- Published: 06/11/2014
- ISBN: 9781847086426
- Granta Books
- 384 pages
Swansong 1945
Walter Kempowski
Translated by Shaun Whiteside
Swansong 1945 chronicles four significant days in the last three weeks of WWII: 20 April, Hitler’s last birthday; 25 April, when American and Soviet troops first met at the Elbe; 30 April, the day Hitler committed suicide; and 8 May, the day of the German surrender. Side by side in these pages, we encounter the voices of civilians fleeing on foot to the west, British and American POWs dreaming of home, concentration camp survivors, loyal soldiers from both sides of the conflict and national leaders including Churchill, Hitler and Mussolini. A monumental account of survival, suffering, hope and despair, Swansong 1945 brings vividly to life a conflict whose repercussions are felt today.
£12.99
The best history writing doesn't simplify a reader's understanding of the past, it complicates it. It adds layers, draws out contradictions and sharpens them, digs down into complexity, presenting a narrative that is rich and not simple at all. Swansong 1945 does all these things supremely well. Each extract is a revelation
Daniel Hahn, Independent on Sunday
A gripping accumulation of documents brought together by a leading postwar German writer
Jewish Chronicle
A bewitching, dramatic, utterly extraordinary range of voices and eye-witness testimony as Europe entered its year-zero moment. Total history can come in many different forms: this is one of them
David Kynaston, author, Austerity Britain
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