Berlin at war

Sobre el libro Berlin at war de Roger Moorhouse publicado por Vintage UK al 2025:

Berlin was the nerve-centre of Hitler´s Germany. It was the backdrop for the most lavish of Nazi ceremonies, the venue for Albert Speer´s grandiose plans to forge a new ´world metropolis´, and the scene of the final climactic battle to defeat Nazism. Berlin was the stage upon which the rise and fall of the Third Reich was most visibly played out. For all the exhaustive coverage devoted to the Third Reich, however, the social history of Nazism is one of the very few remaining subjects of the period that are under-explored. Though our understanding of the Holocaust is well developed, we know little about the wider challenges posed to the German people by living under a dictatorship in wartime; the compromises demanded and the hardships endured. The consequence of this is that our understanding of everyday life in Nazi Germany is profoundly imbalanced. We know in intimate detail how a minority died under Nazism, but we understand precious little about how the majority lived. And there is much to understand. As one of the very few European capitals to experience the horror of World War-II at very first hand, Berlin was not only subjected to the full wrath of the Soviet ground offensive and siege in 1945, it also found itself in the very front rank of the air war; attracting more raids, more aircraft and more tonnage than any other German city. Moreover, though the political heart of the Nazi Reich, Berlin was never a natural home for Hitler and his cohorts, and its strong socialist and non-conformist traditions would ensure a steady source both of resistance to Nazism and of succour for the city´s Jews. More Jews survived the Holocaust underground in Berlin, for instance, than anywhere else in Hitler´s Reich. This book seeks to examine the German experience of World War-II, not through an examination of grand politics, but rather from the viewpoint of Berlin´s streets and homes - a ´Berlin-eye view´ - using first-hand material as far as is possible: published and unpublished memoirs, diaries and interviews. As well as giving a flavor of everyday life in the German capital, this book will also raise issues about consent and dissent, morality and authority, which will go to the heart of the experience of conflict and dictatorship. Above all, it will chart the violent humbling of a once-proud metropolis; the fear, the cruelty, the petty heroism and the individual tragedy. It will provide a vivid and gripping portrait of Berlin at War.