Berlin: The Downfall 1945

Well written and harrowing. It’s hard not to want to cry tears of anger and rage as well as sorrow at Nazi Germany, the eager complicity of a people in Nazi plans, and the unspeakable death, vile brutality, and destruction this caused. Berlin fell in just the way you’d expect a criminal and incompetent regime’s last stand to go, particularly a last stand against the murderous regime it angered and invaded and raped. It’s a sad read but an important one.

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

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

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

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

Not for the squeamish. Hitler sacrifices Berlin in the face of certain defeat. I read it to try to gain some insight into what my father-in-law's experience might have been like (he was 14 years old and just trying to survive). I think it's hard for Americans to understand suffering at these levels (and did all those women and children deserve it?). Obviously, Roosevelt blew it by not letting our troops liberate Berlin -- did he realize what would happen?

As expected from Beevor this is a superbly researched book which leaves no stone un-turned. It is a little dry in places but I didn't find this to be a problem given the serious nature of the subject. If it had been purely about the soldiers and commanders it would have been good, but what propels it to that 5th star for me is the fact that it also focuses on what happened to the civilians caught up in the downfall in Berlin, and in particular the women. What soldiers on all sides faced was bad, but even more horrific was the routine rape and abuse of pretty much every woman the soldiers came across regardless of age. This isn't an easy book to digest but delivers eveything it promises.

This is a thoroughly gripping account of the final few months of the Third Reich. It focuses in particular on the advances of the Red Army, which undoubtedly bore the major burden of bringing about the death throes of the Nazi regime, but many of whose members also committed atrocities against the civilian populations of Poland and Germany as they advanced westwards, including the rape of some 2 million women. In short it shows the horror and bestiality of the fighting on the Eastern Front, including the appalling and often unnecessary loss of life on both sides, even when the eventual outcome was assured. As well as the grand sweep of events, Beevor also mentions many small incidents involving individual German civilians or Russian show more soldiers, thus adding human colour to the grim military and political events. A tremendously dramatic and tragic piece of writing. show less

In two words: utterly compelling. Antony Beevor's widely praised account of the ultimate battle for the heart of the Nazi Reich, and the pure horror of it all, is a book worthy of high praise indeed. The scene is ably set in the opening chapters with the setting of the various battle orders, the intricacies of the political machinations in fearsome effect, and the descriptions of lives interrupted on the home fronts; Beevor expertly brings the reader with him into the new year of 1945 as the final battle for Europe's fate is about to play out. As the front moves ever nearer to the Reich's own frontiers the Soviet political officers and the commissars tell their charges that the Germans had -

"...sown the wind, and now they are harvesting show more the whirlwind."

The overwhelming sense is one of 'total war'. Nevertheless, his approach is one that manages to keep the facts clear and uncluttered, and the potentially complicated maneuverings of multiple military units are brought across to the reader without confusion. The book also succeeds in that it gives the reader a good impression of the human aspects of the conflict.

The research for this book must have been a labour of love of sorts, as the amount of detail imparted from such a wide variety of first-class primary sources is very impressive. From the archives of the former Soviet Union and the two Germanies, as well as those of British, US, French, Swedish and countless other origins, the author manages to convey with complete authenticity the experiences of those involved at every conceivable level of the 20th century's defining event.

The use of source material - a combination of diaries, letters to or from the front, memoirs written at a distance of years, interviews during PoW interrogations - is highly effective at getting across the sheer size and impact of the whole conflict in Europe. We hear the voices of individual 'normal' people (peasants, conscripts, the urban poor and the middle classes alike) as frequently as those of the generals, politicians, or the privileged few. Writers and journalists such as Vassily Grossman are often reporting from the front (or sometimes more interestingly from just behind the front). At once you are in the icy trenches or the firing positions with the Soviets' 1st Guards Tank Army, the next you are in the operations room of an opposing German Panzer division, or a retreating SS regiment.

The reader has the dubious privilege of being privy to the Machiavellian orchestrations of Stalin and Beria, as they play off the competing rivalries of Generals Zhukov and Koniyev against each other for both egotistical and self-serving strategic reasons; as well of course as the persistent mutual mistrusts of the Red Army's front line units with those of the party's NKVD political detachments. I had not previously been quite so aware either of quite how much contempt Stalin had for his leading generals, and how despicably he wouldn't hesitate to treat them when he considered it politically expedient to. Obviously he shares this odious trait (along with countless others) with his opposite number in Berlin.

Similarly, the chaos and mayhem afoot in the various German organisations: of the Reich, the Nazi Party, the SS, and the different branches of the armed forces becomes clear. The disorder and sense of an empire collapsing all around, while Hitler fiddles in his 'Fuhrerbunker' is at once both a fascinating and grimly captivating thing to behold. I found myself wondering quite what Uncle Dolfi (as the Goebbels children called their leader) thought to himself as he sat in his quarters, resting between blood vessel bursting fits of temper at the daily strategic conferences, staring at his favourite portrait of Frederick the Great...

Less frequently we are kept reminded that this is indeed a world at war, and the picture will momentarily broaden to include aspects of the various alliances and the varying degrees of cooperation or sometimes non-cooperation. The ever-present paranoia on the part of Stalin towards Roosevelt and particularly Churchill becomes an increasingly noticeable element in the story of the race to Berlin's conquest. Nevertheless, the story of the western allies' advance across the Rhine and into the heart of Germany is referenced when relevant to the narrative. The roots of the looming Cold War face-off between the western allies and the Soviets are clearly visible here. The grisly downfall unfolds in more or less chronological order as the chapters rotate from one aspect of the conflict to the next.

The now well documented horrors of the Nazi Holocaust are not a central theme in this book, as it is more a case of the different camps' liberations being acknowledged in the narrative as they occur during the course of the Germans' hasty and destructive withdrawal from the advancing armies. The book is certainly not for the fainthearted though as there are necessarily countless and almost relentless accounts of the many horrors conducted by all sides in this war - in particular the many atrocities towards the civilian populations by the Red Army. (The German forces had of course "sown their wind" as they Blitzkrieged their way across the continent between 1939 and 1942, to say nothing of their monstrous racial atrocities.) Beevor tackles the subject of rape by Soviet soldiers head on. He notes that the victims were not restricted to German women, but that many Soviet or Polish citizens, including former concentration and prison camp inmates (some Jewish survivors among them too), were also brutally attacked. He actually defines four distinct stages of this most awful of crimes: The first when the initial wave of advancing soldiers occupies a civilian area; the second when the vanguard moves on and the following wave of combat units arrives (often the most indiscriminate and horrific of the phases); the third and fourth stages as with the war's end, the horrors of survival for some women in post-Nazi Germany include committing themselves to the 'protection' of one particular Red Army soldier or other. Certainly not easy subject matter at all, and not without academic controversy either, but I think that Beevor covers the subject as sensitively as could be reasonably expected.

I listened to the audiobook edition, read superbly by British actor Sean Barrett. His voice is somewhere between Olivier (think BBC's 1970s "The World at War") and Burton's noble authority. Never a distraction, and often enhancing somehow the authenticity of the whole production. I loved the way he says the Russian and German generals' names, especially "Rokossovsky"! Also the subtle accenting he put on occasionally when quoting the slogans of advancing/retreating troops for example. I realised early on that I would need to get out a decent map of Germany to help me picture the movement of the various events as the Germans capitulated, though a quick check online tells me that the print edition has reasonably good maps of the key stages covered.

Maybe my 'review' should have ended after the first sentence, I'm not sure. But for anyone with an interest in the history of modern Europe, or in the dehumanisation that accompanies warfare - and the everyman's and everywoman's experience of that process, this book is a must. show less

Riveting combination of serious history writing and small details that make it all come alive. I've read Ian Kershaw's "The End" and Richard J. Evans books that cover the same period, so I wasn't expecting much initially. But Antony Beevor has combed through a multitude of sources (often private, such as diaries), and complements the usual heavy-handed military history style, in which batallions, squadrons and whole armies engage with tanks and howitzers, with gripping human-interest vignettes. He does not shy away from inserting his own opinions (on the perfidy of Stalin's Russia, for instance, or on how Hitler willingly sent another few hundred thousand people to their deaths in the last days of the Reich). A real page-turner.