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librarianonparade's review
4.0
The classic historical narrative of liberation in Europe at the end of World War II is one of celebration, thanksgiving, gratitude, relief. One thinks of images of joyful civilians throwing flowers at Allied jeeps, at soldiers being kissed by grateful young women, of celebrating crowds lining the streets in Paris and other cities. This narrative isn't inaccurate - far from it, all of these things did take place - but it isn't the entire story, and the focus on the more uplifting aspects of liberation has served to mask the true picture underneath, which was often one of death and despair, loss, hunger, even starvation.
As many French civilians died in the 1944 invasion of France as did soldiers on the beaches of Normandy. Many thousands of Dutch civilians died of starvation even after their country had been liberated from the Nazi occupation. The invading armies, most notably the Soviet Red Army, unleashed more horrors on the populations of the countries they passed through - looting, theft, rape, assault, murder. For some countries liberation did not spell freedom at all - simply exchanging one occupation under the Nazis for another under the Soviet Union. And for the Jews of Europe many were still held in camps years after liberation, often in the very same concentration camps they had been imprisoned in under the Nazis.
Hitchcock treats all of these issues with care and a real impartial eye. He readily acknowledges the immense humanitarian efforts made by the Allied countries in the wake of liberation, but also recognises where these efforts fell short and where the governments and occupying armies simply failed to comprehend what many of these suffering people had experienced, particularly the Jews and other displaced people who had no homes to return to. It is an excellent book and an important one, highlighting an important aspect of WWII history that has been neglected in favour of a narrative that highlights the uplifting and positive in place of the often-troubling truth.
As many French civilians died in the 1944 invasion of France as did soldiers on the beaches of Normandy. Many thousands of Dutch civilians died of starvation even after their country had been liberated from the Nazi occupation. The invading armies, most notably the Soviet Red Army, unleashed more horrors on the populations of the countries they passed through - looting, theft, rape, assault, murder. For some countries liberation did not spell freedom at all - simply exchanging one occupation under the Nazis for another under the Soviet Union. And for the Jews of Europe many were still held in camps years after liberation, often in the very same concentration camps they had been imprisoned in under the Nazis.
Hitchcock treats all of these issues with care and a real impartial eye. He readily acknowledges the immense humanitarian efforts made by the Allied countries in the wake of liberation, but also recognises where these efforts fell short and where the governments and occupying armies simply failed to comprehend what many of these suffering people had experienced, particularly the Jews and other displaced people who had no homes to return to. It is an excellent book and an important one, highlighting an important aspect of WWII history that has been neglected in favour of a narrative that highlights the uplifting and positive in place of the often-troubling truth.
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