Last Train From Berlin: An Eye-Witness Account of Germany at War [Paperback]

Howard K. Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2001

The memoirs of one of America's most distinguished correspondents--now with a new introduction and previously unpublished photos. Howard K. Smith worked as a young reporter in Berlin during Hitler's rise to power, and for the first two years of the Second World War. Finally granted a visa to leave the country--coincidentally on December 7th, 1941--he wrote everything censors had forbidden about the physical, emotional, and psychological manipulation of the German people by Hitler, Goebbels, and their lackeys. His personal experiences under difficult circumstances are extraordinary enough, but his descriptions of people forced to join the war, compulsory Nazi Youth groups, and of the German high command read like a chilling thriller.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Howard K. Smith worked for UP and CBS in Berlin and then returned to the States to a long career as one of America's most distinguished radio and TV correspondents working with Ed Murrow and then alone.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Phoenix (June 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1842122142
• ISBN-13: 978-1842122143
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #908,603 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars We didn't see THIS in the movies!, January 11, 2003

By 

Richard Ferry (San Jose, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Last Train From Berlin: An Eye-Witness Account of Germany at War (Paperback)

Howard K. Smith's 60 year old writing has an urgent, compelling feel which seems very relevant to our times. With personal anecdotes, facts and figures he illuminates the seduction of the German middle class into Nazism and their eventual betrayal and ruination by Hitler's policies. The internal fracture between eager industrialists who got on board with Hitler and the older, more conservative, landed gentry & industrialists who didn't like Hitler, but feared Bolsheviks even more, parallels the conflict between the established Prussian officer corp and the up and coming Wehrmacht and SS organizations. All this while the country began to bleed dry because of Hitler's crazed decision to attack Russia. Civilians endured huge hardships and shortages while at the same time Germany's military machine almost won the war. Smith's book is outstanding in that it gives the texture of daily life for Germans and how they resisted in small ways but ultimately rationalized the war under the renentless pounding of Nazi propaganda . Vivid descriptions of harrassment by the Gestapo of Smith and others in the foreigh correspondent sector. He emerges as an outspoken advocate for social change in the USA as well. easy, engaging read.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A well-done, first-hand account of Berlin during war, December 10, 2002

By 

R.J. Corby (Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Last Train From Berlin: An Eye-Witness Account of Germany at War (Paperback)

Howard K. Smith does a great job of describing his experiences in detail about his time spent in Berlin during the first few years of World War II.

During the final two-thirds of the book, the reader is a companion to Smith as he describes his increasingly darkening experiences in Berlin, culminating with his departure to Switzerland on the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Following the bombing, the Germans wouldn't allow anyone to leave the country, so Smith just made it.

My two chief complaints about the book:

1. It ends too early. There are pictures of the author visiting Berlin in 1950 touring the burned out Reichstag, but no details about that. It would have been delightful to read about that, and his impressions of defeated Germany, since Smith spent so much time in Berlin.

2. He doesn't add quite enough personal thoughts to his book. For instance, he met the woman that would eventually become his wife in Germany? and there is no mention of it (there's a picture of both of them in the Berlin Tiergarten). A little more of a personal touch would have rounded out the book nicely.

However, these are minor complaints about a solid and throught-provoking book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid Narrative of Nazi Germany, June 12, 2008

By 

K.A.Goldberg (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Last Train From Berlin: An Eye-Witness Account of Germany at War (Paperback)

This is a tense, realistic 1942 view of Nazi Germany from journalist Howard K. Smith (1914-2002). A CBS reporter in wartime Berlin from 1940-1941, Smith describes life in Nazi Germany, and how people there coped under a totalitarian system waging aggressive war. Readers see how so much of Germany's Middle Class and industrialists were seduced by Hitler. Smith doesn't conceal his contempt for Nazism - such reportorial sentiments helped lead to his exit, as had occurred eariler with reporters like Dorothy Thompson and William L. Shirer. This book's name stems from Smith taking the last train to Switzerland hours before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor - had he left one day later he'd have almost certainly been stopped, held as an enemy detainee, and perhaps disposed of. As it was, this Louisiana native was land-locked in Switzerland for nearly three years, where he continued reporting and wrote these stellar pages. This is a solid narrative about a tragic time and place by a very capable journalist.