[.ca] Inside Hitler's Bunker: The Last Days of the Third Reich (ISBN 0374135770)

Very Interesting But...:
Fest has written a very good account of Hitler's and the Reich's last days. However, there is a glaring error or at the very least, an ambiguity that I have not heard others mention in their reviews. Page 111 states that Hitler had his last meal at 2 P.M. on April 30, 1945, the historically accepted day of his suicide. However page 115 mentions that "...some witnesses say they heard one shot at about 3:30 in the morning." That would make it May 1, 1945. Page 123 then goes on to say that Hitler died on the afternoon of April 30, 1945. Additionally, page 116 says that Hitler died on a '"...flowered sofa." while the sofa may have had flowers in the pattern, the primary motif was a Russian Cossaack on horseback with sword drawn. Joachim includes interesting details that some accounts fail to mention. He accurately records that Hiter was shot with a 7.65-mm Walther pistol (not a revolver). He also mentions that Eva Hitler was found with a pistol that was unfired. He excludes the fact that the smaller gun was in fact also Hitler's, the one he carried since the 20's in a holster built into his pants. This book is an excellent addition to others about Hitler's last days in the bunker, but not the best work on the subject .

The last days of a fallen empire....:
Fest, who is the author of one of the most authoritative biographies on Hitler, focuses on the final few days of the Third Reich in his new book. This is a really riveting book, and once you get past the first 15 or so pages, you won't want to put it down. Fest does a great job at describing the general disorganization and confusion of those final days, and showing just have bad Berlin had been destroyed by the Russian and American assault upon it. I think Fest does raise some good questions about Hitler and his importance in history. Also, the speculation that Hitler's aims and goals for the Third Reich were not for the betterment of civilization, but for the eventual destruction and enslavement of it, is an apt assessment. Also, Dembo's translation is much better than the translators for some of Fest's other works, and I think this also had a lot to do with why the book was so good. The reson why I gave it only 4 stars as opposed to 5 is that it does seem a little sketchy at times in its treatment of the Bunker, but then again, much is speculation anyway. Another reason for the 4 stars is that Fest really gives no dramatically new information here, but he makes other excellent observations and such that you just can't stop reading. A good companion to this tome would be UNTIL THE FINAL HOUR by Traudl Junge, Hitler's last secretary in the Bunker, so that one can get a historical, as well as personal, perspective on the events surrounding the fall of the Third Reich.

No Footnotes? Say What?:
Personally, I'm not a big fan of having a tremendous amount of footnotes in a book. Then again, any book of history that doesn't contain any is immediately suspect. Generally speaking, "historians" who don't use footnotes are either: 1) Elderly; 2) Egotists; 3) Lazy; or 4) Glorified journalists. Here's Joachim Fest's reason for not using footnotes in his book "Inside Hitler's Bunker": "This volume contains no footnotes. Every citation or incident mentioned can be traced to a source, however. I decided not to use footnote references because of the hopeless confusion in the statements and testimony of the witnesses, much of which can no longer be cleared up. Too often a reference would have to be compared with one or more differing statements or descriptions." In other words, this book is historical fiction. It's still worth reading, but then again, lazy, unaccountable scholarship should not be tolerated, especially for a subject as important as this one. Was Fest hoping that, because he wrote an acclaimed biography of Hitler, that he was therefore an "expert" and could get away with this sort of thing? Sure, I'm not blind to the fact that there are so many contradictory accounts concerning Hitler, that the logistics of unravelling the truth about his reign are formidable. Then again, that is what HISTORIANS do. Surely at least a FLAVOR of the problems in writing this sort of book might have been attempted to be conveyed in a few judicious notes.

A FITTING END:
As World War II was coming to an end and the Russian armies were marching towards Berlin, Hitler and some of his most die-hard supporters hid themselves in a secret bunker deep underground. This excellent book lays out the events that were happening inside the bunker and also in the streets outside as the dream of a maniac was coming to an end. As you read you see a Hitler who still has dreams of the Americans and Russians turning against each other and Hitler coming in as the cavalry to aid the US. The bunker was a fertile playground for pipedreams of still being able to win the war even as the cement was falling from the ceilings as bombs struck overhead. It made me think of the Iraqi press officer in the recent war as Americans were invading the country saying that all the Americans had been kicked out and defeated. The portrait of Hitler that emerges is the mentality of a gang leader. He wasn't a visionary. He wanted to kill, loot, and pillage. The world was nothing more than a theater of death to him. He refused to almost the end to surrender, instead bringing needless destruction and death to his people. It seemed that he resented the German people in a way simply because they were gullible enough to do everything he said. My god, where was a voice of reason in the Germany of that era? To me, it seems as though it was a terrorist state. Another disturbing aspect of it was the devotion of his followers and the idealism of the Nazi way of life. For example, Magda Goebbels, on realizing the end of the war, became so depressed that she killed all her children and then committed suicide along with her husband. These people really thought they were mideval knights, holding up some code of chivalry and social codes while they were killing millions of Jews, Russians, and Americans. It almost felt good to read about the end of this horrible state and the absurdity as the people around Hitler struggled amongst themselves to be his successor like there was a future for the Nazi party.

A Dark Ending to a Dark Time:
Joachim Fest is a distinguished German journalist and the author of an acclaimed biography of Hitler. In "Inside Hitler's Bunker," he focuses on the last days of the Third Reich, beginning his narrative on April 16, 1945 as the Soviets open their final offensive against Berlin. The book explores the surreal and miserable world of the "Fuhrer Bunker" under the Reich Chancellery, the fanatical resistance and eventual collapse of the German armies defending Berlin, Hitler's delusional attempts to command armies that had been wiped out, and the astonishing willingness of soldiers and civilians to obey his orders until the very end. This is a highly readable and very powerful book, and the translator (Margot Bettauer Dembo) deserves high marks for the result. I read the book avidly, and as soon as I was done my wife picked it up and did the same. "Inside Hitler's Bunker" may be somewhat disappointing for those who have read a great deal about the Battle of Berlin or Hitler's last days (the book does not appear to break a great deal of new ground), but it will prove to be a gripping narrative for those who are new to the horrors of Berlin in 1945. Part of the continuing fascination of this dark time is the challenge of trying to understand the incomprehensible: how could a madman like Hitler stay in control of Germany in the last weeks of April 1945, and why did so many Germans follow him as he dragged them into the final catastrophe? The answer to those questions may lie in the 12 years of indoctrination that preceded those fateful days in 1945. For a brief and readable perspective on this period (which has been thoroughly explored in numerous more massive tomes), you may want to try "Inside Hitler's Germany: Life Under the Third Reich" by Matthew Hughes and Chris Mann.