LibCat » Книги » Документальные книги » nonf_military » Ian Kershaw - The End

Ian Kershaw - The End

Здесь есть возможность читать онлайн «Ian Kershaw - The End» весь текст электронной книги совершенно бесплатно (целиком полную версию без сокращений). В некоторых случаях можно слушать аудио, скачать через торрент в формате fb2 и присутствует краткое содержание. Город: New York, Год выпуска: 2011, ISBN: 2011, Издательство: Penguin Press, Жанр: nonf_military, История, на английском языке. Описание произведения, (предисловие) а так же отзывы посетителей доступны на портале библиотеки ЛибКат.

Читать книгу

Название:
The End
Автор:
Ian Kershaw
Издательство:
Penguin Press
Жанр:
nonf_military / История / на английском языке
Год:
2011
Город:
New York
ISBN:
978-1-59420-314-5
Рейтинг книги:
3 / 5. Голосов: 1
Избранное:

Добавить в избранное
Отзывы:
Написать комментарий
Ваша оценка:
- 60
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5

The End: краткое содержание, описание и аннотация

Предлагаем к чтению аннотацию, описание, краткое содержание или предисловие (зависит от того, что написал сам автор книги «The End»). Если вы не нашли необходимую информацию о книге — напишите в комментариях, мы постараемся отыскать её.

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
is a harrowing yet enthralling portrait of the Third Reich in its last desperate gasps.

The End — читать онлайн бесплатно полную книгу (весь текст) целиком

Ниже представлен текст книги, разбитый по страницам. Система сохранения места последней прочитанной страницы, позволяет с удобством читать онлайн бесплатно книгу «The End», без необходимости каждый раз заново искать на чём Вы остановились. Поставьте закладку, и сможете в любой момент перейти на страницу, на которой закончили чтение.

Тёмная тема

Шрифт:

↓

↑

Сбросить

Интервал:

↓

↑

Закладка:

Сделать

60. BStA, MA 106696, report of the RPvNB/OP, 10.3.45. Colonel Curt Pollex, based in Berlin, noted that Soviet atrocities, exploited by German propaganda, were causing ‘total panic’.—BA/MA, N712/15, NL Pollex, Auszüge aus Briefen, fo. 14, 23.1.45. For the mood of panic spread by refugees and fear of the Russians, see also Victor Klemperer, Ich will Zeugnis ablegen bis zum letzten , vol 2: Tagebücher 1942–1945 , ed. Walter Nowojski and Hadwig Klemperer, Darmstadt, 1998, pp. 645–6, 649–60 (25.1.45, 29.1.45).

61. VB , South German edn., 9.2.45.

62. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Josef E., 21.1.45.

63. Jörg Echternkamp (ed.), Kriegsschauplatz Deutschland 1945: Leben in Angst—Hoffnung auf Frieden. Feldpost aus der Heimat und von der Front , Paderborn, 2006, pp. 138–9 (28.1.45) and p. 268 nn. 282–6. The letter was returned, marked ‘Wait for New Address’. Whether the soldier survived is not known.

64. BStA, MA 106695, report of the RPvOB, 9.2.45.

65. BStA, MA 106696, report of the RPvOF/MF, 8.2.45.

66. Ursula von Kardorff, Berliner Aufzeichnungen 1942–1945 , pb. edn., Munich, 1981, pp. 228 (25.1.45), 229 (30.1.45).

67. Ruth Andreas-Friedrich, Schauplatz Berlin: Ein deutsches Tagebuch , Munich, 1962, p. 124 (22.1.45).

68. LHC, Dempsey Papers, no. 249, pt. II, p. 9 (in English).

69. IWM, Memoirs of P. E. von Stemann, p. 193.

70. Das letzte halbe Jahr: Stimmungsberichte der Wehrmachtpropaganda 1944/45 , ed. Wolfram Wette, Ricarda Bremer and Detlef Vogel, Essen, 2001, pp. 219–20, 229 (23.1.45, 1.2.45).

71. Andreas-Friedrich, p. 126 (31.1.45).

72. Das letzte halbe Jahr , p. 219 (23.1.45), pp. 228–9 (1.2.45).

73. IWM, Memoirs of P. E. von Stemann, p. 197.

74. Das letzte halbe Jahr , pp. 235–6 (7.2.45).

75. Echternkamp, p. 129 (20.1.45).

76. IWM, Memoirs of P. E. von Stemann, p. 200.

77. IWM, ‘Aus deutschen Urkunden 1935–1945’, unpub. documentation, n.d. ( c . 1945–6), pp. 66–7, 276–8.

78. Das letzte halbe Jahr , pp. 218 (22.1.45), 236 (7.2.45).

79. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Gisela K., 3.2.45.

80. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Luise G., 3.2.45.

81. Heinrich Breloer (ed.), Mein Tagebuch: Geschichten vom Überleben 1939–1947 , Cologne, 1984, p. 228 (27.1.45).

82. For a good description in one region, see Jill Stephenson, Hitler’s Home Front: Württemberg under the Nazis , London, 2006, pp. 304–12.

83. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Gefr. Heinrich R., 23.1.45.

84. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Sold. Willy F., 30.1.45.

85. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Fw. Hugo B., 2.2.45.

86. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Lt. Thomas S., 23.1.45.

87. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Hptm. Emerich P., 20.1.45.

88. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Uffz. Hans ——, 24.1.45.

89. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, O’Gefr. Otto L., 24.1.45.

90. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Gren. Kurt M., 30.1.45.

91. Quoted Andreas Kunz, Wehrmacht und Niederlage: Die bewaffnete Macht in der Endphase der nationalsozialistischen Herrschaft 1944 bis 1945 , Munich, 2007, p. 243, and see also, for racial stereotypes, pp. 269–70.

92. BA/MA, MSg2/2697, fo. 88, diary of Lieutenant Julius Dufner, 25.1.45.

93. NAL, WO219/1587, fo. 860, SHAEF, Directorate of Army Psychiatry Research Memorandum 45/03/12, January 1945.

94. Kunz, pp. 299–300.

95. BA/MA, N245/3, NL Reinhardt, ‘Kalenderblätter 1945’, fo. 81 (14.1.45); N245/2, Briefe, fo. 41 (15.1.45); N245/15, Generalleutnant Otto Heidkämper (former Chief of Staff of Army Group Centre), ‘Die Schlacht um Ostpreußen’ (1953), fo. 32; Guderian, pp. 382–3; DRZW , 10/1 (Lakowski), pp. 536–7.

96. BA/MA, N245/3, NL Reinhardt, ‘Kalenderblätter 1945’, fo. 82 (16–17.1.45); N245/15, Heidkämper, fos. 40–43.

97. BA/MA, N245/2, NL Reinhardt, Briefe, fo. 41 (19.1.45).

98. BA/MA, N245/2, NL Reinhardt, Briefe, fo. 41 (20.1.45).

99. BA/MA, N245/2, NL Reinhardt, Briefe, fo. 41 v(21.1.45); N245/3, NL Reinhardt, ‘Kalenderblätter 1945’, fos. 82–3 (20–21.1.45); N245/15, Heidkämper, fos. 53–7.

100. The above account relies, except where otherwise stated, on BA/MA, N245/3, NL Reinhardt, ‘Kalenderblätter 1945’, fos. 83–4 (22–7.1.45); N245/2, NL Reinhardt, Briefe, fos. 41–2 (22.1.45, 26.1.45); N245/15, Heidkämper, fos. 68–72, 76–87; N24/39, ‘Erinnerungen von General d.I. a.D. Friedrich Hoßbach’, typescript (May 1945), pp. 45–6, 68. See also Friedrich Hoßbach, Die Schlacht um Ostpreußen , Überlingen, 1951, pp. 51–73; Guderian, pp. 400–401; Dieckert and Grossmann, pp. 94–5, 110-18; DZW , 6, p. 511.

101. e.g. BA/MA, RH21/3/730, fos. 3–6, ‘Auskünfte Gen.Major Mueller-Hillebrand (Chef des Stabes) über den Einsatz der 3. Pz. Armee in Ostpreußen, Sept. 1944–Feb. 1945’ (1955); ‘Auszug aus einem Bericht von Oberst i.G. Mendrzyk O.Qu. bei der 3. Panzer-Armee’.

102. Quoted Schwendemann, ‘Das Kriegsende in Ostpreußen’, p. 98.

103. Schwendemann, ‘Tod zwischen den Fronten’, p. 43. I am most grateful to Dr Schwendemann for the reference to the source for these comments, BA/MA, RH20/4/617, unfoliated, Notizen über Ferngespräche 14–25.1.45, Gesprächsnotizen vom 24.1.45 (Hoßbach addressing leading officers at 16.00 hours that day, and speaking to Reinhardt that evening at 22.15 hours), and to Dr Jürgen Förster for obtaining for me a copy of the document.

104. BA/MA, N712/15, NL Pollex, Auszüge aus Briefen, fo. 12, 22.1.45.

105. N24/39, NL Hoßbach, ‘Erinnerungen’, pp. 46–7; Hoßbach, p. 70. That Rendulic´ had a less than complete comprehension of the situation in East Prussia when he arrived there seems clear. He had as recently as 17 January been appointed by Hitler as Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Courland, and had been in Courland no more than twelve hours when, on 26 January, he was suddenly informed that he had to take over the command of Army Group North, besieged in East Prussia.—Lothar Rendulic´, Gekämpft, Gesiegt, Geschlagen , Wels, 1952, pp. 331–2, 336.

106. Guderian, pp. 400–401. Rendulic´, pp. 337–55, provides a description of his period, a little over six weeks, in command in East Prussia, until 12 March, though it contains only a few inconsequential lines on Hoßbach’s dismissal on p. 343.

107. Guderian, p. 394.

108. Hastings, p. 283; Roland Kaltenegger, Schörner: Feldmarschall der letzten Stunde , Munich and Berlin, 1994, pp. 265–6; Siebel-Achenbach, pp. 59, 71–2. Hitler had initially intended Field-Marshal Model to take over the command. It was decided, however, that he was urgently needed in the west, so the command was given to Schörner.— TBJG , II/15, pp. 135 (16.1.45), 138 (17.1.45).

109. Quoted DRZW , 10/2 (Kunz), p. 39.

110. BA/MA, N60/74, NL Schörner, ‘Tragödie Schlesien, März 1945’, fo. 2 (1958).

111. BAB, NS6/353, fos. 157–8, Bormann, Bekanntgabe 28/45, Ungehorsam und falsche Meldungen, containing Keitel’s order in appendix; also IfZ, Fa-91/4, fo. 1069.

112. Himmler’s command had, it seems, already been agreed some days earlier, in the main, according to Goebbels, because ‘a firm hand’ was needed to turn troops ‘flooding back’ from the path of the Soviets into new fighting units. Goebbels even suggested making Himmler Commander-in-Chief of the Army, to relieve Hitler of this duty, but Hitler was unwilling to go so far and stated that Himmler first had to prove he could master operational command.— TBJG , II/15, pp. 165 (20.1.45), 181 (22.1.45), 195 (23.1.45).

113. DZW , 6, p. 513.

114. IWM, FO645/155, interrogations of Karl Dönitz, 30.9.45, p. 5; 2.10.45, p. 2 (in English).