Swansong 1945 A Collective Diary of the Last Days of the Third Reich

chronicles the end of Nazi Germany and World War II in Europe through hundreds of letters, diary extracts, and autobiographical accounts covering four days that fateful spring: Hitler’s birthday on April 20; American and Soviet troops meeting at the Elbe on April 25; Hitler’s suicide on April 30; and finally the German surrender on May 8. Side by side we encounter vivid accounts of civilians fleeing Berlin, ordinary German soldiers determined to fight to the bitter end, American POWs dreaming of home, and concentration camp survivors’ first descriptions of their horrific experiences—as well as the intimate thoughts of figures such as Eisenhower, Churchill, Stalin, Eva Braun, Joseph Goebbels, and Hitler himself. Renowned German author Walter Kempowski painstakingly collected and organized these firsthand accounts, and the result brings to life the end of Nazi Germany and the war in Europe as never before.