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4.29 AVERAGE
4.29 AVERAGE
Three months of reading this every night before bed, and I finally finished it. Great read. At times its admittedly dry (especially in the first 300 pages, before Hitler really rises to prominence), but also incredibly moving (I had to stop reading several times during the chapter on the "final solution...it's just too much detailed suffering to process). The author lived in Nazi Germany as a reporter, so even though it's a history, he occasionally breaks from the documents to offer his experiences, which is especially interesting. The last chapter about the downfall of the third reich was almost all new to me, especially how Goebbels and Hitler met their ends. If you are interested in history, you will not regret reading this book.
Absolutely fabulous book. Fascinating insights from a man who was there for most of the action and had unprecedented access to the official records.
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11318081
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11318081
"In our new age of terrifying, lethal gadgets, which supplanted so swiftly the old one, the first great aggressive war, if it should come, will be launched by suicidal little madmen pressing an electronic button. Such a war will not last long and none will ever follow it. There will be no conquerors and no conquests, but only the charred bones of the dead on an uninhabited planet"
Simply Wow!!
Interested to know how an Austrian vagabond managed to become the dictator of a powerful nation?
Interested to know how he prepared the country to war in just 5 years after he came to power?
Interested to know how he managed and mastered the technique of bloodless victories (Austria and Czech)?
We just have to pick this up and read..
So many stories... so many plots..so many twists.. so many intrigues.. so many murders... and unfortunately this isn't any fiction. All this had happened. More than 6 million lives lost due to whims and delusions of very few! Surprised to know how even non-bureaucrats played their roles in vain to avoid the war. Reading this has been one hell of a ride.
The major problem I have with this book is "the lack of maps". It is very difficult to follow the battle formation/strategies and descriptions without maps, that too the current Europe looks far different than in 1939.
The other problem, though I find it a bit insignificant is, personally I find the author biased in describing a few personalities and we can clearly sense through his writings. For example, throughout the book, he keeps referring to Herman Goering as "The Fat Reich Marshal" and Hitler's personal doctor as "The quack physician". At some point, he refers to Stalin, mentioning that he did a mistake cutting a deal with Hitler and hence will pay a price. Sometime later, he mentions it as an advantage, since he gets hold of Balkan regions which shares a boundary with Germany.
Regarding the Holocaust, it is restricted to just one chapter in this book and it would be the darkest of all! Please do note that this covers mostly from German point of view. There are descriptions about Dunkirk evacuations and Normandy landings but we wont get to know much details regarding the same( plans and executions). Battles in Asia and Russian battles in Finland are not covered (just a mention).
Nevertheless I would recommend each and every person who is interested in second world war to pick this up and read. Once the war starts, you wouldn't be able to put it down!!
Never was so much owed by so many to so few.
Simply Wow!!
Interested to know how an Austrian vagabond managed to become the dictator of a powerful nation?
Interested to know how he prepared the country to war in just 5 years after he came to power?
Interested to know how he managed and mastered the technique of bloodless victories (Austria and Czech)?
We just have to pick this up and read..
So many stories... so many plots..so many twists.. so many intrigues.. so many murders... and unfortunately this isn't any fiction. All this had happened. More than 6 million lives lost due to whims and delusions of very few! Surprised to know how even non-bureaucrats played their roles in vain to avoid the war. Reading this has been one hell of a ride.
The major problem I have with this book is "the lack of maps". It is very difficult to follow the battle formation/strategies and descriptions without maps, that too the current Europe looks far different than in 1939.
The other problem, though I find it a bit insignificant is, personally I find the author biased in describing a few personalities and we can clearly sense through his writings. For example, throughout the book, he keeps referring to Herman Goering as "The Fat Reich Marshal" and Hitler's personal doctor as "The quack physician". At some point, he refers to Stalin, mentioning that he did a mistake cutting a deal with Hitler and hence will pay a price. Sometime later, he mentions it as an advantage, since he gets hold of Balkan regions which shares a boundary with Germany.
Regarding the Holocaust, it is restricted to just one chapter in this book and it would be the darkest of all! Please do note that this covers mostly from German point of view. There are descriptions about Dunkirk evacuations and Normandy landings but we wont get to know much details regarding the same( plans and executions). Battles in Asia and Russian battles in Finland are not covered (just a mention).
Nevertheless I would recommend each and every person who is interested in second world war to pick this up and read. Once the war starts, you wouldn't be able to put it down!!
Never was so much owed by so many to so few.
challenging
slow-paced
Den var bra og informativ, veldig lang selvfølgelig, men jeg er glad for å ha lest den. Eneste er den hadde ikke så mye av det som faktisk interesserer meg med andre verdenskrig; åssen det var for folk å leve under krigen, konsentrasjonsleirene (der var om dem, men ikke sånn alt for mye), medisinsk eksperimentering på mennesker (igjen, boka hadde litt, men ikke så veldig mye. Dette er et veldig interessant tema, syns jeg, fordi det er så forferdelig. Jeg ville lære mer av de forferdelige tinga nazistene holdt på med), motstandsgrupper i feks Frankrike er fascinerende å lære om, det sto ikke no om dem, og mange av taktikkene til Britene (som han ene hjemløse mannen de planta papirer på for at tyskerne skulle tro han var en kaptein eller no sånn, det er favoritten min) under krigen hadde jeg også likt om det sto no om, omgggg og om Enigma, jeg elsker Enigma, de burde hatt tatt med denn. Jeg forstår hvorfor da, boka handla hovedsakelig om Hitlers vei til makta, og MASSE politikk, det var også litt "gøy" (ikke det rette ordet, men) å kjenne igjen ting fra Oversimplified videoer (om da han bare tok masse land uten at noen stoppa han. Crazy at de faktisk lot ham gjøre det.) men ja, annet enn det var boka interessant. Digger at forfatteren faktisk var der og så masse av det han snakker om, som åssen Hitler var før han fikk makta si og sånn han oppførte seg etter. Og jeg syns det var veldig gøy at alle hadde dagbøker. ALLE. men det var nok litt som å ha Twitter eller andre sosiale medier nå da, så det gir mening. Føler at alle burde ha dagbøker igjen, jeg. Det er noen ting hele verden ikke trenger å vite om folk, men det er litt urelatert akkurat nå. Poenget er at jeg syns boka var bra, men jeg kommer nok ikke til å lese den igjen. Den var 57 timer på audible lissom, og jeg har savna å lese fysisk bok på toget.