Customer Reviews

Imperial War Museum's Victory in Europe Experience

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The 'Victory in Europe Experience' is well-named: this amazing work is to be experienced as much as it is to be read. Published to commemorate the 60th anniversary of D-Day, it involves the reader, as much as something printed on paper can, in the final year of the war. Its organization, narrative, maps, and photos are all excellent - there's even an accompanying CD - but what truly brings these alive are the facsimiles of archival documents the reader can pull out and experience: A Wehrmacht soldier's personal diary (there are translations in the back of the book), in which the handwriting deteriorates after he takes a bullet in the stomach and begins to run a high fever. A propaganda leaflet, suggesting to GIs that their girls back home are fooling around. A copy of the December 29, 1944 Stars and Stripes, complete with comics. A barrage map, complete with overlay for amendments. Hitler's Last Will and Testament. 'My Military Missal,' complete with a battlefield Mass for the Dead. And many, many more.

All of the documents in my copy seem so real I wondered if the publisher had accidentally included the originals. This work is a masterstroke of the art of bookmaking, a wonderful treasure for you or anyone on your holiday list whose interests tend to World War 2 (Amazon also lists this book under another title, available from third party sellers). I just wish the Imperial War Museum would produce other volumes like this one that would cover the rest of the war.