Hitler: The Last Ten Days, which does have that focus.
While T-R's book does pay a lot of attention to those last few days, its overall scope is much broader. It pays a great deal of attention to what was going on outside the bunker and provides fascinating accounts of what was happening to other Nazi leaders, such as Himmler, Goering, Speer, Doenitz, and many others. It also does an excellent job of placing Hitler's last days within the fuller context of both Nazi and 20th-century German history. The book's epilogue addresses the question of how the lunatic Nazi regime came to power and managed to achieve as much success as it did. A very rich and well-balanced history that might also serve as an introduction to Nazi history.
After many interruptions, I've finally finished Trevor-Roper's book. It's not quite what I remembered reading years ago. I was expecting the book to focus closely on the last handful of days that Hitler spent in his bunker before he committed suicide. I suspect my memories of the book may have been influenced by the film Hitler: The Last Ten Days, which does have that focus.
While T-R's book does pay a lot of attention to those last few days, its overall scope is much broader. It pays a great deal of attention to what was going on outside the bunker and provides fascinating accounts of what was happening to other Nazi leaders, such as Himmler, Goering, Speer, Doenitz, and many others. It also does an excellent job of placing Hitler's last days within the fuller context of both Nazi and 20th-century German history. The book's epilogue addresses the question of how the lunatic Nazi regime came to power and managed to achieve as much success as it did. A very rich and well-balanced history that might also serve as an introduction to Nazi history.
July 3, 2020
A very good book about Hitler's last days in the bunker beneath the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, where he was hiding with some generals, secretaries, chauffeurs, and Goebbels and Bormann, while the city was being reduced to rubble and the Russians were approaching. Trevor-Roper was asked to investigate what had exactly been Hitler's end, because there was some confusion about this. Afterwards he wrote this book about it. And even though it was written just a few years after the war, and several witnesses who had been in the bunker and had helped burn Hitler's body had been taken to the Soviet Union, and so were not available for interviews, Trevor-Roper did a remarkable job. He got almost everything right about the events in the bunker and his investigation gave him a mostly correct insight into the Nazi administration as well.
As an example: he writes that Nazi rule definitely wasn't totalitarian, in the sense of a completely integrated and centralized state. This was much later corroborated in the literature, such as Ian Kershaw's biography of Hitler. Hitler's rule was a very personalized, charismatic, hands-off kind of rule, with many centres of power only roughly following what they thought to be the wishes of the Fuhrer. Nazism was always more of a mass movement than a state.
The book is also stylishly written and the story is dramatic. Ater all these years it's still worth reading.
As an example: he writes that Nazi rule definitely wasn't totalitarian, in the sense of a completely integrated and centralized state. This was much later corroborated in the literature, such as Ian Kershaw's biography of Hitler. Hitler's rule was a very personalized, charismatic, hands-off kind of rule, with many centres of power only roughly following what they thought to be the wishes of the Fuhrer. Nazism was always more of a mass movement than a state.
The book is also stylishly written and the story is dramatic. Ater all these years it's still worth reading.
September 11, 2011
A brilliant classic, Trevor-Roper's book, first published in 1950 and amended in 1956, (I have the 1962 edition) step by step follows Adolph Hitler's last week in the bunker and provides a pretty good summary of his last ten months as well as all the myths and legends surrounding his death and supposed survival in South America, (nothing credible there). At the end of the Third Reich Hitler was heavily drugged and mostly deranged, insisting that phantom armies would save Germany and blasting the German military for failing him, etc. I found the book fascinating especially on how the other Nazis believed that they could survive the war in power, particularly Himmler and Goering, neither of which had the slightest inkling of the popular and political opinion of them in the Western countries. In the end, feeling deserted by both of them and angry at the army, Hitler picked an admiral to succeed him as "Fuhrer", but there was really nothing to govern any longer. A very good description of the "Flensburg Government" that lasted a week after Berlin fell. A modern classic by an Oxford professor who spent five years interviewing the participants firsthand and studying thousands of documents.
June 28, 2014
H.R. Trevor Roper hat anhand von Zeitzeugen-Berichten ein ziemlich komplettes Bild von den letzten Tagen Hitlers verfasst. Er hat so ziemlich alle Beteiligten versucht zu interviewen, der Großteil davon entweder in russischer oder amerikanischer Gefangenschaft. Die Russen erwiesen sich als nicht allzu kooperationsbereit, so musste Roper teilweise warten, bis diverse Zeitzeugen aus der Gefangenschaft nach Hause kamen.
Ich habe die bereits überarbeitete Ausgabe von 1955 gelesen, in der manche Fakten bereits klar widerlegt waren und trotzdem wurden sie in dieser Ausgabe nicht ausgebessert. Natürlich, man darf nicht davon ausgehen dass vor allem die Leute die bis zum Schluss im Bunker waren, die komplette Wahrheit preisgegeben haben. Aber die Goebbelskinder wurden definitiv nicht verbrannt. Erst sehr viel später. Das wusste auch Roper. Auch das ist eine Art von Propaganda.
Albert Speer kommt in diesem Buch am besten weg. Aber ob irgendetwas von dem was er ausgesagt hat wahr ist, weiß kein Mensch.
Ich fand es sehr interessant und werde mich noch weiter in die Geschehnisse rund um den April 1945 einlesen.
Ich habe die bereits überarbeitete Ausgabe von 1955 gelesen, in der manche Fakten bereits klar widerlegt waren und trotzdem wurden sie in dieser Ausgabe nicht ausgebessert. Natürlich, man darf nicht davon ausgehen dass vor allem die Leute die bis zum Schluss im Bunker waren, die komplette Wahrheit preisgegeben haben. Aber die Goebbelskinder wurden definitiv nicht verbrannt. Erst sehr viel später. Das wusste auch Roper. Auch das ist eine Art von Propaganda.
Albert Speer kommt in diesem Buch am besten weg. Aber ob irgendetwas von dem was er ausgesagt hat wahr ist, weiß kein Mensch.
Ich fand es sehr interessant und werde mich noch weiter in die Geschehnisse rund um den April 1945 einlesen.
March 4, 2015
This author did NOT think much of the Nazi inner circle. 'Ninny's, simple minded, childish'. His words, not mine. He explored the psychological mind set more than the facts. I didn't learn much new, but it was interesting how they thought. Excellent research.
August 14, 2023
What a circus.
April 25, 2025
This is a short book, so if you want to start reading about WWII, I'd say this is a good one to start with, especially since it ends with the death of a murderous dictator.
It was written on the behest of the British government to determind the truth as to Hitler's whereabouts. For some reason, the Soviets were intent on keeping his death a secret, so there was a desire to find out the truth.
It was written on the behest of the British government to determind the truth as to Hitler's whereabouts. For some reason, the Soviets were intent on keeping his death a secret, so there was a desire to find out the truth.
May 3, 2018
A fascinating account of the events during the last days in "the monkey house" of Hitler's bunker in Berlin in 1945. The final days of the Third Reich are documented with precision and clarity, based on first hand accounts and surviving documentation. An important text which underlines the insanity of the end of the war in Europe.
May 5, 2020
It's difficult to rate a book that I'm read for my personal statement in the same place as books I read for pleasure but this was really interesting and informative but did take a while to get through
October 25, 2021
dated in many places (eg in being far too trusting of Speer and some other ex nazis, and in his characterizations of them), but informative and readable
July 16, 2023
It was fine, learned some things - just didn’t wow me.
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