World War II Database

The Fall of Berlin started some time around 1935 before Berlin hosted the 1936 Olympic Games. "So much glory, and so much shame", as the author titled the first section of the book, Germany's rise to world power instilled pride in the citizens of Berlin, but at the same time the anti-Semitic policies (and later, atrocities) horrified them. The citizens of Berlin had long been a liberal group of individuals, which disgusted the dictator Adolf Hitler, but even with his effective propaganda machine he was not able to sway how the people thought. The people of Berlin, as the reader would discover very quickly, played a major part in this book. What that achieved was a wonderful balance between the civilian side and the military side of the life in Berlin through WW2. As a result, the book protrayed how major events in the war, such as Operation Barbarossa and the Allied bombings, affected the daily lives of the citizens. While the majority of books available today on this topic focused on major figures the likes of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Göbbels, the experiences of Klaus Scheurenberg, Dr. Walter Seitz, Inge Deutschkron, and many other common folks of Berlin collectively contributed significantly to the development of the Fall of Berlin. As Berlin was engulfed in war in the last days of the war, the military movements were described in detail as well, without the drastically changing the pace of the book. Overall the book gets a recommendation from me.