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The End: Hitler's Germany, 1944-45

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The End: Hitler's Germany, 1944-45

By: Ian Kershaw
Narrated by: David Timson
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About this listen

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook of Ian Kershaw's The End, a searing account of the last days of the Nazi Regime and the downfall of a nation. Read by David Timson.

The last months of the Second World War were a nightmarish time to be alive. Unimaginable levels of violence destroyed entire cities. Millions died or were dispossessed. By all kinds of criteria it was the end: the end of the Third Reich and its terrible empire but also, increasingly, it seemed to be the end of European civilization itself.

In his gripping, revelatory new book Ian Kershaw describes these final months, from the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler in July 1944 to the German surrender in May 1945. The major question that Kershaw attempts to answer is: what made Germany keep on fighting? In almost every major war there has come a point where defeat has loomed for one side and its rulers have cut a deal with the victors, if only in an attempt to save their own skins. In Hitler's Germany, nothing of this kind happened: in the end the regime had to be stamped out town by town with a level of brutality almost without precedent.

Both a highly original piece of research and a gripping narrative, The End makes vivid an era which still deeply scars Europe. It raises the most profound questions about the nature of the Second World War, about the Third Reich and about how ordinary people behave in extreme circumstances.

©2011 Ian Kershaw (P)2012 Penguin Audio
20th Century Germany Military Politics & Government War Interwar Period Prisoners of War Imperialism Holocaust Thought-Provoking Hungary Scary
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Critic reviews

"Well-written, penetrating...and ground-breaking." (Andrew Roberts, Evening Standard)

"No one is better qualified to tell this grim story than Kershaw.... A master of both the vast scholarly literature on Nazism and the extraordinary range of its published and unpublished record, Kershaw combines vivid accounts of particular human experiences with wise reflections on big interpretive and moral issues.... No one has written a better account of the human dimensions of Nazi Germany's end." (New York Times Book Review)

"A compelling account of the bloody and deluded last days of the Third Reich...this is far from being of mere academic interest.... The greatest strength of Kershaw's narrative is that he gives us much more than the view from the top.... Interwoven are insights into German life and death at all levels of society." (The Times)

What listeners say about The End: Hitler's Germany, 1944-45

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Really informative

An excellant over-view, without the jingoism which seems to attach to so much German history as related by Brits. It happened and cannot be changed but the clarity of the why & how is frightenigly explained in a lesson to the wider world & to be hoped, we will learn something for mankind from it.

Well written,listenable & sensitive as I would expect from Prof Kershaw.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Utterly compelling

Kept listening compulsively to this utterly compelling narrative, expertly recounted.
Thoroughly recommended to anyone interested in this area of history.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Narrator's voice - a problem

The Narrator of this books har a marvellous, light and vibrant speaking voice, and his range in volume from pianissimo (near inaudible) to fortissimo (you reach for the sound switch) is remarkable. He has, in short, an expressive, dramatic voice, that I would fint delightful in maybe reading poetry, children's stories, and many types of fiction.
But in a non-fiction history-book, written in a sober textbook-style, often with long sentences, this type of voice becomes distracting, and after a while quite tiresome and irritating, because it distracted me from the text I was interested in. I would not have bought this, had I known how distracting the narrator would become.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Kershaw..brilliant as ever

excellent for novices and experts alike. this isn't a military history and those unfamiliar with the course of ww2 might benefit from some pre study before r
reading.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Perfect for a History degree course

Narration very good, excellent audiobook production. Kershaw along with Beevor are in a class of their own.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Review of the End of Hitler’s Germany

The overall content and research of this book are excellent! The problem I personally had was the terrible attempt at voice impersonation, it was painful to listen to, just reading the book normally would of made this book a 5 star book. Leave voice impersonation’s to the professionals!!!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

listen and learn

informative. interesting a really worthwhile listen. if you are interested in ww2 it's a must

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Sheer blind obedience.

What I liked was the sheer detail considering the amount of documents destroyed at the end, although in another way it was the documentation that proved the downfall of the senior figures in the regime, a ghastly but mesmerising book we’ll read.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliant Kershaw

Another pure masterpiece by Kershaw, but a scary reminder of what mankind is capable of

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Horror of War

Excellently written of the horrors of the war. Can not believe that wars are being started again. Now the world has the means of destroying everything and everyone.

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