Berlin: The Downfall 1945

by Antony Beevor

Recounts, in narrowing detail, and with formidable skill, the brutal death throes of Hitler's Reich at the hands of the rampaging Red Army.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, War, Military History, Germany, Military Fiction

490 pages, Paperback

First published May 13, 2002

About the author

Sir Antony James Beevor is a British military historian. He has published several popular historical works, mainly on the Second World War, the Spanish Civil War, and most recently the Russian Revolution and Civil War.
Educated at Abberley Hall School, Winchester College, and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Beevor commanded a troop of tanks in the 11th Hussars in Germany before deciding in 1970 to leave the army and become a writer. He was a visiting professor at Birkbeck, University of London, and the University of Kent. His best-selling books, Stalingrad (1998) and Berlin: The Downfall 1945 (2002), have been acclaimed for their detailed coverage of the battles between the Soviet Union and Germany, and their focus on the experiences of ordinary people. Berlin proved very controversial in Russia because of the information it contained from former Soviet archives about the mass rapes carried out by the Red Army in 1945.
Beevor's works have been translated into many languages and have sold millions of copies. He has lectured at numerous military headquarters, staff colleges and establishments in Britain, the US, Europe, and Australia. He has also written for many major newspapers.

Reviews

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

The True Horrors of War

The book that got Sir Antony Beevor banned from Russia. The Fall of Berlin 1945 is an excellent account of the Battle for Berlin and the downfall of Nazi Germany at the end of the Second World War. It opens up thought on the true horror of war and the suffering on all that it touches. This book allows the reader to be dragged away from the glorifying movies that have sprung up over the last 80 years and look reality in the face. I have read many books on the Nazis, WWII and conflict, however this book was still able to shock, upset and surprise me. It left food for thought on a number of occasions as thought about what people must have gone through, from young to old, soldiers to civilians, innocents to guilty and men and women to animals. An entire nation, albeit a twisted and sickening one was destroyed and its population dispersed. The memory and cultural heritage of old Germany was evaporated with it and there are no signs of this ever returning. For this The Fall of Berlin 1945 is a must read.

Furthermore, as I have mentioned above, Beevor has been banned from Russia as a result. This is because he has told the truth about the red army and criticising it is something illegal in Russia today. The taboo matter is the rape and sexual violence of the Soviet soldiers as they hacked their way through Eastern Europe to the heart of the Third Reich. The cruelty, born out of repression of Stalin’s USSR, knew no bounds. It has been something whispered and nodded about, but never acknowledged or written about until Beevor bravely produced this work. Now he has researchers attend the Russia archives, who pretend they work for other academics. This is why this is a must read. The paranoia of Stalin and the Soviet’s also shine through, the decent, backstabbing and political games against their own generals and western allies are really sobering. One thinks of the obsession to get to Berlin first, acumlate all civilians for Gulag work and the betrayal of Marshall Zhukov over the discovery of Hitler’s charred remains.

Beevor does an excellent job as always of telling the history and leaves little biased opinion in his prose. Again though, with such brilliant and interesting source material only a truly poor scholar would make this a boring book. The Fall of Berlin 1945 is of course not without its criticisms, the focus on the sensational and horrific aspects of the battle, such as the widespread sexual violence by Soviet soldiers has been deemed by some to be excessive. While these accounts are an essential part of the historical record, their prominence in the narrative may leave some feeling that other aspects of the story, such as the broader military strategy or the political implications of Berlin’s fall, receive less attention.

Despite this, The Fall of Berlin 1945 remains a masterful work of history. Beevor’s skillful writing and comprehensive research make it both an informative and a deeply moving account of one of World War II’s most significant and tragic events. It is a book that challenges readers to confront the full horror of war, while also offering insights into the human capacity for resilience and survival in the face of unimaginable hardship. For anyone interested in the history of World War II, or the broader study of conflict and its impact on humanity, Beevor’s book is an essential read.

[Helga · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book recounts the last mounts of the WWII and details the Red Army’s advance, the Battle of Berlin and the ultimate defeat of the Third Reich.
The book also focuses on the atrocities committed by the Red Army against German civilians, which was very painful to read.

[Stefania Dzhanamova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Antony Beevor's work is a wonderful overview of the battle for Berlin.

In the final year of the Second World War, Joseph Stalin wanted the Red Army to occupy Berlin first, and there was a very strong reason for this wish. In May 1942, he had summoned Lavrenty Beria and the leading atomic physicists to his villa. He was furious to have heard through spies that the United States and Britain were working on a uranium bomb. Over the next three years, the Soviet nuclear research programme, soon codenamed Operation Borodino, was dramatically accelerated with detailed research information from the Manhattan Project provided by Communist sympathizers. Beria himself took over supervision of the work and eventually brought Professor Igor Kurchatov’s team of scientists under complete NKVD control. The Soviet programme’s main handicap, however, was a lack of uranium, reveals Beevor. No deposits had been identified yet in the Soviet Union. Therefore, Stalin and Beria’s greatest hope of getting the project moving ahead rapidly lay in seizing German supplies of uranium before the Western Allies got to them.

According to Beevor, there have never been any doubt in the minds of the Nazi leadership that the fight for Berlin would be the climax of the war. "The National Socialists," Goebbels had always insisted, "will either win together in Berlin or die together in Berlin." He also used to paraphrase Karl Marx, declaring that "whoever possesses Berlin possesses Germany." "Stalin, on the other hand, undoubtedly knew the rest of Marx’s quote: ‘And whoever controls Germany, controls Europe,'" adds Beevor.
The American war leaders, however, were clearly unfamiliar with such European sayings. They – at that stage – simply did not view Europe in strategic terms. They had a limited objective: to win the war against Germany quickly, with as few casualties as possible, and then concentrate on Japan. General Dwight Eisenhower – like President Truman, the chiefs of staff, and other senior officials – failed to look ahead and completely misread Stalin’s character, argues Beevor. This exasperated British colleagues and led to the main rift in the western alliance. Some British officers even referred to Eisenhower’s deference to Stalin as "Have a Go, Joe", a call used by London prostitutes when soliciting American soldiers.

On 2 March, Eisenhower signalled to Major General John R. Deane, the US liaison officer in Moscow, "In view of the great progress of the Soviet offensive, is there likely to be any major change in Soviet plans from those explained to Tedder [on 15 January]?" He then asked whether there would be a lull in operations mid-March to mid-May. But Deane found it impossible to obtain any reliable information from General Antonov, the Soviet chief of staff. (And when finally the Soviets did state their intentions, they deliberately misled Eisenhower to conceal their determination to seize Berlin first.)

As Beevor reveals, in the difference of views over strategy, American personalities unavoidably clashed. While General Montgomery, for instance, favored a single, "full-blooded" thrust towards Berlin, Eisenhower suspected that his demands were prompted solely by "prima donna ambitions." He weighted an attack southwards partly because he was convinced that Hitler would withdraw his armies to Bavaria and northwestern Austria for a last-ditch defence of the Alpine Fortress. He conceded later in his memoirs that Berlin was "politically and psychologically important as the symbol of remaining German power", but he believed that "it was not the logical nor the most desirable objective for the forces of the Western Allies". As Beevor explains, Eisenhower justified this decision on the grounds that the Red Army on the Oder was much closer and the logistic effort would have meant holding up his central and southern armies, and his objective of meeting up with the Red Army to "split Germany in two".

Six days earlier, Winston Churchill had hoped that "our armies will advance against little or no opposition and will reach the Elbe, or even Berlin, before the Bear". Now he was thoroughly dismayed. It seemed to him as if Eisenhower was far too concerned with placating Stalin because the Soviet authorities were angry about an accidental shooting of several Soviet aircrafts by American fighters.
Ironically, despite their efforts, it was the Americans who provoked the biggest row with the Soviet Union at this time: when Allen Dulles of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) had been approached by SS Obergruppenführer Karl Wolff about an armistice in north Italy, the Soviet leadership’s demands to participate in the talks were rejected in case Wolff might break them off. This, asserts Beevor, was a blunder. The Soviet Union was understandably alarmed, and Stalin began to fear a separate peace on the Western Front even more. "His recurrent nightmare," writes the author, "was a revived Wehrmacht supplied by the Americans."
The Soviet dictator also suspected that the huge numbers of Wehrmacht troops surrendering to the Americans and British in the west of Germany revealed not just their fear of becoming prisoners of the Red Army but also a deliberate attempt to open up the Western Front to allow the Americans and British to reach Berlin first. In fact, the reason for such large surrenders at that time was Hitler’s refusal to allow any withdrawal. If he had brought his armies back to defend the Rhine after the Ardennes débâcle, explains Beevor, the Allies would have faced a very hard task. But he did not, and this allowed them to trap so many divisions west of the Rhine. "We owed much to Hitler," Eisenhower commented later.

Meanwhile, Churchill felt strongly that until Stalin’s post-war intentions in central Europe became clearer, the West had to grab "every good card available for bargaining with him". Recent reports of what was happening in Poland, with mass arrests of prominent figures who might not support Soviet rule, strongly suggested that Stalin had no intention of allowing an independent government to develop; Molotov had also become extremely aggressive. The British Prime Minister's earlier confidence based on Stalin’s lack of interference in Greece had now started to disintegrate. He suspected that both he and Roosevelt had been the victims of "a massive confidence trick". As Beevor explains, Churchill still did not seem to realize that Stalin judged others by himself. It would appear that he had acted on the principle that Churchill, after all his comments at Yalta about having to face the House of Commons over the subject of Poland, had simply needed "a bit of democratic gloss to keep any critics quiet until everything was irreversibly settled." Stalin now appeared to be angered by the Prime Minister's renewed complaints over the Soviet Union’s behaviour in Poland.

In any case, Eisenhower's view that Berlin itself was "no longer a particularly important objective" demonstrated, according to Beevor, "an astonishing naivety." Yet, the irony was that Ike's decision to avoid Berlin was almost certainly the right one, albeit for the wrong reasons. For Stalin, the Red Army’s capture of The Third Reich's capital was far too important a matter. "If any forces from the Western Allies had crossed the Elbe and headed for Berlin, they would almost certainly have found themselves warned off by the Soviet air force, and artillery if in range," comments Beevor. Stalin would have had no compunction in condemning the Western Allies and accusing them of criminal "adventurism". While Eisenhower gravely underestimated the importance of Berlin, Churchill, on the other hand, underestimated both Stalin’s determination to secure the city at any price and the genuine moral outrage which would have greeted any western attempt "to seize the Red Army’s prize from under its nose".

At the end of March, the Stavka in Moscow put the finishing touches to the plan for "the Berlin operation". Marshal Zhukov, who was to be responsible for seizing Berlin, shared Stalin’s fears that the Germans would open their front to the British and Americans. His fear only intensified when Stalin showed him a letter from a "foreign well-wisher" tipping off the Soviet leadership about secret negotiations between the Western Allies and the Nazis. While it did explain that the Americans and British had refused the German proposal of a separate peace, the possibility of the Germans opening the route to Berlin still "could not be ruled out". "Well, what have you got to say?’ said Stalin. Not waiting for a reply, he said, " I think Roosevelt won’t violate the Yalta agreement, but as for Churchill… that one’s capable of anything."

Equipped with such notions, Stalin, General Antonov, and Foreign Affairs Commissar Molotov met with the US ambassador, Averell Harriman, and his British counterpart, Sir Archibald Clerk Kerr, on March 31 in Kremlin. Stalin talked about virtually every front except the crucial Oder (along which the Soviet onslaught on Berlin would be launched). He enthusiastically approved of Eisenhower's plan of an attack southwards, commenting that it was a good one "in that it accomplished the most important objective of dividing Germany in half".

However, the very next morning the Soviet dictator received Marshals Zhukov and Konev in his study in Kremlin and showed them a telegram, presumably sent by one of the Red Army liaison officers at SHAEF headquarters. The message claimed that – in fact – General Montgomery would head for Berlin and that General Patton’s Third Army would also divert from its advance towards Leipzig and Dresden to attack Berlin from the south. The Stavka had already heard of the plan to drop parachute divisions on Berlin in the event of a sudden collapse of the Nazi regime. All of this, reasoned Stalin, evidently combined into an Allied plot to seize Berlin first under the pretense of assisting the Red Army. ("One cannot, of course, rule out the possibility that Stalin had the telegram faked to put pressure on both Zhukov and Konev," remarks Beevor.)
"Well, then," Stalin asked the two marshals after the telegram was read. "Who is going to take Berlin: are we or are the Allies?"
"It is we who shall take Berlin,’ Konev replied immediately, "and we will take it before the Allies."
When Stalin asked how Konev intended to accomplish this, the marshal replied that Comrade Stalin "needn't worry". His desire to beat Zhukov to Berlin was unmistakable and Stalin, who liked to engender rivalry among his subordinates, was clearly satisfied.

As Beevor further narrates, soon afterwards General Antonov presented the overall plan; then Konev and Zhukov presented theirs, and the Stavka started working in great haste, fearing that the Allies would be quicker than Soviet troops in taking Berlin.
They had much to coordinate: the operation to capture the city involved 2.5 million men, 41,600 guns and mortars, 6,250 tanks and self-propelled guns and 7,500 aircraft. No doubt, asserts Beevor, Stalin took satisfaction in the fact he was concentrating a far more powerful mechanized force to seize the capital of the Reich than Hitler had deployed to invade the whole of the Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, the Soviet dictator also continued leading his Western Allies by their noses – after the main conference on April 1, he replied to the American supreme commander that his plan "completely coincided" with the plans of the Red Army, and assured his trusting ally that "Berlin has lost its former strategic importance" and that the Soviet command would send only second-rate forces against it. The Red Army, continued he, would be delivering its main blow to the south, to join up with the Western Allies; the advance of the main forces would start approximately in the second half of May, but this plan "may undergo certain alterations, depending on circumstances."
Little did the Allies know what a Berlin operation "the genius commander-in-chief, Comrade Stalin," (as the political department of the 1st Ukrainian Front had called him) had prepared for them... "It was," observes Beevor with a tinge of humor, "the greatest April Fool in modern history."

Every time I pick up a book by Antony Beevor I can't help but be completely astonished by his masterful recreation of dialogues, sketching of portraits of eminent historical figures, and wonderfully detailed descriptions. It is impossible to efficiently summarize "BERLIN: The Downfall" in a single review. While my favorite parts of the book are the ones dealing with the political schemes "at the top" and the battle's logistics, (which is probably obvious from my review), the work doesn't overlook neither the Nazi commanders' point of view, which by this stage of the war could be perfectly summarized by Guderian's reply to Hitler's assurances that the Eastern Front "had never possessed such a strong reserve" ("The Eastern Front is like a house of cards. If the front is broken through at one point all the rest will collapse."), nor the battle for Berlin itself or the suffering of ordinary Berliners, gaunt from short rations and stress and pestered by Allied air raids and Goebbels' propaganda. Beevor spares no horrific details, such as, for example, the mass rape of German women by Soviet soldiers in the Reich's capital. A chapter is even devoted to Hitler's last refuge, the bunker, to Eva Braun, and to Goebbels and his family's suicide; although I've read about this episode more than once, I have to say that none of the authors' I'm familiar with has depicted those scenes as cinematically as Beevor.
A graphically, compellingly written and brilliantly researched book on the Wehrmacht's downfall, the battle for Berlin.

[Darya Silman · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Bettie · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

"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

[zed · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do have issues with some of the text not being footnoted in a manner I find useful but there is a fine bibliography and a section of interviews, diary and unpublished accounts.
In the end though an interesting read on the appalling fall of Berlin that showed that the enemies each had no idea as to the humanity of each other. Propaganda by the opposing sides was always fierce and in the end with the Eastern Front being probably the most brutal event in history this book bought to the fore the never ending question of man’s inhumanity to man and how propaganda can cause appalling events to happen.

As the Red Army crossed into East Prussia and had seen German wealth in comparison to their own homes, towns and cities Senior Lieutenant Klochkov said he could not understand why Germany had attacked them and risked such a prosperous life. Zhukov’s divisional commander General Maslov said “What was surprising was that they were crying in exactly the same way as our children cry" as he watched these children weeping for their lost parents. Revenge propaganda had convinced its citizens that all Germans were ravening beasts wrote the author. The same was true of the Nazi’s propaganda.

The Nazis use of “soft faced children” in the final battle was an utter indictment on their moribund ideology and latter attempts to blame the Nazis by Wehrmacht officers holds no water with this reviewer. The final toll of rape, as well as the death and destruction, that the eastern front was from the start to the fall of Berlin is not pretty reading in this very competent telling.
Gertraud "Traudl" Junge once said of Nazism after WW2 had ended “………..at that moment I actually sensed that it was no excuse to be young and that it would have been possible to find things out.” Quite.

[Gerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

What could I possibly say that I hadn't already alluded to within my previous updates. I read "Stalingrad" in the snow outside on purpose in January of 2009, I read Beevor's "D-Day" in April of 2010 and believe that Stephen Ambrose still holds my attention best on that topic, "Paris After the Liberation" I read in November of 2011 and here on 14 January, 2013 I completed "The Fall of Berlin 1945". I believe that "Stalingrad" was brilliant, but this work on "The Fall of Berlin 1945" was even more brilliant than the work I thought could not be topped.

We all know how the Second World War ends in both the ETO and PTO. However, what we often miss in the modern era are the real life difficulties that everyday people had to confront as their Fascist Government that could have ended the war earlier chose not to do so. In so keeping the battle lines had to be continuously re-drawn - the worst of course were for the many civilians of women, children, and the Volkstuurm comprised of older men who most had fought during the First World War.

This book is certainly not for the faint of heart or for good people that could become emotional when reading of the many attrocities to innocent people. I find the Germans of that particular time, those who managed to survive who questioned why their cities were bombed as they were, why the loss of life had to continue, and those that believed Germany should never have faced such an ending to the war are the same people of that time frame who failed to realize that it was them that coined the term "Blitzkrieg" and it was them who managed to do the same and worse forms of perpetration upon the Polish and the Russians.

Today as we know the Germany nation and that of Japan are among the most hard working and peace loving the world over - they are a far cry from their previous existence.

If you read "Stalingrad" and liked it - then you will find this book as I did even better.

[Leftbanker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read people on GR criticizing Beevor as a historian saying that he doesn't develop his characters, among other things. Horse shit. I love him as a historian because he's much better at writing than most historians. I don't give a crap if you detail everything the way some people expect, if you can't keep a reader's interest I have no use for you. Beevor writes with the skill of the best authors of thrillers. Unputdownable is an invented word seldom used to describe history books, but it's a fitting adjective for Beevor's output.

You may want to read Beevor’s prequel to this history, Stalingrad. Both books make for great reading on one of the most epic struggles in human history. Without knowing a thing about the Battle of Stalingrad a reader may have trouble understanding the ferocity of the Red Army in their crushing defeat of the Germans in Berlin. The fact that the German Army insisted on fighting on, well after their defeat had been certain gave the Soviets even less room for sympathy or humanity. What a horrible place that must have been in the spring of 1945.

"I’ll forgive the Russians absolutely anything they do to this country when they arrive. Absolutely anything," one English prisoner of war said in the book. That sort of hits the nail on the head.

Sorry, you can’t fight to the bitter end and then expect anything approaching mercy, especially when you waged war as the Nazis did in the USSR. They should have surrendered at D-Day. The same goes for the Japanese. Anyone who opposed the use of atomic bombs in WWII doesn't know much about the brutal fighting in the Pacific when the Japanese elite had know for a long time that their cause was lost.

[Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Somehow I missed doing a review when I read this, ho hum

1945. The chickens are coming home to roost. The Red Army has systematically dismantled and destroyed the Wehrmacht in a series of massive campaigns. By April they are on the outskirts of Berlin. The capital of the Reich is a mass of rubble, its inhabitants cowering in cellars pensively awaiting Ivans arrival.

The Fuhrer sits in his bunker too. Reduced to a shambling wreck and allegedly numbed by drugs much of the time. Hitler promised to Make Germany Great Again but all he has achieved for his adopted country is ruination.

Between the Russians and the capital is a rag tag army, many of them old men and teenage boys, as the recruitment barrel is scraped one last time. Fourteen year olds are given rocket propelled grenades and sent out against tanks. Hopelessly outgunned and outnumbered the German army fights on, ferociously defending the homeland.

Numbers prevail and the Russians break into Berlin, conquering the city street by street against fierce resistance. Many thousands on both sides die, and as always on the Eastern Front the war is extremely brutal. The victorious Russians loot and rape at will, despoiling the detested capital of the enemy.

In the Fuhrer bunker Hitler shoots himself, his precious Thousand Year Reich destined to outlast him by just a few days. A journey from beer hall rabble rouser to the conqueror of much of Europe ends up with a funeral pyre in a squalid shell hole - Hitler burns, as Berlin burns around him.

A powerful book, well written and meticulously researched. Worth a read.

[Maziyar Yf · Rating 5 out of 5]

آنتونی بیور در سقوط برلن ، با استادی هر چه تمام جهنمی را که یک دیکتاتور احمق برای ملت خود ساخته را به تصویر می کشد . در حقیقت بیور که در کتاب استالینگراد ، مقاومت و جان فشانی نیروهای شوروی و ساکنان شهر را ترسیم ساخته ، در سقوط برلن هم جنگ داخلی دیگری را بررسی می کند : این بار در برلن ، پایتخت نازی ها و با ساکنانی که دیگر طاقت و حوصله جنگ را ندارند .
چه دلیلی باید باعث شود که یک شهر در هم شکسته از بمباران های هوایی ، با اکثریت ساکنان که خانه ، غذا ، آب آشامیدنی ندارند در برابر 7 میلیون سرباز ارتش سرخ در شرق و 4.5 میلیون سرباز آمریکایی و انگلیسی و کانادایی در غرب دفاع کند ؟
هیچ دلیلی یا هیچ معجزه ای قابل دفاع از برلن نیست ، اما هیتلر که به وضوح دیوانه و توهم زده شده دستور دفاع از شهر را می دهد و از بچه های 12 ساله تا پیرمردان 65 ساله را به جنگ می فرستد ، جنگی که پایانش بر همه آشکار است .
آقای بیور با استادی روحیه و طرز فکر افراد غیرنظامی برلن ، ورماخت ( ارتش آلمان ) ، اس اس و وافن اس اس را نشان می دهد که تا لحظه آخر اس اس ها به دنبال اجرای اوامر هیتلر بودند و کسانی را که از جنگ فرار می کردند را با خونسردی دار می زدنند . از نزدیکان هیتلر که معمولا به علت استعمال الکل زیاد هوش و هواس نداشتند و خود پیشوا هم در آستانه مرگ به نظر می رسید . اما هم چنان با وقاحت تمام خود را ملت آلمان تلقی می کرد و می گفت که زندگی مردم آلمان بعد از او هیچ ارزشی نخواهد داشت !
آقای بیور سری هم به اردوگاه دیکتاتور روسیه ، استالین می زند ، این که چگونه بین ژنرال های عالی رتبه خود ، ژوکوف ، چویکوف و کنیوف اختلاف و رقابت انداخته تا آنها را برای اشغال هر چه سریعتر برلن جری تر کند . این که چگونه جان سربازها و اصولا هر موجود زنده ای برای او و ژنرال هایش بی ارزش است و این که سربازان روسیه به خاطر کمبود ودکا ، مواد شیمیایی و صنعتی می نوشیدند ، با این که می دانستند بعد از نوشیدن آن فقط سه روز زنده خواهند ماند .

و تجاوز، تجاوز سربازان سرخ به زنان برلینی یا آلمانی ، این که با افتخار می گویند دو میلیون آلمانی بعد از سال 1945 پدری روس دارند و چگونه آلمان ها باید این داغ را تحمل می کردند . کتاب پر است از انبوه جزئیات که آقای بیوربه خواننده می دهد ، از لرزش دست چپ هیتلر گرفته تا لباس اوا براون ، از غارت برلن تا تجاوز . تمام این جزیئات در فیلم دیدنی سقوط از اولیور هرشبیگل با بازی برونو گانتس در نقش هیتلر مجنون به تصویر کشیده شده اند ، شخصیت نفرت انگیز و چاپلوس دکتر گوبلز ، ماگدا گوبلز همسر متوهم و متفرعن گوبلز و لحظه دهشتناکی که مادر شش فرزند خود را توسط سیانور می کشد ، این که چگونه روسها مانند غلطک جلو می آیند و هر شهری در دستان آنها کامل تخریب می شود ، این که هیتلر مجنون همه را به دفاع
فرا می خواند اما خود مثله بزدل ها خود کشی می کند ، همه این جزییات به طور کامل در کتاب آمده است .
کتاب یک شخصیت دوست داشتنی هم دارد ، واسیلی گروسمان به عنوان خبرنگار جنگی مسیر طولانی از استالینگراد تا برلین را آمده و مشاهدات خود را از سقوط برلین می گوید ،برای من خواندن نوشته های گروسمان در این کتاب مانند دیدن چهره آشنایی در جمع بود

و در پایان ، باز یک دیکتاتور احمق یک کشور و چند نسل از زندگی مردم خود را نابود می کند . از لحاظ هیتلر گویی تمام موجودات برای خدمت کردن به او آفریده شده اند وفقط اوست که همه چیز را میداند . پایان او هم نزدیک است : هیتلر خودکشی می کند و جنازه اش سوزانده می شود ، اما روسها فکهای او را پیدا می کنند و با خود به مسکو می برند تا داستان دیکتاتور با نابودی خود و ملت خود به پایان برسد .

[Manray9 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beevor's account of the final collapse of Nazi Germany is not great historical writing. The narrative reads as a catalogue of events without the binding literary thread necessary to weave a compelling historical tale. There is little development of the historical figures -- their stories are not fleshed out. You end the book knowing not much more about Zhukov, Guderian, Chiukov or Weidling than when you started. The Fall of Berlin 1945 is weak alongside John Toland's The Last 100 Days despite greater access to German and former Soviet archival material.

I was uncomfortably unsympathetic to the thousands of German women so savagely molested by the undisciplined Red Army. While the German women were certainly innocent victims, I couldn't help but think of the pain wrought by their fathers, brothers, husbands and sons throughout the Soviet Union and elsewhere. German womanhood reaped what their menfolk had sown. That's not a very charitable point of view, but it's mine nevertheless. The exposure of the scale of wanton pillage perpetrated by the Red Army is probably the most valuable contribution of Beevor's book. It's a story that needs telling and should be explored further.

[Jill H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly amazing book that looks at the last few months of the Third Reich and the horrors visited on the population of Berlin by the Red Army. That Army was frenzied by their experiences at the hands of the Nazis when Germany invaded Russia and they wreaked unimaginable suffering in their revenge....tanks crushing civilians, mass rape, pillage and total destruction. The author does a masterful job of reconstructing the experiences of those millions caught up in the Third Reich's final collapse. I give it the highest recommendation. It is also a wonderful companion book to The End: The Defiance & Destruction of Hitler's Germany 1944-45 by Ian Kershaw

[Margarita Garova · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Дайте ми десет години и няма да познаете Германия.”

Пророчески думи и рядък случай на правота от страна на Фюрера. Както горчиво се шегува пленен немски войник, това е и единственото спазено от Хитлер обещание.

“Падането на Берлин” е всъщност много повече от история за разрухата на един велик град. Битката за Берлин като символ на могъщия Райх е кулминацията на петгодишна касапница. Но преди германската столица да капитулира, Бийвър разказва за постъпателната агония на Източна Прусия, Померания и Силезия – подстъпите към сърцето на Третия Райх, в които Червената армия, започва отмъстително да граби, насилва и руши.

Мнозина, ужасени от нацистките зверства в концлагерите, еврейските гета и вероломното им нападение срещу бившия им съюзник СССР, сигурно биха имали повод за злорадстване в стил “получиха си го”. Дори тези, които очакват да изпитат морално удволетворение от ужаса, сполетял германския народ, ще бъдат сащисани – подробностите за насилията, застигнали мирното население, няма да оставят място за schadenfreude у нормалния читател.

На първо място, Червената армия никак не е подбирала кого насилва – жертви са не само германски жени и момичета, но и новоосвободени рускини и полякини, както и германски комунисти и техните семейства. Съветската параноя гледа на тях с подозрение, защото не са “партизани”, без да подозира, че партизантската борба просто не е в кръвта на немците. По оценки на историци, повече от два милиона са изнасилените жени, самоубийствата в резултат на това – над десет хиляди.

Много и комплексни са причините зад руското отмъщение. Нахлуването на Вермахта през лятото на 1941 г., обсадата на Ленинград, продължила 900 дни, касапницата при Сталинград подготвят почвата за реванш. Към това трябва да прибавим съветската пропаганда, подхранвана и от стиховете на народния трубадур Иля Еренбург, а и чувствата, които войниците изпитват на немска земя - недоумение и завист от стандарта на обикновените германци. Паралелите с условията на живот в родината никак не са в полза на последната.

Затова никак не е чудно, че това, което следва, е ирационално унищожение, което далеч надхвърля целите на войната.

И докато 2,5 милиона червеноармейци настъпват все по-уверено към крайната цел, Борман, Химлер, Гьобелс и Гьоринг се борят над трупа на Третия райх в грозни игри, които трябва да излъчат приемника на Хитлер. Защитата на цивилното население в Източна Прусия, там където я има, е фатално ненавременно. Берлин също е оставен беззащитен. Символ на отчаяната съпротива е Фолкщурм – отчаяна, като се има предвид кои възрастови групи влизат в него, деца и старци, последните - често ветерани от Първата световна война.

Когато не описва сражения, които според мен не са силната част на книгата, Бийвър е страхотен в предаването на атмосферата, в дребните детайли, в дипломатическите игри. Разчитайки, че основните моменти от историята са познати на всеки, Бийвър внася допълнителен мотиви, без които “Падането на Берлин” щеше да е просто изсушена хронология. Ето само няколко примера, които остават трайно в съзнанието:

• Конференцията в Ялта и простоватата хитрост на Сталин. Рузвелт и Чурчил са колосално надхитрени. Не бях чела по-добро описание за този момент от войната.
• Поразително е, че дори по това време е имало дезертьори от руска страна, въпреки нулевият шанс за успех на германците.
• Последният концерт на Берлинската филхармония, след който членове на Хитлерюгенд раздават от нарочни кошници капсули с цианид на посетителите, та когато дойде моментът...Мнозина се възползват от подаръка.
• Гьобелс чете на глас “История на Фридрих II Пруски” на Хитлер в бункера, за да повдигне духа му.
• Нов лагер, само че роден, съветски, очаква оцелелите от немски плен. Съдбата на Жуков също е показателна за система, която не се свени да се обърне срещу своите, пък били те и национални герои.
• Завръщат се и немските комунисти от Москва, повече от готови да служат на старите си нови господари (да ви звучи познато?)
• Насред бездушната нацистка бюрокрация се открояват двама немски генерали, които впрягат сили да спасят цивилното население – Валтер Венк и Хелмут Вайдлинг.
• И нека се помни, че големият герой след падането на Берлин са германските жени – гладни, насилени, останали без дом (1 милион души живеят сред руините през май 1945 г.), те намират сили да разчистят отломките по улиците, да преметат грижливо и да очакват завръщането на съпрузи, братя и синове, които да утешават.

В крайна сметка Сталин печели съзтезанието и слага пръв ръце на Берлин. А голямата ирония е, че обръщайки се срещу болшевиките през лятото на 1941 г., на практика германците поканват болшевизма в сърцето на Европа след края на войната. Разбира се, не по-малко интересно е какво се случва непосредствено след капитулацията. Но, това, както се казва, е друга история.

[E. G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

List of Illustrations
Maps
Glossary
Preface

--Berlin: The Downfall: 1945

References
Source Notes
Select Bibliography
Index

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Mircea Petcu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelentă!

[Σωτήρης Αδαμαρέτσος · Rating 4 out of 5]

Η 9η Μαΐου εορταζεται ως η ημέρα της νίκης των Συμμαχων στον ΒΠΠ κατά της Ναζιστικης ΓΕΡΜΑΝΙΑΣ (η γνωστή VDay, ✌✌✌ victory in Europe, μετα την DDay της απόφασης στην Νορμανδία)
Στην κατωτέρω επιχρωματισμενη φωτογραφία απεικονιζονται μπροστά στην πύλη του Βραδεμβουργου στο Βερολίνο - και μετέπειτα σύνορο Ανατολικού, Δυτικού Βερολίνου - τρεις πρωταγωνιστές στρατηγοί του πολέμου. Εκ δεξιών προς τ' αριστερά, ο πρώτος είναι ο στρατηγός των Σοβιετικων (μέτωπο Λευκορωσίας) Κονσταντιν Ροκοσοφσκι, τρίτος από δεξιά, ο αρχιστρατηγος των Σοβιετικων Γκεοργκι Ζουκοφ και με την πλάτη γυρισμένη μπροστά (με το μπερε) ο αρχιστρατηγος των Βρετανών Μπερναρντ Λο Μοντγκομερι.
Για την ιστορία· λίγο καιρό μετά έγινε η μεγάλη παρέλαση στη Μόσχα, όπου το προσταγμα είχε ο Ροκοσοφσκι και ο Ζουκοφ ετεθη επικεφαλής - πάνω σε ένα άσπρο άλογο. Στον αρχικό σχεδιασμό επικεφαλής σχεδίαζε να προπορευθει ο Στάλιν, αλλά στις δοκιμές το άλογο τον έριξε κάτω· προτίμησε λοιπόν να δει την παρέλαση από την ταράτσα του Κρεμλινου, λέγοντας στον Ζουκοφ να αναλάβει αυτός μιας και ήταν του... Ιππικού στον Εμφύλιο!!!

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?stor...

[Sweetwilliam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am going to have to make some space for this one on my favorite’s shelf. This is my second Antony Beevor book and I have to say I’m a Beelevor!!!! This was every bit as entertaining as the Beev’s Stalingrad. One more book like this and I will be ready to proclaim Antoney Beevor the Hornfischer of the land war in Europe!!! More appropriately, Beevor is to WWII history what Justin Bieber is to pop music. In fact, I’m sure if Antoney Beevor came to my town for a book signing, he would be mobbed by dozens of geriatric men. None of us would be throwing him our underwear but instead we would be throwing out our opinions of what caused the Third Reich to lose the battle of Stalingrad and what should have been done at Kursk, etc.

This is a book about the last major battle in the European theater of WWII. It is about evil verses evil. It is about a Germany, bled white, fighting on long after the outcome has been decided. It is about the Red Army hoards fighting, looting, and raping their way through East Germany and Berlin. It is about rag tag units of Wehrmacht invalids, Volkssturm (local militia), Hitler Youth, and remnants of SS units (half of whom are foreign Nationals) making a last ditch effort to save the Reich by taking on T-34s with little more than Panzerfausts.

Beever’s account is so readable. From start to finish, you can barely put it down. The front line units of both armies were in a quandary. To the front stood the enemy and certain death. To the German rear stood the SS and feldgenderarmarie and a hangman’s noose. To the Russian rear stood the NKVD rifle regiments and a firing squad. There was no way out. Win or die. Lose and die or get sent to the gulag and die. Win and get sent to the gulag anyway and die. Meanwhile, civilians are stuck in the gears of both the allies’ military might and the Wehrmacht. Nazi officials forbade the evacuation of civilians from cities that were under attack. This was akin to a death sentence. German civilians were subjected to aerial bombardment, massive artillery barrages, tanks, sub machine gun bursts and finally the mass raping and looting by the Red Army.

What happens? The Russians win of course but unlike American sports where the winner gets the spoils many of the victorious Russian soldier are rewarded with the gulag. Repatriated Russian POWs that are not summarily executed are sent to the gulag – some of them even after picking up a rifle and taking part in the battle for Berlin! Marshall Zhukov is disgraced by Beria and Stalin after the war because his new status as conqueror made him a threat to Stalin. Zhukov’s story was particularly interesting. Trumped up charges are brought against Zhukov after the war about being awarded two shotguns that Beria turned into 20 shotguns etc. Even so, Zhukov thought the greatest injustice perpetrated upon him was by Stalin who did not share the knowledge that SMERSH had already recovered Hitler’s burnt corpse. Stalin used to visit Zhukov and quiz him...no, tease him... as to what happened to Hitler’s corpse.

This book drove me crazy. German resistance was pointless and yet they fought on anyway. Why? For some it was because they were ordered to do so but for most others it was the fear of retribution from the Soviets. The SS, for example could not surrender because the Russians were going to kill them. The furors orders often defied all laws of military science. With the empire crashing down around him, Hitler is still acting as his own Chief of Staff, issuing insane order after insane order. For example, he orders a Wehrmacht General to the Hitler bunker so that he can charge him with cowardice but instead of executing him as intended, by the end of the meeting he puts him in charge of the defense of Berlin. He put Himmler – a SS murderer - in charge of the Army of the Volga and he had never commanded anything as large as a fire team in combat! Himmler was probably the only guy with less of a clue than Hitler as what to do. (Can’t everyone see that Hitler has lost it? Would someone please put two shots to the back of the head and be done with it!!!!)

The Red Army political officers inspired their men to take revenge against Germany. It is true, you reap what you sow and the Germans had ravaged Eastern Europe. Now it was their turn. According to Beevor, East Prussia was severely punished as a result. But finally, at the eleventh hour, the Soviets discovered that this policy of retribution was causing a defeated enemy to fight on to the last. They had to change this policy or the German’s would continue to fight just so they could surrender to the Western Allies. Secretly, the Soviets needed to get into the Kaiser Wilhelm institute to collect materials for the atomic bomb! This institute was located in what was agreed upon to be the Western sector. So the Red Army changed their policy. They fed the people of war torn Berlin. Red Army General Berzarin actually mixed with the people at the soup kitchens and talked with them. The German people liked him. He died in a mysterious motorcycle accident shortly after the war. Was this another Stalin purge?

Beevor also takes on a few taboo topics in this book. He examines the mass rape by the red Army and contends that is was not just a crime of violence. It may have been so in East Prussia but not always. There was some grey area because it was also one of sexual relief. The Red Army raped everything in its destructive path and didn’t even spare the Jewish women they liberated from the concentration camps. In fact, they raped the Russian women that were taken back to Germany against their will and were forced into slave labor. One Russian woman slave laborer said we used to dream of being rescued by the Red Army. When the day of liberation came we were raped. Why? Repatriated Russians were asked “why did you not become a partisan?” In other words, you were a traitor for surviving so we will rape you.

Beevor is also critical of the Wehrmacht. After the war German high command admits to making mistakes but no one would take responsibility for the atrocities. Instead, many senior members of the Wehrmacht made themselves out to be victims. I found this to be a very interesting discussion.

In 1933 Hitler said “give me 10 years and you will not recognize Germany.” By 1945, senior members of the Wehrmacht had to agree, he kept his promise. Berlin was a bombed out wasteland and no longer recognizable even to its own inhabitants. Read Beevor’s take on the battle of Berlin to understand the horrors of total war.

For 2019, I plan to read other Beevor books. D-Day and the Second World War have already been downloaded to my kindle.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5 stars rounded up to 4) William T. Sherman knew what he was talking about in his famous quote on war, and nevermore so than on the Eastern Front in WWII. By 1945 the years of war had bred an intense hatred between two ideologies, which could only end in the destruction of one. In Antony Beevor's book about the final days of the Third Reich, the author gives a somewhat drawn out background to the success as well the final failure of Germany. Hitler's mistakes are well known in the years leading to the final confrontation in Berlin. Practically, the first half of the book deals with the grim question of whether the Allies will 'steal' Stalin's prize from him.

As we all know, political considerations have their consequences so we are left with the ruthless and often sickening confrontation of three Russian fronts with the remaining German troops trying to protect Berlin, and obstensibly carrying out a madman's desire to go down in flames in the midst of his country's rubble.

In the second half the book picks up with the fighting in the great city. The guilty, and particularly many innocent women faced the horror of the onslaught. Other reviewers have discussed this issue, and there probably is no answer except the innocent have always suffered along with the guilty. Of course, that also leaves the question of what part the civilians played in the continued atrocities of the Third Reich. Beevor does not go into that, but the question is still there of shared guilt. Were they paying the price of blind obedience?

The book ends with a brief look at the post-war lives of some of the prominent combatants, Zhukov most notably. He fought one madman, only to serve another. That he survived both is to his credit. Others were not so fortunate.

[Michael Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

In The Fall of Berlin 1945, Antony Beevor tries to depict, as graphically as possible, the atrocious actions of the Russian troops (and the clumsy non-action by their American and British allies) in the eventful taking of Berlin, the symbolic civic center of Nazi Germany.

Overall, I did not like this book: while it is informative and has some good pieces of analytical material, it has a subjective approach and a questionable goal, and uses historical fact only as buttress. (Ann Tusa and John Tusa discuss in more detail the legality of these actions in The Nuremberg Trials). The cinematics also don't work in this prose.

On the positive side, the book is carefully researched, albeit Beevor never references the facts mentioned here and there is a strong negative tone towards the Russians. The material on the background of the (short) siege of Berlin is well-written and informative; among others, it introduces the reader to the material support from the Allies (including the opinion that the Russians would have scarcely been able to attack Berlin, had it not have been for the American Land-Lease trucks, materials, ammunition, etc.). The assault on Berlin is prefaced by descriptions of the precedent battles, which have stranded much of the defense (including some key units, due to the directions of Speer) out of reach of Berlin. The actual battle is described in short slices, sometimes difficult to follow but overall well-made (given the medium). The part on the deaths or attempted escapes of the top Nazi officials is very good, drawing from rich material that has surfaced as late as the mid-1990s (e.g., the death of Bormann). Similarly, the part on the fate of the victorious Russian generals is interesting.

Everywhere there are gory details--nasty but needed for trying to understand this war experience--: we learn about the entering of Russians on the German territory; about the youthful (and heart-breaking) German fighters in the streets of Berlin; about the Panzerjagers (Panzer hunters) on bikes; about queuing (and being killed while in line) for the water pump; about the general destruction; about the rape of Berlin; about the re-education (and other pieces of the horrible fate) of the Russian prisoners of war; about the loss of any illusion of having human rights, under the iron fist of the Russians; etc. This part, however, is heavily based on the war-time and on the later reporting of Vassily Grossman (A Writer at War is on my to-read list), imo without enough or proper citation.

This book abounds in good low-detail analysis, which seems to be Beevor's main strength. There's good material on (mostly Russian) life on the front; on the reason for which Berliners could not just give up (Hitler Youth and SS, and the Russians themselves, shot even at people under the white flag); on re-establishing life basics in a destroyed city; etc. There is an interesting story about German Selbstopfereinsatz ("self-sacrificial mission") -- a precursor of the Japanese kamikaze ("divine wind").

There is some fine analysis about seemingly minute events, but with conceivably much broader implications: the internecine fights among the Russian generals, managed to profit by Stalin but ultimately overwritten by NKVD (Russian version of Gestapo); the political impact of the public announcement, by Roosevelt, of the decision to withdraw US troops from Europe, within 2 years from the end of the war (what a boon for the aggressive Russian behavior, and what multi-decade terror this will bring!); the first Jewish service after reconquering Berlin ("in the synagogue of the Jewish hostpital [...] on Friday 11 May"); the actual date when the war ended (hint: the Russians wanted it to coincide with May 1, then, not succeeding with this, to delay the news for nefarious purposes).

The main issue I have with this book is the coarseness of the theories. This is one of those books that oscillates between historical accuracy and plain fiction, going through temporary stages of subjective analysis. The author misses no chance to call on Russians for committing atrocities; however, perhaps they should be put in international context (although quid pro quo is no excuse, as decided later, during The Nuremberg Trials). Beevor seems mistaken in his analysis of the extraction of German research facilities, including the nuclear research laboratory -- Beevor strongly states that the Russians have had a poor yield out of these extractions (from nail to researcher); instead, it seems to me that Russia got at least a buff to their own research and managed to strip important knowledge from the heart of Europe, not mentioning the control of the important uranium fields of Czechoslovakia.

Another issue is the presence of fantastic stories, not supported with documentary evidence and thus plain unbelievable (even if, possibly or even likely, true): about the NKVD bugging all the rooms at Yalta (where Sir Winston Churchill claimed to have felt truly safe, sic!); about Nazi generals, in charge of defending Berlin, who were learning about Russian advances by calling random phone numbers in different areas (if a Russian voice answered, or there was repeatedly no answer, then the Russians must have conquered that part of the city already); the reverse calls, which the Red Army used as pranks or as a method to intimidate the population; the story about the honor of riding a white horse as the battle victor, which seemingly Stalin left to Zhukov (later to be ostracized) only because he himself has fallen from said horse, a day before; etc.

Yet another issue is the storification of cinematic events, which is not done justice in this prose -- the medium is perhaps not suitable for this type of presentation, as envisioned by Beevor for this book. The prose stumbles into numbers and facts, which are needed for perspective but greatly detract from fluency and atmosphere; the actual battle is fragmented instead of continuous, with effectively breaks any perspective and thus seems to depict an uncoordinated battle in the rubble; etc.

To conclude: a good book, but the mix of history and historical fiction, and the use of cinematics in prose, make this less interesting for this reviewer.

[Tim Mercer · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[Czarny Pies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Antony Beevor is one of the greatest historians of the second half of the twentieth century. The Nobel Literature Committee has not a awarded the prize to an historian since 1953. The time to award another is long overdue; Beevor would be a very logical choice.


Beevor trained at Sandhurst and served for five years in the British army. Despite being admirably trained to write the type of technical history that military academies use to train their students in battle field tactics, Beevor has always concentrated on the human side of war. He explains the cultural differences of the two armies and what the experience was like for the general population to live on a front.

Beevor is in top form with Berlin: The Downfall. At the same time that you are elated to see the Russians putting an end to an evil regime, you are appalled at the suffering of the German population under the Russian occupiers.

Some Russians have been angered by this book. They feel that it shows their soldiers in too negative a light. I think above all Beevor admires the Russians because it was their desire to win that defeated the Nazis. Beevor does not blame the Russians for anything; the fact is that war is simply not pretty.

[Julio The Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anthony Beevor, interviewing a German woman who survived the battle of Berlin: Why didn't the Germans resist the Allied occupation after 1945?
German frau: Because we are not Russians! Russians are natural-born partisans. Germans are not.

[Wendy Hart · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing is outstanding in this meticulously researched overview of the last days of World War 2 when the Russian Army captured Berlin. The book is long. While it is a tedious read, it is a worthwhile one.

[Razvan Banciu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A highly documented point of view. There are some things you never knew, others descripted in a new light, such as the final assault on Reichstag. Humanity was very unlucky, as Hitler and Stalin lived in the same period, but that's not all. Perhaps we should learn much more from history, in order not to do the same mistakes, again and again.

[Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read about the Eastern Front I have an odd sense that I cannot lose- two of my most hated ideologies, Communists and Nazis, slaughtering one another. But then you read stories about a woman's family members imploring soldiers to stop raping her long enough so she can nurse her baby that would not cease crying from hunger. Reading those stories reminds you of how horrid humans can be. I really enjoyed this book - I gained so much information relating to the last days of the Reich, and the battle of Berlin and it was a compelling listen.

[Nikola Jankovic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Treba shvatiti razmere istočnog fronta. Pred ofanzivu na Berlin, u bici za Zelovske visove, Sovjeti su imali 30.000, a nemačka strana 12.000 mrtvih. Tokom bitke u Normandiji, saveznici 4.000 žrtava, a sile osovine između 5 i 9 hiljada žrtava. Koliko nas je čulo za Zelovske visove?

Bivor i ovde kombinuje ozbiljnu istoriju sa anekdotama i ispovestima običnih vojnika i civila. Detaljno je prepričana svađa Hitlera i Guderijana (pre nego što je genijalni general otpušten 8.3.), strašni poslednji trenuci porodice Gebels pre nego što su Magda i Jozef otrovali svojih šestoro dece, jako je zanimljiva priča o pregovorima za predaju tvrđave Špandau krajem aprila, a tu je i priča o tome kako su članovi Hitler-jugend sa korpama kapsula cijanida stajali na izlazu iz berlinske Filharmonije, po završetku poslednjeg koncerta u Trećem Rajhu.

Iako se nisu baš predali na zapadu, strah od "azijskih boljševističko-jevrejskih bandi" je doveo do toga da su Nemci radili na tome da Berlin nekako padne u ruke zapadnim saveznicima. Dok su Rusi ginuli na Zelovskim visovima, saveznički tenkovi su napredovali auto putem. Naravno, bilo je jasno da je rat izgubljen, ali se u Berlinu govorilo da "optimisti uče engleski, a pesimisti ruski".

Ipak, Berlin je za stepenicu ispod preostale 4 Bivorove knjige koje sam pročitao (Drugi svetski rat - I tom je verovatno najbolja istorija 2. svetskog rata u jednom delu, a odlične su i The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 i Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942–1943). Najveći deo bavi se kritikama sovjetskih trupa. Ne sumnjam da je ponašanje sovjetskih vojnika često bilo osvetoljubivo, da su pljačke i silovanja retko sprečavana, ali nije baš smeo da mi nakon čitanja ostane osećaj da je Crvena armija bila loša strana u ratu. Paušalno i bez dokaza često se ponavlja tvrdnja o 2 miliona silovanja, kao da svaki takav pojedinačni događaj nije dovoljno strašan sam po sebi.

Ideja za dalje čitanje: Jedna žena u Berlinu.

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Sleepy Boy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beevor doesnt disappoint, an unflinching look at the fall of Nazi Germany, the struggles of the soldiers, civilians, and politicians.