The Last Days of Hitler

It's more than sixty years since Trevor-Roper was sent by the head of Counter-Intelligence in the British zone of Germany to establish the facts of Hitler's end in the face of claims being made, in particular by the Russians, that he was still alive. After his fact-finding mission, which involved interviewing witnesses that could be tracked down and were not in Soviet hands and presenting his report to the Four Power Intelligence committee in late 1945, no one in the English-speaking world was in a better position than Trevor-Roper to write this book. It is testament to its continuing value as an historical study that it is still being cited in bibliographies of the latest studies on Hitler and on the Third Reich. Moreover the book is, quite simply, a terrific read. Clearly influenced by his favourite historians Edward Gibbon and Thomas Babington Macaulay, Trevor-Roper has written a vivid narrative that is full of irony, humour, and drama. Its proximity to events brings the subject matter alive in a way that more recent studies cannot. In the edition now available, issued in 1995, Trevor-Roper included two prefaces that set out how he came to write the book and discuss some of the evidence that has come to light since he wrote the first edition in 1947. None of this evidence persuaded him that his book needed to be rewritten substantially. These make betters sense if read last.

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I suppose there is not much to be said about the ways in which this wonderful book falls short of full success. Not a WWII expert, I accept the comments of those who mention corrections and amplifications that came from later sources not available to Trevor-Roper. But to me these are somewhat secondary issues. If one wants to get a fully corrected account, one can follow up with the later books. That does not diminish the impact of this book, above all in describing the essential nature of the German rulers as a court, not a cabinet, and in painting vivid character-portraits of so many of them while maintaining the narrative flow. One point where I find some reviewers completely off the mark: it is by no means a diatribe against all Germans. Where do they see that? Quotes, please. Someone mentioned the Epilogue in this context: the only point made there is that the German people did not have an aptitude for politics per se. "They were more happily employed in those tasks of commerce and agriculture, of manufacture and industry and military organisation. in which their skill is acknowledged." Hardly a contemptuous summary. But above all, read this for the sheer pleasure of reading English written by someone whose literary ancestor is Edward Gibbon. Such well-turned and balanced phrases are seldom found in today's works. And there are so many phrases that call to mind some of our own politicians: of the German leaders he says: "Isolated for twelve years behind a Chinese wall of political and intellectual self-sufficiency, they had long ceased to understand, if they had ever understood, the politics, the ideas, the habits of mind of other nations." Let us write "eight" for "twelve..." And how often does one encounter a well-crafted zeugma, as in "...but Hanna Reitsch continued her expostulations, and left the Bunker, as she had entered it, in a profusion of tears, rhetoric, and abstract nouns." Lovely!

I feared that this book would be a tedious list of events during the last days of Hitler. Instead, it's like reading a novel. It's emotional, factual, dark, witty, and tragic. Prof. Trevor-Roper is a great history writer. I can't put this book down, but I'm trying to delay finishing it. I will very likely read it again.

A very good book for those interested in the end of Hitler and the collapse of the Third Reich. This book is generally regarded as the definitive history of that period and deservedly so. The political intrigue that was going on in the "FueherBunker" was almost humorous. Even at the end Hitler was continually questioning his aides about a German relief army that was coming to rescue Berlin from the clutches of the Russians. This army in fact had long since surrendered! Hitler's and Goebbels response to Roosevelt's death was bizarre to say the least-with the end of the war rapidly approaching they took FDR's death to be an omen that Germany would soon gain the upper hand and eventually win the war! All this with the noose of the Soviet army closing around Berlin! Himmler's deluded attempt to negotiate a peace with the western allies and have himself be the new fuerher showed how out of touch with reality he was. In fact most of the major players in this book were seriously deficient in the reality department. One of the few rational people in the bunker (Fegelin, Hitler's brother in law) saw a bad situation and left the bunker and went back to his own house. Unfortunately, he was found by members of Hitlers guard and was brought back to the bunker where he was eventually shot.I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the death of Hitler and the fall of the Third Reich. Others may disagree but I found the book to be well researched and well written. This book remains a classic more than fifty years after it was written.