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Eight Days in May

How Germany's War Ended

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Eight Days in May

By: Volker Ullrich, Jefferson Chase - translator
Narrated by: John McLain
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

1st May 1945. The world did not know it yet, but the final week of the Third Reich's existence had begun. Hitler was dead, but the war had still not ended. Everything had both ground to a halt and yet remained agonizingly uncertain.

Volker Ullrich's remarkable book takes the listener into a world torn between hope and terror, violence and peace. Ullrich describes how each day unfolds, with Germany now under a new Führer, Admiral Dönitz, based improbably in the small Baltic town of Flensburg. With Hitler dead, Berlin in ruins and the war undoubtedly lost, the process by which the fighting would end remained horrifyingly unclear. Many major Nazis were still on the loose, wild rumours continued to circulate about a last stand in the Alps and the Western allies falling out with the Soviet Union.

All over Europe, millions of soldiers, prisoners, slave labourers and countless exhausted, grief-stricken and often homeless families watched and waited for the war's end. Eight Days in May is the story of people, in Erich Kästner's striking phrase, stuck in 'the gap between no longer and not yet'.

©2021 Volker Ullrich (P)2021 Penguin Audio 20th Century Europe Germany Military Modern War Imperialism Prisoners of War Holocaust Hungary Interwar Period

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Critic reviews

"The last days of the Third Reich have often been told, but seldom with the verve, perception and elegance of Volker Ulrich's rich narrative...an instructive lesson in how societies cope with the devastating reality of a surrender that they grimly await." (Richard Overy, author of The Bombing War)

"A fast-paced, brilliant recounting of the turbulent last days of the Third Reich, with all the energy and chaos of a Jackson Pollock canvas." (Helmut Walser Smith, author of Germany: A Nation in Its Time)
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Great narration . A story brought to an end, superbly written and spoken via Audible books

We all know the full story of war and defeat and the countless lives lost, but this story does close on the remaining leaders who all met their ends, apart from Albert Speed who seems to come out of the war as some sort of hero. Of course time has taken care of that story as well with his known use of slave labour, which at the time of war's end nothing was really known about his work in the war.
Great epilogue of the war and we'll worth listening to (or reading)

The End of the Nazi Era

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This is a European story. The American narrator would probably bring character to an American history but in this case his accent makes mincemeat of almost every German name be it a place or person.

Inappropriate narration

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I'm sorry to say that the narration did not meet my expectations, especially as far as pronunciation of German names is concerned ("Gerbils" for Goebbels!). I can forgive the narrator for struggling with a couple of Russian and Polish names, but if the book is about Germany, by a German author... Anyway, the book itself is quite interesting, and I have learned a few new things.

I agree with others about the narration

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The narrator clearly knows nothing of the history of Germany in May 1945. He pronounces names of people and places intolerably. Fuerer is pronounced Foorer and Trudle Junge as Jooner! Arnhem is given as Arnheim! It is a shame as this is an excellent book and gives valuable information on the end of WWII.

If Volker Ullrich heard narration he would cringe

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This book is solid - not gripping, with few great insights, but interesting for people who are fascinated by times of transition in history.

Whoever got this barrier to read it deserves to be shot. He can't read German, which is a bit of a problem for a book about Germany and Germans. His "führer" comes out as "foohrah" while Albert Speer inexplicably gets a French pronunciation of his first name and a a second name that sounds like "spare"with a lisp. The narrator's Dutch and Danish is laughable and his French and British English isn't much better. Why go for an American "voice of God" rather than any of thousands of Europeans who have a basic grasp of pronunciation in various languages.

Honestly, i was so distracted by trying to figure out what and whom that narrator was trying to describe that the book was a bit lost to me

Solid history, wrong narrator

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Incredibly grating North American reader. sounded like a sort of awful Telly Savalas pastiche. Also included very annoying mispronounciations, e.g. "Arne-haim" rather than Arne-em (or just Arnhem).

Good book spoiled by terrable narration

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Interesting history well written but the American voice is awful. Too focused on the sound of his voice and not on the words. German names mangled

Wrong voice

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