Customer Reviews

The Last Days of Hitler

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The chief impediment to this literate and interesting overview of the last few weeks of life in the bunker with the surrounded, embattled, and doomed denizens of the Third Reich is the fact that it was written so soon after the end of the war itself, and therefore had no access to the vast array of material that has since come to light regarding Hitler's last days. Thus, unlike either John Toland's "The Last Hundred Days" or Cornelius Ryan's "The Last Battle", it does not take advantage of the incredible store of archives that became available in the decades that have followed its publication in the late 1940s.

Moreover, it cannot use the kinds of secret data now coming to light within the former Soviet Union which contemporary authors like Ian Kershaw use so effectively in retelling the story in books like "Hitler: Nemesis". Still, this is a wonderful book, one that is both immensely readable and marvelously entertaining. At times it is almost comical, with the nazi High Command being so estranged and cut off from the outside world that their conversations seem bizarre and surreal. Even at the end Hitler hoped for rescue from armies long since defeated and destroyed by the marauding Russians, who were angrily raping, pillaging, and murdering their way across the cityscapes above.

In the end we see just how perverted, committed, and maniacal the embattled Nazis are, with few of them even opting for survival in a post-Nazi world. Not only Hitler but also several of his closest associates chose suicide over capture or escape. Only Bormann and some of his underlings seem to have a realistic notion of what surrounds them, and only they seem willing to risk capture and death to escape to safety in the chaos that was raging all around the bunker in the streets and buildings of besieged Berlin.

This is a terrific book, one that in spite of its shortcomings should be read by all serious students of the Second World War. Given the fact that it was written so soon after the end of the war itself, the author was able to interview many of the surviving principles before they disappeared into the dustbin of obscurity, and to take advantage of the times in effectively using contemporary memories and archives before they were forgotten or misplaced. In reading it one becomes much more aware of the ways in which time is of the essence in historical study, both in terms of how the author was both given an advantage based on his rapid response to the event in question, but also in terms of how he was hampered by not having access to materials and archives that have since come to light. I strongly recommend this book. Enjoy.

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.

This small book (and an interesting one at that) deals with two things. The first is Trevor-Roper's naturalistic account, who discusses for the first half of the book how the Nazi regime came to power, and it looks at the various personalities of people within the Third Reich, such as Adolf Hitler himself, Heinrich Himmler and Albert Speer. The second half is an intimate account of the last ten days of Hitler, beginning with his fifty-sixth birthday in an underground bunker below the ruins of the Reich Chancellery. Here we see the Fuehrer's birthday reception, his rejection of Goering and Himmler, his last testament, his marriage to Eva Braun, and his suicide and cremation. The book is a terrific source for anyone who wants insight into the fall of the Third Reich, which survived the death of its founder by just one week. This refers to the original edition of H. R. Trevor-Roper's "The Last Days of Hitler," published by Macmillan in 1947: the original edition I was happy to find. Read it and above all, enjoy it!

The author of this book, Hugh Trevor-Roper, embarrassed himself and sullied his reputation in 1983 when he was the only major historian to vouch for the accuracy of the fake "Hitler diaries." But in 1947, when he wrote this book, he was a younger, more cogent and wiser man.

What makes this book interesting is that it is factual, diligently researched and Roper also relied upon dozens of interviews with Hitler's intimates. Trevor-Roper was methodical in his questioning, and he incorporates the recollections of Hitler's inner circle throughout the narrative.

Though it's 50 years old, this book has stood up quite well and it's a mini classic in its genre.

A scholarly & well-researched book written by Trevor-Roper who was then a British intelligence officer. Note that this is the 6th edition and there is a 7th edition available in the UK. The reader should also be aware that each edition builds on and revises some of older ones contents, including superseding some portions completely. Readers should also check out "The Death of Hitler" by Ada Petrova.

The English historian Hugh Trevor-Roper takes us down into the depths of the Fürherbunker for a last look around after the fall of Berlin. Reconstituting the final weeks, he takes us into the pit in which Hitler finally withdrew, after having lived much of the war in a series of other bunkers (or lairs) on the different fronts. All the ordinary comings and goings of the (mostly) elite Nazis with, in some cases, their spouses and children, and the occasional dentist, serve to remind us of the banality of Hitler's life even as he lived it in the midst of a hell largely of his own creation. The death of Roosevelt and the momentary delusion, enhanced by the now straw-grasping Dr. Goebells, that the tide had turned and that Germany's enemies would assuredly be swept from the plains over which they were then unstoppably advancing, brings home to us the tenuous nature of Hitler's hold on reality. Hitler appears very frail and human at the end, let down by everyone "he trusted." His dreams of German lebensraum defeated, his armies scattered, his own days numbered, we can almost come to some sort of empathetic understanding in the presence of this all-too-human shortcoming, of pride going before the fall.

This is a good contribution to the literature on the end of the Third Reich and to some extent, on Hitler himself. Written only just after the end of the war, (this review refers to the 1947 edition, which I believe has since been revised and updated by the author) it has perhaps been superseded today by other, longer works (Alan Bullock's "Hitler" is the main one that comes to mind). On the other hand, it is of interest to focus mainly on the end of this long and ghastly reign, and Mr. Trevor-Roper has confided it to us with clarity and precision.

By the nature of their profession, the controversies in which historians usually become embroiled are musty, dusty and arcane. Hugh Trevor-Roper, on the other hand, found himself placed in the middle of a very contemporary and potentially dangerous superpower dispute when, in response to Soviet accusations and disinformation, he was ordered by the British government to verify the death of Adolf Hitler and establish the facts surrounding his final days. In spite of Soviet stonewalling and obstruction, Mr. Trevor-Roper (later Lord Dacre) established beyond a shadow of a doubt that Hitler died by his own hand on April 30, 1945 in his Berlin bunker. "The Last Days of Hitler" is a very well-written history, which nevertheless suffers from several serious shortcomings.

In the first place, and this is no judgement on the author, in 1945 he did not have access to several important witnesses who would not return from Soviet captivity for more than 10 years, such as Guensche, Linge, Bauer, Mohnke and Rattenhuber. Thus, there are more than a few errors, or at least discrepancies with later published works, such as the method of Hitler's suicide, the men present at Hitler's immolation, and Hitler's supposed reliance on astrology. Trevor-Roper believed that Bormann was still alive, was unsure whether Generals Krebs and Burgdorf had survived the bunker and made entirely too much of Speer's assassination daydreams. These omissions and interpretations are understandable though. What is inexcusable is the ad hominem vituperation the author unleashes upon pretty much every single German in this book.

I realize that it is de rigeur for English-speaking historians of the Third Reich to pepper their manuscripts with insults towards Nazism's leading personages, but Mr. Trevor-Roper's rabid invective goes so far overboard that the tone of this book more resembles a propaganda pamphlet than a work of history. Sparing only the sacrosanct fraud Speer, the author not only heaps abuse on the dead Nazi bigwigs but on apolitical army officers and the low-level sources who made his book possible. And apart from the expected insulting words, like "detestable" and "monkeys", he spends most of the book making snide remarks about the defects of the German mind and then- incredibly- decries racialism in a flatulently philosophizing epilogue. Such angry passion is expected in the wake of a great war, but it should have been tempered in what was supposed to be a work of history.

Most grating though, is how the author, with true Oxford snobbishness, constantly condemns every German (except Speer of course) in this book as a stupid fool. It's that kind of lazy, biased thinking that has set an example for 3 generations of court historians whose idea of profundity is to ask how a nation as modern and civilized as Germany could have followed an ideology as stupid/evil/barbaric as Nazism. The answer of course, is that the court historians' presupposition is faulty. As Trevor-Roper's bete noir- A.J.P. Taylor- explained in his "Origins of the Second World War", Nazism's ultimate aims (world-power status and expanded territory) reflected what most Germans regarded as German self-interest, not to mention reflecting the political principles of the world's other major players: the U.S., Britain and the Soviet Union. There was nothing confusing or particularly anomalous about Nazism's main goals, or its leadership, when viewed in context. If its leaders were stupid (which is highly debatable, considering the nation's achievements), then they were no more stupid than governments usually are (George W. Bush and Tony Blair?). If Nazi Germany's racism and territorial expansion was evil, then one would like to know how it differed (except perhaps in scale and brutality) from the spirit which created the British Empire and motivated American Manifest Destiny (where_did_all those Indians go?). And if German nationalism was somehow perverted, then I think it has a parallel in America, with its plethora of patriots whose self worth hinges on the fact that "We're #1" and have the ability to obliterate any nation on earth (and sometimes do). The point is that, in the big picture, Germany's actions and geopolitical aims weren't so different from the nations that fought it. Its only mistake was to pursue its empire 100 years too late, and in the middle of Europe. Lord Dacre would consider that kind of thinking heretical, which is why the historically curious should probably consult more calm and balanced historians for insight.

This book had no real new insights or news, but would be good for someone who hasnt read alot about Hitler or the era. It covers somebasic events quite well, but it is all things told in every story about the war. So, if its your first look into the WW2 ordeal, I recommend it. However, if you have read or seen a few good documentarys about it, it will be review.

This book is full of information and a good source for references which several historians have consulted when tackling the subject (which still remains surrounded in mystery) of Hitler's final days. It is a rather quick read, although a bit dry at times, and I must say it is also very depressing due to the subject matter. This is not, however, a criticism of the author. I think he did very well compared to most of his peers.

As others have stated, a well written narrative. However, one that is now out of date which leads the work to contain inaccuracies, errors and some unanswered questions.

Roper remarks that the "...real causes and circumstances of the execution of Fegelein provide one of the few subjects in this book upon which final certainty seems unattainable."Certainly, SS General Fegelein's last hours and end are now well known. Further, some inaccuracies and errors include: the exact method employed for suicide by Hitler (stating Hitler shot himself in the mouth); the principles present at the end; and the belief that Reichsleiter Martin Bormann escaped and (at the time the book was published) was still alive.

First written after a commission from Dick White, then head of counter-intelligence in the British sector of Berlin (and later head of MI5 and MI6 in succession) in Nov. 1945 and published in book form in 1947. Hugh Trevor-Roper investigated the last days of Hitler to counter the Soviet propaganda at the time (that Hitler was still alive living in the west). The author does deserve credit for being the first to write a detailed western account of Hitler's last days (which countered the Soviet propaganda at the time). However, it lacked the important information (and insight) of key inner-circle players who were locked up in the east by the Soviets. Men such as Linge, Gunsche and Mohnke. Trevor-Roper was able to cure that somewhat with the third edition published in 1956 but still he did not have the in depth information that has come out over the course of the many years since then; especially after the fall of the Soviet Union and the archives therein were opened up for western writers.

Furthermore, the author (at times) infuses too much of his own point of view through commentary. A better, more objective and recent compilation on the subject is: "The Last Days of Hitler: The Legends, the Evidence, the Truth" by Anton Joachimsthaler; and for Gunsche and Linge's* full statements see: "The Hitler Book" by Henrik Eberle and Matthias Uhl. Just remember when reading "The Hitler Book" it was a dossier (file no. 462 a) put together for Stalin and has a clear Soviet bias in presentation.

*Footnote: As of late summer 2009, the memoirs of Heinz Linge have been re-published under the title: "With Hitler to the End: The Memoir of Hitler's Valet". So one can now read that book for Linge's full account, as well.