Germany, 1945: From War to Peace - Hardcover

Bessel, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743239555 ISBN 13: 9780743239554

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2009

Synopsis

In the beginning of 1945, Germany experienced the greatest outburst of deadly violence that the world has ever seen. As many as a million people died violent deaths in January alone. That stark fact provides the starting point for this book, which examines Germany's emergence from the most terrible catastrophe in modern history. When the Second World War ended, millions had been murdered; millions of survivors had lost their families, homes and health; cities and towns had been reduced to rubble and were littered with corpses. Yet people lived on, and began rebuilding their lives in the most inauspicious of circumstances. This is the story of Germany in 1945, a story of life after death. Bombing, military casualties, territorial loss, economic collapse, social disintegration, and the processes of denazification gave Germans a deep sense of their own victimhood, which would become central to how they emerged from the trauma of war and total defeat, turned their backs on the Third Reich and its crimes, and focused on their own personal concerns.Germany's transition to a period of relative peace, prosperity and civilized behaviour is the hinge on which Europe's twentieth century turned. For years we have concentrated on how Europe slid into tyranny, violence, war and genocide; this book describes how humanity began to get back out.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

1945 was the most pivotal year in Germany's modern history. As World War II drew to a devastating and violent close, the German people were confronted simultaneously with making sense of the horrors just passed and finding the strength and hope to move forward and rebuild. Richard Bessel offers a provocative portrait of Germany's emergence from catastrophe, and he astutely portrays the defeated nation's own sense of victimhood after the war, despite the crimes it had perpetrated.

The last months of the war were its bloodiest, as the Allied assault on Nazi Germany reached its climax. .In January alone, as many as one million people died violent deaths. Bessel captures the terrible suffering of these months in the destroyed cities; the acts of vengeance inflicted on Germans by the conquering Soviets, French, and Americans; as well as death marches and the extreme brutality of the Nazi regime against its own people. In spite of this horrific violence, by the end of 1945 people were beginning to put their lives back together and create the foundations of a postwar social, economic, and political culture.

Authoritative and dramatic, Germany 1945 is groundbreaking history that brilliantly explores the devastation and remarkable rebirth of Germany at the end of World War II. Bessel's startling narrative depicts perhaps the most important transition of modern times: from the worst outburst of violence in human history to a period of relative peace, prosperity, and civilized behavior. Ultimately, it is a success story, a story of life after death.

About the Author:

Richard Bessel is Professor of Twentieth Century History at the University of York. He works on the social and political history of modern Germany, the aftermath of the two world wars and the history of policing. He is a member of the Editorial Boards of German History and History Today. His books include Political Violence and the Rise of Nazism, Germany after the First World War and Nazism and War.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0743239555
• ISBN 13: 9780743239554
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320