Product Description

First published in Britain in 1985, In the Ruins of the Reich is a classic account of Nazi Germany after her fall to the Allies in May 1945. Botting concentrates on the defining events that took place in the period between the collapse of the Third Reich and the foundation of the new Germanys to create the prevailing atmosphere of a most unusual and little-charted time in history. This was a period when four of the strongest industrial nations to emerge from World War Two attempted to work together to govern the once strong Germany, now prostate, impoverished and devastated by war and defeat. Telling the story of the dynamics between occupiers and occupied, the crimes perpetrated by both and the Imperial tendencies of the occupiers, Botting shows that the plan to bring democracy to Germany was far from flawless or straightforward. Timely republication of a classic book on a fascinating but often overlooked period in the history of the Second World War. Published to Coincide with the 60th Anniversary of the end of World War II. 'Graphic and moving...the Germans paid a frightful price for their sins of conquest' Desmond Albrow, Sunday Telegraph

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #344233 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Review
"'The best... because it travels the least familiar ground' Max Hastings, The Standard"

Synopsis
First published in Britain in 1985, In the Ruins of the Reich is a classic account of Nazi Germany after her fall to the Allies in May 1945. Botting concentrates on the defining events that took place in the period between the collapse of the Third Reich and the foundation of the new Germanys to create the prevailing atmosphere of a most unusual and little-charted time in history. This was a period when four of the strongest industrial nations to emerge from World War Two attempted to work together to govern the once strong Germany, now prostate, impoverished and devastated by war and defeat. Telling the story of the dynamics between occupiers and occupied, the crimes perpetrated by both and the Imperial tendencies of the occupiers, Botting shows that the plan to bring democracy to Germany was far from flawless or straightforward. Timely republication of a classic book on a fascinating but often overlooked period in the history of the Second World War. Published to Coincide with the 60th Anniversary of the end of World War II. 'Graphic and moving...the Germans paid a frightful price for their sins of conquest' Desmond Albrow, Sunday Telegraph

About the Author
Douglas Botting has been a soldier, explorer, traveller, writer, photographer and filmmaker. He has written a number of studies of World War II and its aftermath in Germany, among which is the enduring work Nazi Gold (with Ian Sayer). Among his most recent books are Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography (2000) and Hitler and Women (2004)

Customer Reviews

Objective account of the Aftermath of the Second WW
This is an excellent account of the aftermath of the Second World War, the appeal for me lying mainly in its apparent objectivity.

Despite the time elapsed since the end of the war, the abilities of man to inflict suffering upon fellow man appears to continue to this day. The book documents the horrors inflicted within the concentration camps and also conversely the later (and often overlooked) atrocities committed upon the German civilian population, both actively (in terms of violence) and by omission (mass starvation).

Much discussed in this book opened my eyes and plumbed new depths to the inhumanity of this war and for this reason, I would recommend this book as a more comprehensive account of its true legacy.

Grippingly written
Perhaps most people of the post war generation probably think that the dying ended in Europe when the fighting stopped in May 1945. This book shows both the detail and numerous episodes of the continuing death toll that was levied on the peoples of Europe by the after-effects of conflict and the savage fighting of the final days of the Third Reich.
Mr Botting's sympathies seem to lie very much with the vanquished in detailing the terrible prospect of (non) economic life that faced most Germans at the conclusion of hostilities -- occasionally so much so that the reader wants to interject a sentence about all those who were given no choice about whether they lived or died by the architects of the Reich. But the story is very well told and the book is a true page-turner -- easily digested, engagingly clear and (to this reader at least) full of satisfyingly novel information. One star knocked off for what I perceived to be bias -- but that's probably permissible in what is a popular history and not an academic tome after all.