Customer Reviews

This Is Berlin: Radio Broadcasts from Nazi Germany

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I did not want to put this book down. As with the best of histories the reader is left wondering what will happen next, even when we know.I advise bringing your copy of Berlin Diary- it is interesting to compare what Shirer really thought with what the Nazi censors wanted him to report on a given day, how he used sarcasm to his advantage (there are some great lines about Germany protecting Norwegian nuetrality by its occupation of it). The only real criticism of this book is the question of why we had to wait so long to have it.

There can be little doubt that William Shirer was one of the great journalists of the twentieth century. He was a true witness to an unfolding century and nowhere was this more than case than his observations from Nazi Germany.

Unlike many historians looking back at events from a distance and trying to uncover their meanings, Shirer was a virtual participant. He lived in Germany for a number of years, was fluent in the language and had personally met many of the key players first hand. He had attended the Nuremburg rallies, witnessed the rise of the evil of Nazism and was thus in a position to give a first hand account of the events. This he did through his daily radio reports to CBS in America. It is these reports that form the basis of "This is Berlin."

"This is Berlin" can be described as history in the making. While it is true that Shirer had to comply to close censoring of his broadcasts, he was nonetheless able to convey an element of truth by the use of subtlety and nuance that often went of the head of his Nazi minders. Shirer was no Nazi dupe. Rather, he was a rigorous journalist working at the top of his trade.

Shirer is a person whose works should be read by all those searching for details on the horrors of the rise and ultimate decline of the Nazi juggernaut. He was a first rate journalist and writer and this book is testimony to his abilities.

The fact that William Shirer was limited by the Nazis in what he could write in this book should not detract from what he has to say about events in Berlin, Germany, during the years 1938 through 1940. At times Shirer would use expressions or other methods unfamiliar to the German censors to get his point across to American readers in his diary. In each case of a German takeover, the Nazis would use the excuse of "counterattack" or to "rescue the citizens of the country" they were invading. Shirer was placed in this part of the world during a very historic period in history, and provides readers with his best efforts despite Nazi censors. Eventually his frustration at what he was allowed to report made him feel like a spokesperson for the Nazi regime, and he felt his usefulness as a reporter was over. We can always be thankful for what he has left us regarding World War II.

Before I read this book, I didn't really have that much of an understanding of Nazi Germany, at least in terms of events and conditions within Germany leading up to the war. Part of the strength of the book from my perspective is that it not only deals with what the German leadership was saying, but also what the mood on the street was. Shirer does a great job in communicating the sentiments of the German people. The fears of encirclement and the bewilderment at the refusal of Britain to surrender or negotiate peace stand out as two fine examples of Shirer's attentiveness.

The book is also a fascinating exercise in state propaganda and censorship. It's both insightful and extremely frustrating. There is a lot of repitition and one wearies of the daily tallies fresh from the battlefield. As well, Shirer is often forced to broadcast the official Nazi line, leaving one wondering what his real thoughts and sentiments were and what was really happening, both in Germany and abroad. So there to an extent it does lack a little bit of context. Shirer does his best with innuendo and sarcasm, but the strain of the censorship must have been almost unbearable.

I'd recommend people interested in this book also consult "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" also by Shirer, it's a very interesting read and will act as a fabulous companion to this book.

I found "This is Berlin" to be captivating, events unfolded rapidly and there was lots of suspense, which was interesting since of course we already knew the outcome. Reading the book is like unlocking a time capsule, take yourself back to Berlin and ponder William Shirer's commentary.

"This is Berlin" is another well-written and insightful book by the author of the monumental "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and "Berlin Diary".

The introduction by noted historian John Keegan puts William L. Shirer's work for CBS Radio during the war in perspective, while the preface by Shirer's daughter provides further detail and information on the newspaper correspondent and radio journalist who won fame for his unparalleled coverage of Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

Having immersed himself in contemporary German life, William Shirer was America's man on the spot during the rise to power of Adolph Hitler and his Nazi Party and the war that followed. The CBS correspondent knew all of the Third Reich's senior civilian and military leaders and the insights he provided during his radio broadcasts to America as history unfolded in Europe were unparalleled.

But as the war progressed, Shirer became increasingly unhappy with a Nazi government that did everything possible to first censor and later stifle altogether his broadcasts. In the end, unable to provide balanced coverage of events, he asked to return home.

This book is best read in conjunction with "Berlin Diary" in which Shirer provides his comments on the war. For example, in "This is Berlin" we read his broadcasts on the British bombing of the German capitol. But in "Berlin Diary" we find his excellent analysis of how a few Royal Air Force bombers managed to keep the entire population of the German city awake, bringing home the true price of war to the Third Reich and resulting in decreased output in the factories of Hitler's key city.

Shirer concluded that had the British or the Allies launched a sustained and much larger bombing campaign on Berlin earlier in the war, Hitler and his Nazis might have had second thoughts about expanding the war. And perhaps German opposition to the Third Reich might have been much stronger.

This tremendously interesting book is highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of Nazi German, World War II and the struggle of a free press to survive under a totalitarian regime.

This is a collection of the transcripts of Shirer's radio broadcasts from Europe, not just Berlin. This book should be read simultaneously with the author's Berlin Diary. The diary shows his real thoughts and the Berlin broadcasts show what the German government officials wanted to be told to the world. There is quite a contrast between the two.

I was surprised at how well these 1938-40 scripts read, and how much information comes through the heavy Nazi censorship. Of course, it helped if Shirer's U.S. audience was listening between the lines, like when the author reported seeing groups of Jews working on road gangs in newly conquered Poland. These scripts cannot reproduce how Shirer (1904-93) used his flat Midwest inflection to get certain points past the Nazi censors standing near his microphone. Perhaps one can still ask older Americans who remember these broadcasts. Readers may want a copy of the author's "Berlin Diary" and even his "Nightmare Years" for illumination, and Shirer fans can hope that his family publishes more of his writings. The censorship detracts a bit from the author's immense talents, but he still comes through loud and clear.

If you are looking for an insiders view at the daily workings of the Nazi Party, look elsewhere. This book just simply does not do justice to the immense writing talents of William Shirer, best known for "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich". The main reason this book comes up short is that it contains actual reports that Shirer filed from September of 1938 till he eventually could no longer tolerate Nazi censorship and left the country in September of 1940. Shirer had to tailor his writing style accordingly, due to the inevitable Nazi censorship, and what we are left with are uneventful reports that Shirer files from blacked out and food-rationed Berlin, often relying on newspaper reports from sources as the "Lokal Anzeiger", Goebels hand-picked Nazi mouthpiece, which of course is anything but impartial. While there are many examples of what day to day life is like for the average German, there is scant information on the Nazi war machine until well after page 300 of a 423 page book. This book has taken me longer to read than almost any other novel of it's size, and to be honest I would of given up on it, but once the German invasion of France and the British retreat at Dunkirk began, if only on the strength of the subject you are left with 100 pages of reading from June to September of 1940 that certainly improves. There are some notable revelations, like the brave and tenacious defense of their homeland by the Belgians, which won the public admiration of the Nazis and even compelled Hitler to make mention of it to King Leopold, who wisely capitulated rather than see Brussels bombed into another Warsaw. But overall, it's a novel that reads like a dated High School history book, and due to its nature as actual dispatches from the time, it is hard to place any blame on the author.