Customer Reviews

The Day the War Ended: May 8, 1945 - Victory in Europe

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Martin Gilbet collects personal histories like other people collect stamps, but instead of just sticking them side by side in an album, he inserts them into their proper historical context. The result is a fascinating and readable account, not only of the final days of WWII, but of the events that preceeded and followed the official Victory in Europe Day, May 5, 1945. I highly recommend this book to both casual readers and scholars, and I anticipate reading it again.

Sir Martin Gilbert is known for his many books, especially those on World Wars One and Two. This is no exception, but takes a different twist than most by chronicling where people were, and what they were doing throughout the European theater when World War II ended for them.

Whereas most people think of the war's end as the day the Germans and their allies surrendered, Gilbert correctly notes that for some, it was earlier. For example, there are personal accounts of people who were liberated from concentration camps, whose war ended with the departure of their guards, and the arrival of their rescuers. People who were in occupied France, the crowds milling around London, New York and elsewhere who knew that the war was ending, but didn't get the "official" announcement due to Soviet grandstanding similarly did not need to wait for the formal surrender ceremony.

The contributors that made this book possible came from many affected nations- among them Germany, France, Britain, the U.S., and other countries that contacted Gilbert or whose memoirs allowed him to pinpoint where they were when their war was over.

The analysis of the relevant events book could be a little stronger, and comes off as stiff in most cases. But this is not a book that Gilbert wrote, per se. This is one that is best told by the survivors, veterans, and people whose individual stories make the book work. It is simply the only book of its kind I have found that looks at an event like the end of the war and treats it as more than just an act at a table by military representatives and government officials. It is, therefore, a useful and insightful accounting of how different people in differnt places experienced the same thing in very different manners.

There are probably very few people who have ever lived who can write about World War II with the same authority that Martin Gilbert can. Here, he focuses on the individual, asking the question: what was it like when the war ended for you and what were your circumstances? For instance, a prisoner in a concentration camp had a far different experience at the "war's end" than did a family living in London. The book covers in detail the days leading to the surrender by the Nazi's and a few days thereafter (The surrender by the Japanese is only covered briefly). Gilbert, as always, brings to the forefront the horrors of the Nazi regime, and the collaboration of so many others in their plans to conquer Europe and wipe out the "degenerates," especially the Jews. When I read accounts of the Holocaust, the evilness never ceases to astonish me, nor the incomprehensible numbers involved. Gilbert also does a magnificant job bringing to light how the Nazis, in their final days, tried to cut a deal with the West to invade the Soviet Union, and how important it was to the West to make sure that Germany could never again wreak havoc on the World. Even as the Nazis were being utterly defeated, still it was important to them to kill prisoners.

A difficult subject to read, but well worth it. From the commentary, it was Gilbert's original intention to write more of a straight narrative, but since he was getting so much feed-back from people involved in the war, he decided to highlight the stories of individuals.