I am finishing up "Berlin The Downfall 1945" by Antony Beevor. It is a really good book that gives the reader exactly what the title implies. Hitler wanted a fight to the finish and he got just that.
The fury and hell that was unleashed on Berlin in those final days was nothing short of amazing. Hitler and his insane inner circle could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives by surrendering or evacuating the city earlier, but lost in their Wagnerian fanatasies they could do neither. In fact fanatical Nazis roamed the streets shooting or hanging "traitors" or "shirkers".
The book doesn't pull any punches and was criticized by some Russian scholars or politicians for describing exactly what sexual atrocities were committed by The Red Army in those last days. I think whether we like it or not every human has the capacity for ultimate evil or angelic good within. Certainly the Russians were not going to shed tears for those who had committed similar or worse horrors against Russia. Still, even in these last days there were some Russian officers who maintained order, made a differentiation between soldiers and civilians, protected German civilians and even shot Russian soldiers who had committed crimes.
Fascinating book.
"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives." Winter is Coming Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
