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The End: Hitler's Germany, 1944-45
- Narrated by: David Timson
- Length: 17 hrs and 59 mins
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The End: Hitler's Germany, 1944-45
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Summary
The unabridged, downloadable audiobook of Ian Kershaw's The End, a searing account of the last days of the Nazi Regime and the downfall of a nation. Read by David Timson.
The last months of the Second World War were a nightmarish time to be alive. Unimaginable levels of violence destroyed entire cities. Millions died or were dispossessed. By all kinds of criteria it was the end: the end of the Third Reich and its terrible empire but also, increasingly, it seemed to be the end of European civilization itself.
In his gripping, revelatory new book Ian Kershaw describes these final months, from the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler in July 1944 to the German surrender in May 1945. The major question that Kershaw attempts to answer is: what made Germany keep on fighting? In almost every major war there has come a point where defeat has loomed for one side and its rulers have cut a deal with the victors, if only in an attempt to save their own skins. In Hitler's Germany, nothing of this kind happened: in the end the regime had to be stamped out town by town with a level of brutality almost without precedent.
Both a highly original piece of research and a gripping narrative, The End makes vivid an era which still deeply scars Europe. It raises the most profound questions about the nature of the Second World War, about the Third Reich and about how ordinary people behave in extreme circumstances.
Critic reviews
"Well-written, penetrating...and ground-breaking." (Andrew Roberts, Evening Standard)
"No one is better qualified to tell this grim story than Kershaw.... A master of both the vast scholarly literature on Nazism and the extraordinary range of its published and unpublished record, Kershaw combines vivid accounts of particular human experiences with wise reflections on big interpretive and moral issues.... No one has written a better account of the human dimensions of Nazi Germany's end." (New York Times Book Review)
"A compelling account of the bloody and deluded last days of the Third Reich...this is far from being of mere academic interest.... The greatest strength of Kershaw's narrative is that he gives us much more than the view from the top.... Interwoven are insights into German life and death at all levels of society." (The Times)
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What listeners say about The End: Hitler's Germany, 1944-45
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jordan Powell
- 04-10-18
Brilliant Kershaw
Another pure masterpiece by Kershaw, but a scary reminder of what mankind is capable of
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 18-03-24
Horror of War
Excellently written of the horrors of the war. Can not believe that wars are being started again. Now the world has the means of destroying everything and everyone.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Mr
- 15-04-13
Really informative
An excellant over-view, without the jingoism which seems to attach to so much German history as related by Brits. It happened and cannot be changed but the clarity of the why & how is frightenigly explained in a lesson to the wider world & to be hoped, we will learn something for mankind from it.
Well written,listenable & sensitive as I would expect from Prof Kershaw.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 30-11-20
Utterly compelling
Kept listening compulsively to this utterly compelling narrative, expertly recounted.
Thoroughly recommended to anyone interested in this area of history.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- ULLA
- 18-04-16
Narrator's voice - a problem
The Narrator of this books har a marvellous, light and vibrant speaking voice, and his range in volume from pianissimo (near inaudible) to fortissimo (you reach for the sound switch) is remarkable. He has, in short, an expressive, dramatic voice, that I would fint delightful in maybe reading poetry, children's stories, and many types of fiction.
But in a non-fiction history-book, written in a sober textbook-style, often with long sentences, this type of voice becomes distracting, and after a while quite tiresome and irritating, because it distracted me from the text I was interested in. I would not have bought this, had I known how distracting the narrator would become.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Kath708907
- 02-03-21
Fascinating deep dive into this era
I found this book fascinating and absorbing. The narrator is excellent and keeps up a good pace through the complexity of names, places and ideologies.
I did find some concepts to be repetitive and felt with a stronger edit of the initial text it would have been more compelling. However the comprehensive level of research is highly impressive.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Andrew Pratley
- 22-08-19
A Hair Raising Tale well explained
If you want the absolute definitive explanation of why Nazi Germany fought to the bitter end then you are probably asking too much. What this book does provide is a fascinating look at what was like "the on the other side of the hill" or more prosaically from the German perspective during the period from July 1944 to May 1945. It is not a pretty story & having just finished I do feel much better able to understand why the Nazis held out so long & why the German people allowed them.
It could have undoubted been so different had Col Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg been successful in his plot to kill Hitler in July 1944 largely because a briefcase was moved without the least notion of what it contained (two small bombs). Millions of lives, on all sides, would have saved in the ensuing months.
The reading by David Timson is excellent.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- MFW
- 19-01-15
Hard hitting
This book doesn't back down in showing the desperate grim reality of the end of WW2 for the people of a defeated Germany.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Charles Palmer
- 01-09-17
Kershaw..brilliant as ever
excellent for novices and experts alike. this isn't a military history and those unfamiliar with the course of ww2 might benefit from some pre study before r
reading.
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1 person found this helpful
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- redghost
- 31-03-20
Perfect for a History degree course
Narration very good, excellent audiobook production. Kershaw along with Beevor are in a class of their own.
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