From the preeminent Hitler biographer, a fascinating and
original exploration of how the Third Reich was willing and able to
fight to the bitter end of World War II.
Countless books have been written about why Nazi Germany lost
World War II, yet remarkably little attention has been paid to the
equally vital question of how and why it was able to hold out as
long as it did. The Third Reich did not surrender until Germany had
been left in ruins and almost completely occupied. Even in the
near-apocalyptic final months, when the war was plainly lost, the
Nazis refused to sue for peace. Historically, this is extremely
rare.
Drawing on original testimony from ordinary Germans and
arch-Nazis alike, award-winning historian Ian Kershaw explores this
fascinating question in a gripping and focused narrative that
begins with the failed bomb plot in July 1944 and ends with the
German capitulation in May 1945. Hitler, desperate to avoid a
repeat of the "disgraceful" German surrender in 1918, was of course
critical to the Third Reich''s fanatical determination, but his
power was sustained only because those below him were unable, or
unwilling, to challenge it. Even as the military situation grew
increasingly hopeless, Wehrmacht generals fought on, their orders
largely obeyed, and the regime continued its ruthless persecution
of Jews, prisoners, and foreign workers. Beneath the hail of allied
bombing, German society maintained some semblance of normalcy in
the very last months of the war. The Berlin Philharmonic even
performed on April 12, 1945, less than three weeks before Hitler''s
suicide.
As Kershaw shows, the structure of Hitler''s "charismatic rule"
created a powerful negative bond between him and the Nazi
leadership- they had no future without him, and so their fates were
inextricably tied. Terror also helped the Third Reich maintain its
grip on power as the regime began to wage war not only on its
ideologically defined enemies but also on the German people
themselves. Yet even as each month brought fresh horrors for
civilians, popular support for the regime remained linked to a
patriotic support of Germany and a terrible fear of the enemy
closing in.
Based on prodigious new research, Kershaw''s The End is a
harrowing yet enthralling portrait of the Third Reich in its last
desperate gasps.
關於作者：
Ian Kershaw is the author of Fateful
Choices; Making Friends with Hitler, which won the Elizabeth
Longford Prize for Historical Biography; and the definitive
two-volume biography of Hitler, Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris and
Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis. The first volume was shortlisted
for the Whitbread Biography Award and the Samuel Johnson Prize for
Nonfiction, and the second volume won the Wolfson Literary Award
for History and the inaugural British Academy Prize.
目錄：
List of Illustrations
List of Maps
Acknowledgements
Preface
Dramatis Personae
Introduction: Going Down in Flames
1. Shock to the System
2. Collapse in the West
3. Foretaste of Horror
4. Hopes Raised - and Dashed
5. Calamity in the East
6. Terror Comes Home
7. Crumbling Foundations
8. Implosion
9. Liquidation
Conclusion: Anatomy of Self-Destruction
Notes
List of Archival Sources Cited
List of Works Cited
Index
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