Download or read book Last Days of the Reich written by James Lucas and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the Third Reich collapsed, 70 million Germans were left bewildered and terrified, their leaders dead or incarcerated; the victors saw fully for the first time the unbearable legacy of death, atrocity, and destruction left by the Nazis. Here is the view from Hitler' s bunker, where news came of his troops surrendering on every front. An extraordinary story of ruin, retribution, sometimes courage and occasional suicide...and the ultimate rise from these ashes of a powerful, democratic republic.

Download or read book Inside Hitler s Bunker written by Joachim Fest and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2005-03-15 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Relates the final days of World War II in a study of Hitler's final days in the bunker and the torment in Germany's cities and towns as the Third Reich collapsed under the weight of American, British, French, and Russian forces.

Download or read book Karl Doenitz and the Last Days of the Third Reich written by Barry Turner and published by Icon Books Ltd. This book was released on 2015-09-03 with total page 709 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among the military leaders of the Second World War, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz remains a deeply enigmatic figure. As chief of the German submarine fleet he earned Allied respect as a formidable enemy. But after he succeeded Hitler – to whom he was unquestioningly loyal – as head of the Third Reich, his name became associated with all that was most hated in the Nazi regime. Yet Doenitz deserves credit for ending the war quickly while trying to save his compatriots in the East – his Dunkirk-style operation across the Baltic rescued up to 2 million troops and civilian refugees. Historian Barry Turner argues that while Doenitz can never be dissociated from the evil done under the Third Reich, his contribution to the war must be acknowledged in its entirety in order to properly understand the conflict. An even-handed portrait of Nazi Germany's last leader and a compellingly readable account of the culmination of the war in Europe, Karl Doenitz and the Last Days of the Third Reich gives a fascinating new perspective on a complex man at the heart of this crucial period in history.

Download or read book Hitler s Last Days written by Bill O'Reilly and published by Henry Holt and Company (BYR). This book was released on 2015-06-09 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By early 1945, the destruction of the German Nazi State seems certain. The Allied forces, led by American generals George S. Patton and Dwight D. Eisenhower, are gaining control of Europe, leaving German leaders scrambling. Facing defeat, Adolf Hitler flees to a secret bunker with his new wife, Eva Braun, and his beloved dog, Blondi. It is there that all three would meet their end, thus ending the Third Reich and one of the darkest chapters of history. Hitler's Last Days is a gripping account of the death of one of the most reviled villains of the 20th century—a man whose regime of murder and terror haunts the world even today. Adapted from Bill O'Reilly's historical thriller Killing Patton, this book will have young readers—and grown-ups too—hooked on history. This thoroughly-researched and documented book can be worked into multiple aspects of the common core curriculum.

Download or read book Eight Days in May The Final Collapse of the Third Reich written by Volker Ullrich and published by Liveright Publishing. This book was released on 2021-09-21 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[G]ripping, immaculately researched . . . In Mr. Ullrich’s account, the murderous behavior of the Reich’s last-ditch loyalists was not a reaction born of rage or of stubbornness in the face of defeat—common enough in war—but of something that had long ago tipped over into the pathological." —Andrew Stuttaford, Wall Street Journal The best-selling author of Hitler: Ascent and Hitler: Downfall reconstructs the chaotic, otherworldly last days of Nazi Germany. In a bunker deep below Berlin’s Old Reich Chancellery, Adolf Hitler and his new bride, Eva Braun, took their own lives just after 3:00 p.m. on April 30, 1945—Hitler by gunshot to the temple, Braun by ingesting cyanide. But the Führer’s suicide did not instantly end either Nazism or the Second World War in Europe. Far from it: the eight days that followed were among the most traumatic in modern history, witnessing not only the final paroxysms of bloodshed and the frantic surrender of the Wehrmacht, but the total disintegration of the once-mighty Third Reich. In Eight Days in May, the award-winning historian and Hitler biographer Volker Ullrich draws on an astonishing variety of sources, including diaries and letters of ordinary Germans, to narrate a society’s descent into Hobbesian chaos. In the town of Demmin in the north, residents succumbed to madness and committed mass suicide. In Berlin, Soviet soldiers raped German civilians on a near-unprecedented scale. In Nazi-occupied Prague, Czech insurgents led an uprising in the hope that General George S. Patton would come to their aid but were brutally put down by German units in the city. Throughout the remains of Third Reich, huge numbers of people were on the move, creating a surrealistic tableau: death marches of concentration-camp inmates crossed paths with retreating Wehrmacht soldiers and groups of refugees; columns of POWs encountered those of liberated slave laborers and bombed-out people returning home. A taut, propulsive narrative, Eight Days in May takes us inside the phantomlike regime of Hitler’s chosen successor, Admiral Karl Dönitz, revealing how the desperate attempt to impose order utterly failed, as frontline soldiers deserted and Nazi Party fanatics called on German civilians to martyr themselves in a last stand against encroaching Allied forces. In truth, however, the post-Hitler government represented continuity more than change: its leaders categorically refused to take responsibility for their crimes against humanity, an attitude typical not just of the Nazi elite but also of large segments of the German populace. The consequences would be severe. Eight Days in May is not only an indispensable account of the Nazi endgame, but a historic work that brilliantly examines the costs of mass delusion.

Download or read book Death Was Our Companion written by Tony Le Tissier and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2021-12-30 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Hitler's dreams of a Thousand Year Reich crumbled in the face of overwhelming assaults from both East and West in the first months of 1945 the heavily out numbered German armed forces were still capable of fighting with a tenacity and professionalism at odds with the desperate circumstances. While Hitler fantasized about deploying divisions and armies that had long since ceased to exist, boys of fifteen, officer cadets, sailors and veterans of the Great War joined the survivors of shattered formations on the front line. Leading historian Tony Le Tissier gives a German perspective to the mayhem and bloodshed of the last months of the Second World War in Europe. Teenaged Flak auxiliaries recount their experiences alongside veteran Panzergrenadiers attempting to break out of Soviet encirclement. Struggles between the military, industry and the Nazi Party for influence over the defenders of Berlin contrast with a key participant's account of Goebbel's abortive attempt to conclude a cease-fire with the Soviets. This is fascinating reading for anybody interested in the ordinary soldier's experience of the culminating battles in central Europe in 1945.

Download or read book Fallen Eagle written by Robin Cross and published by . This book was released on 2017-02-27 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After more than four years of total war the armies of Europe were exhausted. The Allies were determined to bring the war in Europe to an end as quickly as possible and with the minimum of bloodshed. But the Germans, although they could see the war was lost, were by no means prepared to yield. Indeed, the fighting during 1945 was to be some of the bitterest of the war. In the East, Stalin's mighty war machine began a crushing offensive. Beginning in swirling fog and snow, the Soviet steamroller crashed through the German lines on the Vistula, 125 miles south of Warsaw. Soon Russian armoured columns were driving across the Polish plain towards the Oder, Germany's historic frontier with the East, creating panic in East Prussia. In the West, Eisenhower and Montgomery joined the race to destroy the heart of Nazi Germany and defend Europe against Stalin's vaulting ambition. So began one of the most crucial years in the history of the world which was to climax in the desperate battle for Berlin. The gripping story of the final days of the Third Reich is told in graphic detail - the unfolding drama revealed through the eyes of soldier and civilian, private, general and refugee. In a sweeping panorama, which finds room for the individual human drama within the titanic clash of arms, Robin Cross paints an unforgettable picture of a world in chaos. By the end of 1945, Europe had new frontiers, friends had become deadly enemies and an uneasy peace threatened to transform Cold War in to a third world war. This is the story of how the eagle was toppled from the roof the Berlin Chancellery and the Russian bear stretched its claws to seize a Europe shattered by war.

Download or read book The Gravediggers written by Hauke Friederichs and published by Profile Books. This book was released on 2019-11-07 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: November 1932. With the German economy in ruins and street battles raging between political factions, the Weimar Republic is in its death throes. Its elderly president Paul von Hindenburg floats above the fray, inscrutably haunting the halls of the Reichstag. In the shadows, would-be saviours of the nation vie for control. The great rivals are the chancellors Franz von Papen and Kurt von Schleicher. Both are tarnished by the republic's all-too-evident failures. Each man believes he can steal a march on the other by harnessing the increasingly popular National Socialists - while reining in their most alarming elements, naturally. Adolf Hitler has ideas of his own. But if he can't impose discipline on his own rebellious foot-soldiers, what chance does he have of seizing power?

Download or read book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich written by William L. Shirer and published by . This book was released on 2011-10-11 with total page 1272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History of Nazi Germany.

Download or read book Berlin 1945 written by Peter Antill and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 2005-10-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hitler's Third Reich was on the brink of total ruin in mid-April 1945, and the Red Army was poised less than 60 miles to the east and ready to seize the German capital. Peter Antill describes the events in this engaging history, examining the Soviets' march towards Berlin and the Germans' final resistance. This book, supplemented with a host of maps and illustrations, provides a vivid portrayal of the death throes of the Third Reich and the end of World War II (1939-1945) in Europe, exploring the strategy of both sides and the tactics of impromptu urban warfare.

Download or read book Hitler s Last Plot written by Ian Sayer and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2019-04-16 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revealed for the first time: how the SS rounded up the Nazis' most prominent prisoners to serve as human shields for Hitler in the last days of World War II In April 1945, as Germany faced defeat, Hitler planned to round up the Third Reich's most valuable prisoners and send them to his "Alpine Fortress," where he and the SS would keep the hostages as they made a last stand against the Allies. The prisoners included European presidents, prime ministers, generals, British secret agents, and German anti-Nazi clerics, celebrities, and officers who had aided the July 1944 bomb plot against Hitler--and the prisoners' families. Orders were given to the SS: if the German military situation deteriorated, the prisoners were to be executed--all 139 of them. So began a tense, deadly drama. As some prisoners plotted escape, others prepared for the inevitable, and their SS guards grew increasingly volatile, drunk, and trigger-happy as defeat loomed. As a dramatic confrontation between the SS and the Wehrmacht threatened the hostages caught in the middle, the US Army launched a frantic rescue bid to save the hostages before the axe fell. Drawing on previously unpublished and overlooked sources, Hitler's Last Plot is the first full account of this astounding and shocking story, from the original round-up order to the prisoners' terrifying ordeal and ultimate rescue. Told in a thrilling, page-turning narrative, this is one of World War II's most fascinating episodes.

Download or read book Hitler s First Hundred Days written by Peter Fritzsche and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of how Germans came to embrace the Third Reich.Germany in early 1933 was a country ravaged by years of economic depression and increasingly polarized between the extremes of left and right. Over the spring of that year, Germany was transformed from a republic, albeit a seriously faltering one, into a one-party dictatorship. In Hitler's First Hundred Days, award-winning historian PeterFritzsche examines the pivotal moments during this fateful period in which the Nazis apparently won over the majority of Germans to join them in their project to construct the Third Reich. Fritzsche scrutinizes the events of theperiod - the elections and mass arrests, the bonfires and gunfire, the patriotic rallies and anti-Jewish boycotts - to understand both the terrifying power that the National Socialists came to exert over ordinary Germans and the powerful appeal of the new era that they promised.

Download or read book The Last Days of Hitler written by Hugh R Trevor-Roper and published by Springer. This book was released on 1995-11-28 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In September 1945 the circumstances surrounding Hitler's death were dark and mysterious. Hugh Trevor-Roper, an intelligence officer, was given the task of uncovering the last few weeks of Hitler's life. His brilliant piece of detective work proved finally that Hitler had killed himself and also tells the story of the last days of the Thousand Year Reich in the Berlin Bunker.

Download or read book The End written by Ian Kershaw and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-08-28 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of To Hell and Back, 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 the Second World War, yet remarkably little attention has been paid to the equally vital questions of how and why the Third Reich did not surrender until Germany had been left in ruins and almost completely occupied. Drawing on prodigious new research, Ian Kershaw, an award-winning historian and the author of Fateful Choices, explores these fascinating questions in a gripping and focused narrative that begins with the failed bomb plot in July 1944 and ends with the death of Adolf Hitler and the German capitulation in 1945. The End paints a harrowing yet enthralling portrait of the Third Reich in its last desperate gasps.

Download or read book The Third Reich Day By Day written by Christopher Ailsby and published by Chartwell Books. This book was released on 2010-07-31 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hardcover reference titles in the Day by Day series examine the evolution of conflicts and wars in a chronological timeline, from the first skirmish to the last battle—and everything in between. These books are a historical companion to each major war in the nineteenth and twentieth century. The fate of soldiers, battalions, armies, can change in the blink of an eye—with this comprehensive book readers can follow the conflicting sides in their strategy, weaponry, and policies. The Third Reich Day by Day is a chronological, month-by-month examination of the life of the Nazi regime up to its destruction in May 1945. The individual stories of various events, such as the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin and the 1934 Night of the Long Knives appear as seperate articles written as lively newspaper columns. The authoritative text is complemented by over 400 photographs that trace the history of the Third Reich from the early days of the Nazis in the 1920s to its destruction. The authoritative text is completed by over 400 photographs that trace the history of the Third Reich from the early days of Nazis in the 1920's to its destruction in May 1945.

Download or read book Swansong 1945 A Collective Diary of the Last Days of the Third Reich written by Walter Kempowski and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2015-04-13 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A monumental work of history that captures the last days of the Third Reich as never before. Swansong 1945 chronicles the end of Nazi Germany through more than 1,000 extracts from letters, diaries, and autobiographical accounts, written by civilians and soldiers alike. Together, they present a panoramic view of four tumultuous 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 the German surrender on May 8. An extraordinary account of suffering and survival, Swansong 1945 brings to vivid life the end of World War II in Europe.

Download or read book Aftermath written by Harald Jähner and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2022-01-11 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does a nation recover from fascism and turn toward a free society once more? This internationally acclaimed revelatory history—"filled with first-person accounts from articles and diaries" (The New York Times)—of the transformational decade that followed World War II illustrates how Germany raised itself out of the ashes of defeat and reckoned with the corruption of its soul and the horrors of the Holocaust. Featuring over 40 eye-opening black-and-white photographs and posters from the period. The years 1945 to 1955 were a raw, wild decade that found many Germans politically, economically, and morally bankrupt. Victorious Allied forces occupied the four zones that make up present-day Germany. More than half the population was displaced; 10 million newly released forced laborers and several million prisoners of war returned to an uncertain existence. Cities lay in ruins—no mail, no trains, no traffic—with bodies yet to be found beneath the towering rubble. Aftermath received wide acclaim and spent forty-eight weeks on the best-seller list in Germany when it was published there in 2019. It is the first history of Germany's national mentality in the immediate postwar years. Using major global political developments as a backdrop, Harald Jähner weaves a series of life stories into a nuanced panorama of a nation undergoing monumental change. Poised between two eras, this decade is portrayed by Jähner as a period that proved decisive for Germany's future—and one starkly different from how most of us imagine it today.