by Ian Kershaw
First published 2011
Ian Kershaw tackles a question most historians ignore: how did Nazi Germany keep fighting until May 1945 when defeat was obvious? While countless studies examine why Germany lost World War II, few ask why the Third Reich refused to surrender even as Allied bombs destroyed its cities and enemy armies occupied its territory. Kershaw traces the final ten months from the failed assassination attempt on Hitler in July 1944 to Germany's complete capitulation. He draws on testimony from ordinary Germans and Nazi officials to show how Hitler's charismatic authority created a deadly trap. Nazi leaders knew they had no future without their Führer, so their survival depended on his. The regime turned its terror apparatus against its own people while maintaining the pretense of normal life. The Berlin Philharmonic performed just weeks before Hitler's suicide. Kershaw reveals how a combination of fear, loyalty, and systematic violence kept Germany fighting long past any rational hope of victory.
Genres: history, 20th-century, non-fiction, military-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-fiction
Setting: Germany, Berlin
Period: 1944-1945
592 pages · Hardcover · Penguin Press
Content warnings: violence