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Walter Kempowski

Swansong 1945: A Collective Diary of the Last Days of the Third Reich Hardcover – Deckle Edge, April 13, 2015

by Walter Kempowski (Author), Shaun Whiteside (Translator)

4.4 354 ratings

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A monumental work of history that captures the last days of the Third Reich as never before.

Swansong 1945 chronicles the end of Nazi Germany and World War II in Europe through hundreds of letters, diaries, and autobiographical accounts covering four days that fateful spring: Hitler’s birthday on April 20, American and Soviet troops meeting at the Elbe on April 25, Hitler’s suicide on April 30, and finally the German surrender on May 8. Side by side, we encounter vivid, first-person accounts of civilians fleeing Berlin, ordinary German soldiers determined to fight to the bitter end, American POWs dreaming of home, concentration-camp survivors’ first descriptions of their horrific experiences, as well as the intimate thoughts of figures such as Eisenhower, Churchill, Stalin, Joseph Goebbels, and Hitler himself.

These firsthand accounts, painstakingly collected and organized by renowned German author Walter Kempowski, provide the raw material of history and present a panoramic view of those tumultuous days. The more than 1,000 extracts include a British soldier writing to his parents to tell them there are no baths but plenty of eggs and chocolate, an American soldier describing “the tremendous burst of lilacs” as he approaches the Elbe, Mussolini wishing Hitler a happy birthday, Eva Braun bragging to a girlfriend about what a “crack shot” she’s become, and much more.

An extraordinary account of suffering and survival, Swansong 1945 brings to life the end of Nazi Germany and the war in Europe.

Print length

512 pages
Language

English
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

April 13, 2015
Dimensions

6.6 x 1.6 x 9.6 inches
ISBN-10

0393248151
ISBN-13

978-0393248159
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"An emotionally immediate and multi-faceted perspective of the last days of the Third Reich… No mere anthology but an artful collage… Difficult to put down."
― Gerald Steinacher, Wall Street Journal

"A disturbing but compulsively readable slice of history."
― Christian Science Monitor

"From the absurd to the sublime, and everywhere heartbreaking: a collage of voices from the tail end of the world's conflagration.… Raw [and] tremendously moving… Riveting."
― Kirkus (starred review)

"This is a book that can be read comfortably only page by page. Otherwise it will break your heart."
― Bill Marvel, Dallas Morning News

"Riveting… Kempowski's careful selection and sequencing convey the horror, misery, irony, and intensity of living through the last month of war in Germany. The work is noteworthy not just for its unique first-person perspective, but also for its breadth and depth… Essential."
― Publishers Weekly

"A treasure… [Swansong 1945] offer[s] powerful glimpses into otherwise lost history… The collection is a kaleidoscope of voices, revealing struggle of all kinds."
― Sarah Grant, Booklist (starred review)

"The power of [Swansong 1945] comes from the great variety and volume of the personal accounts, many of them eloquent and moving… This important book takes us beyond geography, statistics and battles and reveals the cost of war in very human terms."
― Roger Bishop, BookPage

"A unique and haunting insight into what it was like to live through the violent twilight of the Third Reich. Indispensable and, above all, unforgettable."
― Frederick Taylor, author of Dresden

"A remarkable collage of experiences and impressions of the catastrophic last days of the Second World War, which provides a unique panorama of the war and a very powerful impression of its impact on and the responses of those involved."
― Jeremy Noakes, author of Nazism 1919-1945

"A bewitching, dramatic, utterly extraordinary range of voices and eyewitness testimony as Europe entered its year-zero moment."
― David Kynaston, author of Austerity Britain

"A rare combination of aesthetic and historic truths… What gives Kempowski’s work its reach and humanity is his keen eye for both the sensory experience of war at its most destructive and individuals’ compulsion to go on making sense of it as it engulfed them."
― Nicholas Stargardt, author of Witnesses of War

"Amidst the fascinating multitude of voices assembled here the one that speaks most powerfully is that of Kempowski himself. This is a remarkable document of one person’s lifelong struggle to make sense of national collapse."
― Neil Gregor, author of Haunted City

"Kempowski is a master of form and proportion… The end of the war has never before been depicted like this."
― Volker Hage, author of Hamburg 1943

About the Author

Walter Kempowski (1929–2007) was one of Germany’s most important postwar writers. In the 1980s he began gathering diaries, letters, and memoirs of World War II, which he edited into ten volumes published in German. Swansong 1945 is the first portion to appear in English.

Shaun Whiteside’s translations from the German include classics by Freud, Musil, and Nietzsche.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition (April 13, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 512 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393248151
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393248159
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.9 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.6 x 1.6 x 9.6 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,039,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,984 in WWII Biographies
- #2,628 in German History (Books)
- #9,920 in World War II History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 354 ratings

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4.4 out of 5

354 global ratings

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Richmond Tom

Apocalypse

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 15, 2022

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The other reviews are accurate that this is a series of vignettes and no connecting narrative. Instead its a view of Apocalypse. Read this with the music of Sabaton playing in the background. One diary describes a hand made banner draped over a ruin with the words "For this we thank the Fuehrer!" That was a pet phrase of Goebbels. This may also be relevant to our present time. In his forward the author talks about war and the never ending desire for peace. "Our film may have finished but there are others being cued up and we will see them all. Again and again there will be pictures of war and bloodshed with no end to the show in sight. The skyscrapers are already burning." Read this not for information but for experience. Then pray for peace....

One person found this helpful

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C. M Mills

Swan Song chronicles in the voices of famous and ordinary people the last days of World War II in Europe.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 2, 2015

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Swan Song is a collective diary of the final days of the infamous Third Reich. The author is Walter Kempowski (1929-2007) who was a famous German novelist and historian. Swan Song is the final of ten volumes in which the author used diaries, letters and memoirs to tell the story of Nazi Germany. This volume is 479 riveting pages of first hand accounts of the horrors of the final hours of the 2,007 days of war and murder in the European Theatre of Operations. The material is translated from the German by Shaun Whiteside and published by W.W. Norton Inc.
The chronicle provides first hand accounts of the mopping up of Nazi Germany written by persons who were German, Russian, Italian, Polish, English and Americans as well as other nationalities. Many famous names appear in these pages including Winston Churchill; Dr. Albert Scweitzer working as a medical missionary in Africa; Benito Mussolini; Adolf Hitler; Harry Truman; General Dwight Eisenhower; novelist Thomas Mann; German General Keitel and several more. The stories they tell are sad, funny, tragic and heartbreaking. The stories recounted by survivors of the Nazi extermination and death camps are especially horrible to hear and ponder. The book is filled with riveting quotations. A sampling:
"On the hill, a view of the city spread out below. How many cities have been turned into piles of rubble by now? The angels have protected Paris.-
Thea Sternheim, p. 4
"...the whole terrible surface was covered with a whimpering grey carpet of humanity."-Sigmund Graff describing the Bad Kreuznsch prisoner of war camp.-p. 23
"The Russians and Americans are outside Berlin, and have launched the final attack."-Weert Sweetsp. 54
"American reporter bring stories from the occupied concentration camps...Such a thing cannot happen in the land of Goethe! Not in the most primitive country on earth could it be possible!"-Ulli S.-p. 61
"...the good does not unweigh all the terrible things that in the end befell our German people because of this man." (Hitler). Marthel Kaiser-p. 73
"He liked children and dogs and sunshine and flowers, and they are all around him now."-Anna Eleanor Roosevelt the bereaved First Lady of the United States commenting on the burial of her husband Franklin Delano Roosevelt-p. 107
"Will we never be normal people again? This age has taken us like a piece of filth in its bloody fists and slapped us into horror, into sadism and madness."- Franz Ballhorn-p. 153
"The battles for Berlin were characterized by particular toughness and resistance on the part of the Germans."-Ivan Kovchenko-p. 281
"Above all I charge the leaders of the nation and those under them to scrupulous observance of the racial laws and to merciless opposition to the global poisoner of all peoples, international Jewry."-Adolf Hitler is his Political Testament-p. 285
"The war against Germany is over...advance Britannia. Long live the cause of Freedom. God Save the King.-Winston Spencer Churchillp. p.300
Those readers who like their history raw and at first hand will relish this important historical work.

17 people found this helpful

Helpful

Broad Perspective of Four Meaningful Days …

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 4, 2016

Verified Purchase

The final weeks of World War II in Europe were chaotic. With the vise closing from all fronts, Germany continued to fight to the bitter end. While the Western Allies were grinding through western German cities and towns, the Soviet Union was engaged in a particularly vicious battle for the capital. Rather than focusing on a single narrative, SWANSONG 1945 incorporates the voices of those who experienced those climactic weeks … the victors as well as the vanquished.

SWANSONG 1945 is essentially a massive collection of diary entries. The book is divided into four chapters dedicated to specific dates that represent critical/symbolic moments in the last weeks of the Third Reich:

- April 20, 1945 – Hitler’s 56th birthday and the day the Red Army started shelling Berlin preceding its assault on the city.
- April 25, 1945 – The day the US Army and the Red Army linked up on the Elbe River.
- April 30, 1945 – Hitler’s suicide
- May 8/9, 1945 – Germany’s surrender (surrender documents signed on May 8th, but recognized by the Soviet Union as May 9 based on Moscow’s time zone).

Each chapter is simply a series of diary entries presented in the same simple format: Name, date of birth/death (if known) and the diarists’ location at the time. What readers get is a more intimate idea of how the war’s end was experienced by those who lived through it … in their own words. The wide range of voices represented is quite impressive: German civilians, concentration camp survivors, POWs, Allied and Nazi leadership and soldiers representing all combatants. Other than separating each diary entry, there is no additional narrative provided … the cumulative effect of individual experiences provides both clarity and impact. While I found reading 400+ pages of random diary entries rather tedious, I appreciated how there seemed to be a voice representing almost every perspective of the war’s end. From deep inside Hitler’s bunker, we get several accounts of Hitler’s final days, including Hitler’s own political testaments and those who disposed of his corpse. Even Mussolini’s final ramblings are presented days before he’s executed. Then there are the entries of German women fearing (or experiencing) the wrath of vengeful of Red Army soldiers; countered by the innocent letters of Red Army soldiers writing to their families. The book illustrates the dichotomy of victor and vanquished … the euphoria felt by Allied soldiers versus the dread and uncertainty facing German soldiers and civilians.

What adds to the book’s value is the varied nature of each individual account … especially among those who spent the final weeks of the war in Berlin. This is one of the few books that cumulatively views the war’s end from the eyes of all combatants. The American and Soviet perspectives were particularly interesting because they both fought to defeat Germany, but were motivated to do so under completely different circumstances. The voices of those liberated from concentration camps illustrate that being free and being fed didn’t necessarily put an end the misery. And even though defeat was eminent, there were still Germans who still steadfastly believed Hitler would somehow prevail. In essence, the end of the war evoked a myriad of mixed emotions that were more complex than simply elation for the victors or grief for the defeated. While there are many from all sides who expressed joy at the war’s cessation, there was a palpable sense of loss, confusion and uncertainty of the future. In other words: After six years of seemingly endless destruction and death; what do we do now?

SWANSONG 1945 is not a gripping or an exciting read, but it offers considerable insight regarding the war’s impact on almost every facet of life in Europe. The vast array of perspectives alone is what makes this book a worthy read.

9 people found this helpful

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William Volpe

interesting to know

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 13, 2022

Verified Purchase

Many of the writings evoke what it was like for the individual in the final months of ww2. Insightful and interesting

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Tecumseh

A good addition to the book shelf on World War II

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 7, 2020

Verified Purchase

Testimonies of people that went through the war. In some cases the testimonies chosen seem empty of valuable content but the majority of them are good, interesting, with a small percentage of exceptional records. I feel the book lacks footnotes that would otherwise bring more light to testimonies which, due to the translation, have lost their main message. Many times it's difficult to understand what the person was trying to say. Some contextualization would be very welcome. Otherwise, and engaging book which can make time go buy quickly as one immerses himself/herself in the descriptions of events and emotions.

2 people found this helpful

Geoff Crocker

A deeply moving human account

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 5, 2019

Verified Purchase

This is an extraordinarily record of multiple perspectives of the last days of World War II. Notes from Hitler, Keitel, Zhukov, Churchill, Truman, Stalin, SS commanders are intermixed with the records of ordinary soldiers, concentration camp victims, doctors, journalists, and local people. Horror and atrocity are commonplace, but there are glimpses of countervailing human decency which ultimately prevails.

8 people found this helpful

Andrew Buckle

A fascinating hour by hour view from numerous people of ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 4, 2018

Verified Purchase

A fascinating hour by hour view from numerous people of the end of the Nazi regime. The diaries and notes bounce back and forth from Germans, people in the command centres, Russians, etc to give a real feel of the collapse and sheer agony of not knowing that it would be over in only a few days time. A masterpiece of research and hopefully additional volumes will be made available in English at some point.

9 people found this helpful

W. A. Carr

Very informative

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 10, 2020

Verified Purchase

An excellent read about people 's experiences at all levels and nationalities of the final year of Nazism

2 people found this helpful

Mr. E. Dickson

Great collection

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 31, 2021

Verified Purchase

Great collection of true stories at the end of the war, Hitlers written words of what he had said at the time are fascinating.

See all reviews

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