The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe

As a history teacher and a huge WWII buff, I found this book very enlightening. After years of studying, researching and teaching about the war, I thought I knew everything that needed to be known. This book proved me wrong. THis book should be required reading for any serious student and teacher of WWII. Its time to take a fresh look at the price paid in World War II, and not just the battles fought and the personalities. Historically it has been presented to us in simplistic form as a struggle of good versus evil, the good guys versus the bad guys, etc. All that may have some truth to it, but it was a ruthless war fought on both sides with little regard for collateral damage. Both sides inflicted enormous civilian casualties in the war, but historically the focus has always been put on what the Germans and the Japanese had done. Not so in this book. THe Allies weren't that much better even though their cause was just. In the liberation of Europe by the Allies, there was little regard for civilian casualties, as the author carefully points out. The focus was on meeting the military objective regardless of the women, children, farms, villages, schools and churches that happened to be in the way. THe research in this book is superb. Entire towns were wiped out. One of the saddest chapters in the book "The Politics of Hunger" describes the massive starvation in the Netherlands. Add this book to your collection if you want a fuller more accurate picture of the war, and not the sugar-coated version you learned in school.

I thought this an invaluable book; very well researched. My guess is, some of the critics of this author are on the political right or conservative-leaning like myself. They seem to infer because William Hitchcock is a professor, he must be a leftist or a pacifist who lacks objectivity and impartiality. Many, perhaps most historians have some kind of a bias - this is to be expected. I did not find this work to be highly tendentious or anti-American as some have portrayed it. I was particularly interested in Hitchcock's take on German atrocities, particularly in the east - against Jews, Gypsies, Poles, Slavic peoples and other "sub-humans" - and the German people's ability to honestly (or dishonestly) deal with the crimes of their leaders; leaders whose policies the German people supported in large measure. Hitchcock paints a damning picture of denial and victimization amongst the German people. Blaming the Jews for Germany's lot was also a prevalent theme in post-war Germany, as was the view that the German people were innocent victims who were mislead by the National Socialists (Nazis) whom they supported. For me, this book is exceptional. A great resource.

As a WWII buff I have certainly read my fair share of histories of the end of the European phase of the war. But as Professor Hitchcock of Temple University brilliantly illustrates in his introduction to this serious, sobering account of the devastation of Europe, the traditional focus has been on the war leaders, the efforts of the troops, and the victories and defeats along the way. Little is mentioned of the people who inhabited the cities and towns now famous for so many battles and bombings, and how the Allies dealt with the "liberated" after the Nazis were defeated. This book ably fills the gap. Meticulously researched, with substantial endnotes for those interested in learning more, and culled from many first-hand accounts, Professor Hitchcock walks us slowly through the path of incredible destruction and the challenges facing Allied troops who found themselves "liberating" destroyed towns, defeated populaces, and millions of displaced slave laborers. Compounding this of course were conditions of poverty, hunger, and destruction of basic aspects of civilization of a magnitude never before seen in human history. Given all of these challenges, the Allies (at least in the West) acquitted themselves fairly well, with many many exceptions that Hitchcock documents through solid research and impeccable sourcing. For those unfamiliar with this piece of the story, the facts will be eye-opening. I particularly liked the generous sprinkling of photos, archival maps and documents, and other embedded images throughout the book that add texture and dimension to the heartbreaking story of Europe immediately after the war. Hitchcock's contribution adds significantly to the growing body of recent literature focusing on this horrific phase of the conflict in Europe. Yet I was slightly troubled that he, despite all his copious research, failed to cite or otherwise utilize the groundbreaking facts assembled by Giles MacDonogh in his recently-published After the Reich; the amazingly poetic recollections of life after wartime by Gunter Grass in his recent Peeling the Onion; or the grim, deeply disturbing account of the Allied European bombing effort laid out masterfully by Jorge Freidrich in The Fire: The Bombing of Germany, 1940-1945. These are minor quibbles, however. In sum Professor Hitchcock has delivered a gripping, major work of historical non-fiction that will leave you struggling with the moral and ethical dilemmas that all of faced and many of us rose to confront admirably and courageously in this most amazing of times.

This is a powerful and moving book. It deals with a subject that is certainly not covered in most WWII history books, namely, the impact of the liberation of 1945 on European people. The liberation was not all confetti and flag-waving. The real story is far darker and more interesting. The book also has a lot to say about American soldiers, and while the author is full of admiration for the average G.I., he makes it clear that the liberating soldiers weren't always perfect. This is an eye-opener, based on amazing research in France, Belgium, Holland, Italy and elsewhere. This is a book that will change the way you think about World War II.

I just finished reading William Hitchcock's latest book "Bitter Road to Freedom", and found it not only well researched, but well written. Dr. Hitchcock takes the reader through the end of the war throughout Europe and tells the story of what really happends as the trials and brutality of the soldiers and civilians come together after years of combat and devistation. What strikes the reader so vividly is the correlation between this history and the direct lines to be drawn to the wars that are being fought around the world today. People need to understand that when humans choose to kill one another in order to acheive some political purpose, those that suffer are the combatants. Both military and civilian. In reading Dr. Hitchcock's work, we see how devistating war truly is and how we all must learn to find better ways to solve the problems, predudices, and imperialistic ways of our society. This is certainly a scholarly work, but those interested in how we need to learn from the past in order to make a better future would be well advised to read this detailed, powerful and yes, brutal, history.